Try telling new copy shop president Geri Jones that the world today is a paperless society.

There’s some reassurance about an official document in hand, that people still don’t get from seeing the same information on the computer screen. That is the case with medical records, the bread-and-butter business of L & R Copy Service.

The all-women employees of Gig Harbor’s newest printing and shipping store know it remains the same in a social setting. An e-mailed wedding invitation isn’t going to cut it.

“We felt this was a good time to open the business,” said CopyRight! Owner Cheri Johnson. “We know traffic is unbearable and people were feeling they had to go to Tacoma to get copying done. We felt Gig Harbor North was the place for this.
“We’re perfectly positioned between Port Orchard and Gig Harbor.”

Johnson said she particularly likes the fact that, with their graphic business for t-shirts and banners, families and coaches come by.

“The good part about a small town is that other small businesses like to work with the local businesses,” she said. “We spent some considerable time making it a non-traditional copy shop. There’s a lot of color here. It’s more like a coffee place.”

CopyRight! has eight full and part-time workers, including a graphic designer. It’s been worth it for Johnson, who remains a financial consultant with Solomon Smith Barney.

“We are very limited in this area as far as paper goods,” she said. “I see a lot of our growth being in specialty printing. I am already thinking about expansion, but I want to get it right here first.”

Port Orchard’s L & R Copy Service concentrates more on larger business clients throughout the lower Puget Sound area. In a Subaru wagon, they travel to the business, complete with copiers and appropriate paperwork to do the job. The company is qualified to handle confidential documents and also bonded to review documents for errors and omissions. A big part of that work is medical billing.

“The big thing right now is medical clinics are cutting back and administration is the first to go,” Wayne Jones said.

They work with clinics in the lower Puget Sound area, from Poulsbo to Tacoma to Seattle.

“If we get about four or five more clinics, we’ll have to start hiring people,” Wayne Jones said.

They can also help lawyer’s offices with record retrieval service.

“And attorney calls to get it, we copy it and send it out,” Jones said. “It saves them the hassle. We’re in the mold of larger companies in larger cities.

“We’re a niche.”

Jones said the bonus for many of their clients is that the paperwork doesn’t leave the office. It’s supported by Finzer Imaging in Bremerton.

Geri Jones is “the boss” and president of the company. Her husband is vice president Wayne Jones. Their Port Orchard office is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be reached at (360) 895-0813.