Distributor Entrepreneur of the Year: Derek Block, Touchstone
By Joe Haley

No two how-I-found-this-industry stories are the same. “I got into it kind of by accident, says Distributor Entrepreneur of the Year, Derek Block.

Block was working for an environmental company a year after college, doing some sales and marketing, and was one day tasked with purchasing some promotional products. He sought out a boyhood friend who was in the business. And, well, the rest is history. Block quickly left the eco-company when it was sold and went to work with his buddy.

Ever the entrepreneur, though, Block needed to run his own gig. So, he borrowed $30,000 from family and friends and started banging on doors. “The first sale was an order of shirts to a company called Micro Logic in Cincinnati,” Block, president of Touchstone (asi/345639), says. “I didn’t even know of SanMar or Broder or any of those guys. I called the mill and I must have gotten somebody on the floor, because they had no idea what I was talking about.”

Not wanting to throw in the towel early in his budding career, Block called his buddy and asked for advice. He learned about the industry, embroidery and digitizing logos, and while he made mistakes, he gained valuable insight. “It was an eye-opening experience,” he says. “But I knew a lot of things not to do on the next project.”

Indeed, Block has built quickly on that slow beginning. Touchstone increased its revenues from $5.5 million in 2006 to $20.5 million in 2008 – a two-year 273% growth rate that makes his company the fastest-growing large distributor in the industry. The key was a 2005 sale of the company to Larry Sheakley, a Cincinnati businessman with no prior ad specialty involvement – but with pockets deep enough to facilitate a rapid growth in revenues. “We went from $5 million to $12 million in a year,” Block says. “We were able to break the mold of a company that’s not ‘your-logo-here,’ which is a kind of the tact that we took all along.”

While some believe most entrepreneurs are fearless, well, Block doesn’t see it that way. “The thing that has always been part of my makeup, especially in business, has been the fear of failure,” Block says. “Even with the success we’ve had and the growth we’ve had, there’s just a thin line between success and failure. But, I’ve always believed in, and still do, our ability to outwork everybody.” – JH