Small Town Specialty Printing puts their stamp on local design

A new business has exploded onto the scene in the last several months as the place to go for wedding favors, organizational apparel, business promotional giveaways, and printing needs of all kinds.

Small Town Specialty Printing, now located at 106 NE 2nd St., Greenfield, was opened several months ago by Mackenzie Meisenheimer and her mother Brenda.

Mackenzie is so excited that she’s kept the ribbon that was cut at an open house held Friday, June 17. The whole community was invited to come out and see the business in its new digs.

“I’ll probably frame it, and I wrote the date on it,” Mackenzie said, holding the ribbon Monday.

A pandemic graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, Mackenzie studied event management and public relations. Events simply weren’t happening when she came home to Greenfield from college, which led her to start a new venture.

Mackenzie started renting out signs she had made. They were for birthdays and other private events. It has since grown into much more and the business outgrew the family home.

“We needed more room ASAP because the community was responding really well,” Mackenzie said. “That’s what led to this. If you would’ve asked me a year ago if we would’ve been here in a storefront I wouldn’t have known this would have happened.”

The building the Meisenheimers moved into is the former home of Nodaway Valley Dental. It required them to remove a few walls to open the space up more. Flooring needed updating, so that was done in the process.

The Meisenheimers did all the work themselves, and it took just more than a month. Brenda, Mackenzie, her dad, Jerry, and a brother all spent long hours in the space getting it ready.

“I had a built-in plumber, electrician...,” Mackenzie said. “We really knocked it out of the park, I think.”

The added space allows Small Town Specialty Printing to utilize a large printer they weren’t able to have before. That gives them the ability to print large signs and other graphics. A large packing station helps the Meisenheimers to be able to lay out an order and pack it properly before it is shipped.

Mackenzie and Brenda each learned some of the skills necessary to run this business in the beginning, however as it has gone on, Mackenzie handles most of the hands-on printing work while Brenda keeps track of orders, other book work, and helps with packing and shipping orders. Small Town Specialty Printing has sent its work to 24 of 50 states.

“It was one of those things my mom and I said that we should start this, and we did. We went full on into it,” Mackenzie said.

Mackenzie said it’s very rewarding to go around town and see people wearing shirts that she’s designed.

“I never thought I’d go out and about in town and see people wearing my shirt. It’s really cool because I print all my shirts by hand,” Mackenzie said.

Brenda is very proud of her daughter, that her designs have become so popular in the local area and beyond.

“She’s very creative, so it’s fun to see her designs show up on people,” Brenda said.