The Accidental Entrepreneur
This businessman proves that a niche company does not have to be small.Donald J. Nores is the owner and founder of a Los Angeles-area business that produces a product that millions of people have held in their hands — tickets.
In 1971, Nores was working in sales for a ticket-producing firm when he saw unfilled demand in the market. He started Digital Printing Systems with just himself, a press operator, and his wife, Joyce, who has played a major role in financial and personnel matters through the years.
Today, DPS employs 90 people and runs nine presses two shifts a day. The company produces nothing but tickets — parking garage tickets, transit passes, and drawing and raffle tickets. That makes the firm a niche company, but a very unusual one: DPS prints tickets by the millions every month, and it is one of about a dozen companies in the field.
One reason why there are few printers in the ticket market is because machine-dispensed tickets must meet stringent requirements. They must be printed to plus or minus five or 10 thousandths of an inch in width, for example, or punched, numbered and folded. Tickets also have monetary value, which adds a layer of security considerations.
“If you [order] 100,000 or 1 million tickets, you’ll get exactly 100,000 or 1 million, not one more or one less. Each ticket is worth money. And we have procedures that permit us to attain that degree of accuracy,” Nores says.
DPS has been meeting specifications for more than 35 years, and Nores believes his company’s extreme commitment to service and attention to detail is the key to its success.
Nores says he is not a born entrepreneur. Rather, he calls himself an “accidental entrepreneur.” He worked in sales for years, saw a business opportunity and acted on it. He is convinced that the entrepreneurial spirit is not necessarily genetic; it can be learned. That’s what he tells students in the College of Business Administration Entrepreneurship Program when invited by Fred Kiesner, program director and Conrad N. Hilton Chair in Entrepreneurship.
In fact, Nores has been a significant supporter of CBA programs and scholarships over the years. He has donated scholarships and funded an endowment for competitions and award contests, including the LMU Elevator Pitch Competition. Undergraduate and graduate students devise a business idea and pitch it in two minutes to a panel of judges, as if they’ve stepped into an elevator with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and have two minutes to persuade him to finance their idea. For his dedication, Nores was named to the Entrepreneurship Program’s Wall of Honor in 2006. In 1995, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award.
Nores’ commitment to LMU extends to classical choral music as well. He developed a love for it at Loyola, spurring him to contribute to the College of Communication and Fine Arts choral music programs. He also is a member of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, which performs at Disney Hall, and is one of its founding directors. Further, he and Joyce underwrote the production of a CD of Philip Glass’ “Itaipu,” recorded in 2002, to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
Today, Nores counts his undergraduate experience — which he calls a “good, solid business education” — as one of the main reasons for his success. To the aspiring entrepreneur, he has one simple bit of advice: “Go to LMU and get in Fred Kiesner’s entrepreneurship program.” —Joseph Wakelee-Lynch
Donald J. Nores
[BusAdm ’52]
Favorite professor
William McIntosh, S.J.
professor of economics and chair, Department of Industrial Relations
Favorite classical composer
Beethoven
Favorite choral music composer
Morten Lauridsen