Steve Webb

Kohl Fast

CMNS 165

Feb. 5^th, 2019

Steve Webb

            Steve Webb started as a small business owner over 16 years ago, when he started he had no idea how it would snowball and change his life forever. He started a job as a poster boy, putting up local band posters across town. This was before the age of social media. At the time Webb said there were about fifteen clubs competing for poster space, continuously plastering poles with the same band posters. “I just got so tired of seeing the same band posters” said Webb.

            It occurred to Webb he needed to go to each club and work for them all, getting contracts to equally represent the band posters and distribute them fairly. This was the birth of Webb’s company Metropol. Originally Webb was putting up posters, sometimes four to fives times a day for the first four years. It was around thirteen years ago Webb won the final two local contracts and has never looked back. When Webb started to make small profits he invested that money into some print equipment to start printing his own posters. This ended up leading to a collection of printers and cutters creating other jobs outside of poster distribution such as sign, sticker and business card making.

            “It’s really about looking at what you have and how you can take that and project it into the future” says Webb in regards to running a business. Now Webb owns four Metropol locations with 25 employees. With some of the largest printers on the island, Webb’s next move he claims is to get a new printer that no other business has on the island. Originally he did not expect that he would create so many jobs. The allure of being a local business from the island is something Metropol prides itself on, and has acquired many clients through this. When asked about running a business Webb says “It can be challenging. If you’re not doing something you enjoy it becomes exponentially difficult.”

            “Print is our biggest money maker” says Webb. With his massive success Webb has been collecting old pinball machines. Two months ago Webb opened a completely separate business, Quazars, an arcade with all the machines he had been collecting. “I’ve made some big mistakes at Metropol” says Webb, and with operating Quazars he has the advantage of learning from his mistakes. “Every single company has felt the competition from online.” Webb claims the only way to maintain success as a business owner is to provide great customer service with face to face, in person real experiences. Webb has a plan to consolidate his four locations of Metropol into one ultimate production building, and to continue strong with Quazars. The future looks bright for Webb and his business endeavours.