IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
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IPC COMMUNITY 11 WINTER 2025 Delivering on a Promise By Linda Stepanich, Contributing Editor Mid-America Taping and Reeling meets customer needs while outpacing the competition A motto on the conference wall at Mid-America Taping and Reeling, "Promise only what you can deliver and then deliver more than you promised," has led to Barbara Paul's success, from starting her business in her parent's basement to a thriving company with locations in Illinois and Florida and 75 employees. IPC member Mid-America is a leader in supplying tape and reel services to the electronics industry. It specializes in sur- face mount, axial and radial taping, baking, dry packing, lead forming, and memory device programming. Barbara was a college student in the mid-1980s, working for a printing bro- ker who had set up his own business. As she watched him, she realized, "I could do this. I want to start my own business. I don't want to depend on someone else for a living, and I want to forge my path." With that determination and an innate curiosity, she sought opportunities to realize her dream. Her first outreach was to her own family. "I went to my uncle, who had made himself a multimillionaire in eyeglass frames," she says. "I told him I wanted to start my own business and asked him for ideas. He said he'd met someone who was selling an axial lead taping machine. I had no idea what that meant, but I learned that this was a growing industry." She shared that information with her father, an engineer at Navistar, "who told me that it was a way to sequence electronic components for automation and that I should investigate it," Barbara says. "There was no internet back then, so I researched the Thomas Register of North American Manufacturers at the local college library to find out who was putting circuit boards together and who I could approach for a sale." Barbara and her father set up her first axial taping machine in her parents' basement, and she started cold-call- ing local businesses to build a client base. Her first client, Bally, agreed to give her their business only after an audit. "I was mortified when he said he would come to the base- ment of my parents' house since I didn't have an office," she says. "But I passed the audit with flying colors," and her business was born. Barbara continued reaching out for sales, and with help from her mother this time, they did all the taping and reeling until the business became sol- vent. "Sometimes I'd stay up all night to tape a big job, drop it off, and collapse when I got home. I was in that basement for over a year until I could rent a 1,200-square-foot unit. It was tiny, but above the ground, and I got to put my name on the door. I kept building the business and eventually started making carrier tape pockets." Barbara Pauls