http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_ ... otimes.com
By Jenn Crawford \ Special to the Times
Posted: 09/26/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT

Entrepreneur profile: College job became career for Morales

It was by chance that Edith Morales started in the office supply business. But it was through years of hard work and dedication that she became a successful entrepreneur in that field.

Morales, owner of El Paso-based Printek Supplies Inc., started working part time in 1992 at a call center for Daisytek International Inc., another office supply company, because it was close to the University of Texas at Dallas campus, where she was taking classes.

She continued to work at Daisytek after completing her bachelor's degree in business in 1997, rising through the ranks until she ran the company's Latin American division out of Miami. She also spent two years in Mexico City, opening a call center.

When Daisytek went bankrupt in 2002, Morales decided to start her own office supply company.

"It was basically the only thing I knew to do after the company went down," she said.

She was offered jobs with other companies but wanted the freedom of running her own business.

"I wanted to have control of my time, and I wanted to grow something for (my family), and build something that was our own," she said.

She and her husband, Eduardo, initially started Printek Supplies in Miami in 2002, selling to companies around Latin American. But soon, El Paso beckoned.

Morales was born in El Paso -- her mother had crossed the border from Mexico to give birth to her -- but was raised in Juárez. She returned to El Paso as a teenager, finishing her last two years at Socorro High School.
She wanted her children to grow up near family, so she and her husband moved back to El Paso in 2005, when she was pregnant with their second daughter.


When she first considered expanding her business to include El Paso, Morales found it difficult to compete with the national office supply chains.

"The biggest challenge was getting people to understand that they can buy locally," she said. "We help people understand that doing business locally can save them money, and besides saving money, they are growing the economy here."

She began to network. She talked with Teresa Gándara, owner of Pencil Cup Office Products Inc., also a small office supply business. She became involved in the chambers of commerce and Homegrown El Paso, as well as E-Women Network, where she connected with other women running businesses.

"When I met Edith, she was questioning whether or not she could begin her own business (locally)," Gándara said. "Having spoken to her, I realized she possessed the one single quality that was most important to an entrepreneur, and that was the passion to start her own business. The rest is history. She went into this business and became one of my competitiors. É She's holding her own. I'm very proud of her."

Printek sells mainly to suppliers who resell the office products -- pens, paper, printers, toner, office furniture and computer supplies. Printek staffers pride themselves on next-day delivery and excellent service.

"One of the things that they don't have, these big companies É is service," Morales said. "It's not all the time about the price. They can call right now, and since we're a small company, they can talk to the owner."

Morales started a second business in September 2009, a restaurant in East El Paso named Burrito Ocho. It can be difficult to run both companies and while taking care of her two daughters, she said. For now, she handles the marketing for Printek, and her husband runs the day-to-day operations while she is at the restaurant. But she's confident that she'll succeed.

"You can do whatever you want," she said. "Just as long as you believe it, you can do it, but never give up."

Paso del Norte Entrepreneurship project
# Hispanic entrepreneurs have played an integral role in El Paso's business and economic growth. The Paso del Norte Entrepreneurship Oral History Project, a partnership between the University of Texas at El Paso's Institute of Oral History and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City-based foundation devoted to entrepreneurship, identifies some of these prominent business owners and tells their stories of overcoming expectations to become successful role models.
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My husband and I never could pay for college for our three boys. This kind of thing for the illegals really ticks me off. We are part of the crushed middle class and therefore never are able to qualify for anything. Not poor enough to qualify and not rich enough to pay. I had the sense from reading this article that it was deliberately printed in the paper to specifically highlight the fact that this woman is an example of an anchor baby who has done well and isn't in the US just to scam benefits. Frankly, I don't care what her achievements are because I cannot get past the fact that my own children who are REAL Americans have not ever been given or qualify for such opportunities.