Mike Bickford
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Name: Mike Bickford
Title: Owner
Company name: Screen Art
Web site: www.goscreenart.com
Address: 502 Sunset Ave.
Time in current position: I started the company 28 years ago as sophomore at MTSU.
What does your company produce? We are a full-service promotional products company and a 25-year member of ASI — an exclusive manufacturer/distributor promotional products trade organization. Additionally, we offer screen-printed and embroidered apparel and carry a diverse line of T-shirts and corporate and golf apparel.
What is your basic business philosophy? A number of years back Screen Art was nominated for prestigious Better Business Bureau Torch Award. One of the criteria was to include a copy of our mission statement of which at the time I did not have. So I created one along with the help of my staff. One of many things we all agreed on was that our customer service and product satisfaction was the keystone to the success and future of the company. Since that time we have incorporated our mission statement into every aspect of our operations. We feel like we have succeeded in our goals when the customer walks away with a total positive experience.
Give us a sales pitch in 25 words or less: Being service-oriented, Screen Art has a very talented and creative staff. Our goal is to provide on-time delivery of promotional products with a positive customer experience.
What is your proudest business achievement? Well, the fact that this is my 28th year in business should speak for itself but my biggest achievement through all these years is that I avoided debt. That is a hard thing to do.
What led you to Murfreesboro? Circa 1962 my dad accepted a position at what was then the largest printing/publishing company in this area, and with exception for a two-year stint in St. Louis, I have lived here most all of my life.
What is your educational background? I graduated from Oakland High and attended three years at MTSU, working on a major in marketing management and a minor in computer information systems.
Where are you originally from? I was the only family member born in Louisville, Ky. My dad is from Saranac, N.Y., and my mom is from Nashville. We lived in Nashville until I was about 6 or 7 years old, and since then Murfreesboro has been home.
What do you do for fun? I am active with the Boy Scouts and enjoy being outdoors.
I like to play golf, although I am no good at it and I love to cook, which I am good at.
Tell us about your family: I have been married to my wife Teresa for 24 years. We have two fine children; Sean, 19, will be attending Motlow College this fall, and Sam, 17, who attends Siegel High and is a current member of the Siegel Rugby Club, three-year member of Siegel JROTC and has aspirations of joining the Marines.
Who was your mentor? Definitely that would be my dad. I have received, with and without asking, some very good advice from him over the years. The most important thing he taught me was “Do what you say you’ll do, be not afraid to fail, learn from your mistakes, think big, and avoid debt and be nice.” And most importantly, and I quote, “Keep your head down while swinging a golf club!”
What is the most important thing going on now at your operation? We are always focused on the customer service related aspect of doing business so we have developed a real-time scheduling and order entry system so that we can better manage our production time. We send out order confirmations to our customers and are developing a full function web-based promotional product research and order Web site. It will put our customers in the drivers seat to research, find, price and order from thousands of printable products such as coffee mugs, pens, safety award and convention give away items. And of course our core product is screen-printed T-shirts. We think we are the best and take a lot of pride in every shirt we design and print.
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