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In the early days while first building his online business, Field had attempted to court the interest of venture capitalists with his idea.

"We talked to a couple of VC's and basically they just laughed at us," he recalls.

The experience echoes the observations of others including commentator Steve Macdonald about the trouble with VC's when it comes to ideas that just aren't trendy enough, a vindication of the bootstrapping approach:

As for me, I've moved back into far more traditional territory... Just boring stuff like ensuring cargo gets where it is supposed to go on time. No VCs are looking at us. But guess what? We're profitable! Remember that word?

Field did however push ahead with some innovative concepts.

One feature of his company's website which still sets it apart from other online printers is Instaprice (click here and scroll to the bottom of the page to check it out), a trademarked web calculator where shoppers can fill in quantity and other factors to receive an instant price quote on their project.

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