Business owner doesn’t let muscular dystrophy slow him down – Peoria Journal Star

Steve Tarter Journal Star city of Peoria reporter @SteveTarter

PEORIA At age 33, Travis Platt calculates he has outlived his life expectancy three times.

He is making the most of every year he has.

Platt, 33, is the owner of Platts Printing in Farmington. His company, which earlier this year opened a second office in the Peoria NEXT Innovation Center, 801 W. Main St., is starting to make a creative splash in central Illinois with advertising and promotional concepts for well-known area entities such as Hy-Vee supermarket, the Peoria Chiefs and Wildlife Prairie Park.

But Platt isn't just dealing with a competitive business world. Diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when he was 18 months old, Platt has used a wheelchair since the first grade.

"When I wake up in the morning, I have more challenges than most," said Platt, who uses his disability as a motivation to do what he likes to do at high speed.

"I don't have unlimited time. I realize I have to do it now," he said. "I was initially told that I wouldn't live past the age of 8. Then, that I might make it to 16. I figure I've outlived my life expectancy three times."

Growing up

Platt's entrepreneurial skills developed at an early age. Growing up on a farm in London Mills, he was involved in sales by the time he was in sixth grade, selling sweet corn from a stand.

It wasn't much later that he found his calling in the printing business.

"In the eighth grade, I remember getting a Gateway computer and making business cards for people," he said. "Then I bought a commercial ink-jet printer in order to print 2,000 cookbooks ordered by the school PTO."

The cookbook job proved to be no small undertaking. "We wound up with piles of papers all over the house stacked up to be bound," Platt recalled.

"I never said no to any job. We always figured out how to pull it off," said Platt. With the proceeds from printing the cookbooks, he purchased an elevator in the family home that enabled him to set up an office in the basement.

As a freshman in high school, pneumonia sent him into a coma. He was rushed to the emergency room in Galesburg. Three days later he woke at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, where he had been taken by Life Flight helicopter.

"I would tell people my experience to people facing problems like I've encountered and I tell them you can make it. It helps take away anxiety," said Platt, who is often asked to address gatherings at the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

"Any time anyone reaches out, I'm there," he said.

Business philosophy

Platt believes that print even in the digital age is very much alive.

"Print isn't dead," he said. "Innovation in the print industry is dead."

Platt's firm looks to change that.

"We're a boutique design firm that prints," he said, noting that his company prints everything from business cards to T-shirts, producing traditional flyers as well as state-of-the-art vinyl adhesives. "In 2015, we bolstered our in-house production capabilities to include wall graphics, contour cut stickers, window decals, outdoor banners and signage."

What Platt looks to do now is market a screen printing company that delivers innovation and satisfaction to customers. To use the language in one of his brochures, "Our benchmarks for success are based on blown minds."

But Platt recognizes that he doesn't do it alone, citing the accomplishments of a staff that includes Caleb Babcock, the firm's creative director; Kyle Plumer, "who makes everything;" and Savannah Bowles, the junior art director who just completed her freshman year at Illinois State University.

Moving forward, Platt knows what he brings to the company. "I connect with people," he said, adding that the company needs to connect with more corporate work in order to succeed. "We will never abandon the small micro-businesses but we also need clients like Hy-Vee, where our signage has helped identify their in-store Market Grille restaurant."

Satisfied customers

Platt has made a believer out of Adam White, owner of Running Central, 311 SW Water St. "You talk about a guy who's got a mind and energy set and conviction with the ability to follow through," White said of Platt.

"The innovation that he's brought to the industry, the out-of-the-box thinking, he's not just a local screen-printer. He has a network," said White, who's busy reshaping the Peoria Marathon held in October as the Whiskeydaddle Races, a throwback to Peoria's distilling history.

"I was impressed with the historical ideas he brought to the Whiskeydaddle campaign. I could have gone to a national vendor, but I gave up. Travis had the solution," he said.

Platt's work is also on display at Dozer Park. "He's done a lot of the signage for us. It's really good, quality work," said Rocky Vonachen, president of the Peoria Chiefs baseball team.

"He came to us midseason last year looking for an opportunity. This season he came up with floor graphics that you can read when you're walking down the concourse," said Vonachen.

His graphics are also on display at the OneFire media agency's new location at the Cooperage in the Warehouse District. "We partnered with Platt's Printing to handle the environmental branding of our new location and the creation of team apparel," said agency CEO Jason Parkinson.

Overcoming obstacles

Earlier this year, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner dropped by Platt's office at the Peoria NEXT center to talk about state assistance for businesses owned by minority and handicapped individuals. Platt is well aware of the importance of finding and maintaining such assistance.

He almost didn't get a chance to launch his printing business. His disability necessitates the help of a personal assistant 24 hours a day. This had been paid for through a program offered by the Illinois Department of Health Services. That help vanished when the state unexpectedly closed his case in 2010.

"The state mistakenly closed my case," he said. "Although I was fighting with the state, in most of my legal battles I represented myself. Bob Potts, an attorney with the Whitney and Potts law firm in Elmwood, would sometimes meet with me before a proceeding to give counsel, but I didn't have the money for constant representation."

"During the 16 months that I was fighting with the state I had to pay for 24-hour care out of my pocket. This was around $140,000 and, at the onset of the DHS deal, my bank called in all of my business loans because I was now too big of a risk," he said.

But Platt's Printing launched anyway.

"I couldn't live with myself if I quit," said Platt, noting he found out what kind of team he had through the whole experience. "I was surrounded by the most loyal team anyone could ask for. Kyle and Caleb walked though hell with me because we had a vision of a company unlike any that existed. We knew we could do it, even if the rest of the world thought it was hopeless. Maybe that pushed us even harder."

State Sen. Chuck Weaver, R-Peoria, who's frequently involved with mentoring young people and their businesses, said he had specific admiration for Platt. "Travis has the intellectual capability and mindset and passion to be a success at whatever he works to develop," he said.

Platt is upbeat about the support he's received in this community. "I feel that everyone's got my back here in Peoria."

Steve Tarter covers city and county government for the Journal Star. He can be reached at 686-3260 and starter@pjstar.com. Follow him at Twitter@SteveTarter and facebook.com/tartersource.

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Business owner doesn't let muscular dystrophy slow him down - Peoria Journal Star