“I wanted to bring the ad agency world into a small business environment as much as possible because I enjoyed it and that was where I really learned everything,” said Shira Kollins, founder and owner of SpeedPro Chicago. Kollins and her three-person team produce interior and exterior signage, window graphics, fleet wraps, environmental graphics, trade show and event displays—virtually anything you can think of—for many of Chicago’s biggest retail locations. It’s a lot of work—14-plus-hour days are not unknown—but it’s also not without play, as Kollins strives to maintain an optimal work-life balance for herself and her team, and ensure that they enjoy what they do. And it’s paying off; for the eight-year-old business, 2018 has been a banner year—and Speedpro Chicago prints much more than banners.

Like a lot of wide-format shop owners, Kollins began her career as a graphic designer, but printing was in the bloodline. “I came from a commercial printing background because I grew up with it in my house,” said Kollins, who was raised in Minneapolis. “My mom did invitations back in the day, and I would go to press checks.” Kollins was interested in the arts and studied graphic design at DePaul University in Chicago and went right into the ad agency world. For the next 10 years, she worked as production manager for an ad agency and later art director for a high-end fashion magazine. Then the 2008 recession hit. “That’s when I started to research other options and freelanced as a designer,” she said. “I had my own freelance company for a couple years and realized that I needed something more stable.” So, in 2009, she started weighing her options, which led to opening SpeedPro Chicago in July 2010, which was the first SpeedPro franchise in the Windy City.

At the time, the nearest SpeedPro was in Madison, Wis., and as Kollins was ramping up, she would occasionally get projects printed up there—putting a lot of miles on her car dropping off and picking up jobs, and doing installations even as she was outfitting her own facility.