They say reinvention is the hallmark of a successful company. Pennsylvania-based dealer Doing Better Business, Inc. (DBB) has been reinventing itself since 1973: first as a word processing dealer, then as a copier dealer and solutions provider, and presently a business technology company.
“The hardest thing that we’ve had is just getting across to people that we’re really a business technology company. We’re not just trying to sell you devices. We’re trying to solve your business problem,” said president and CEO Debra Dellaposta (pictured above, left). She, along with her siblings, Beth, CFO (at right), and Joseph, COO (center), are the second-generation owners of the business.
The struggle to which she refers is external and internal. The company succeeds because it keeps its focus and its sales reps firmly focused on client needs. “You’ve got to have your eyes and your ears open, and you’ve got to understand that every client’s needs should be developed for that specific client. So, it’s both an internal mindset and an external mindset that needs to be expanded,” she said. And, she added, services and technology have to make sense and have to be a good fit for the people you’re dealing with.
“It’s not just a matter of, I’ve got this product and I want to just sell you this product. I’ve got to figure out why it makes sense, why it’s going to work for you.” She continued: “I used to tell my sales staff, you’ve got to be part psychologist and detective. You can’t just meet with a purchasing person and say, here’s the best price, and here’s what we think you should do. You’ve got to understand that there’s people at the other end of that transaction. You better take into consideration their needs and how they work.”
Doing Better Business takes a similar firm stand on automation: It’s not there to get rid of employees.
“Because we’re family, and a lot of our people have been with us a long time, if somebody comes selling and they say, ‘You’re gonna be able to get rid of employees,” We’re never gonna get rid of employees. And so, we never lead a sales conversation with, ‘We’re going to get rid of employees.’ It’s more about how can we make the employees you have more efficient. If you grow your business with the people you have now in a more efficient, productive manner, then, that’s what we want.”
Fun fact: Doing Better Business owns and operates its own commercial print shop outside Pittsburgh, which came via an acquisition. The five-employee digital shop mainly operates to serve a large global client, but DBB also uses the facility, filled with Canon and Ricoh production and wide format devices, to meet internal print needs, and to backfill printing for smaller school districts that don’t have their own facilities.
“What’s really been great for us is that we have a staff there that understands workflow, understands commercial print workflow, and can come and really work with our commercial print customers to help them streamline and become more efficient,” said Dellaposta.
Doing Better Business’s word-processing roots
The roots of DBB reach back to 1973, when Dellaposta’s parents founded a word processing dealer and service company called Word Processing Services. Her dad had been a national service manager for a large word processing dealer, and the family moved around quite a bit across several East Coast states, eventually ending up in Hagerstown, Maryland. The employer closed its doors; the Dellapostas borrowed money to start their own venture and decided to put down roots in Hagerstown.
The family hailed from Altoona, Pennsylvania, and Dellaposta said, “I think [dad] chose Hagerstown because of how close it was to Altoona.” But by then they had become part of the community and chose to stay.
Mom did accounting, eventually becoming president, and grandma was the office manager, a role she kept until she was 92. “I was blessed to work [with her],” said Dellaposta. “Sometimes I say blessed, and sometimes, you know, when you work with family . . . we definitely fought, but it was awesome to work with her. We ended up really having a great relationship,” she added warmly.
Within a year, the company began selling copiers as the introduction of PCs did away with word processing.
Doing Better Business’s 2024 President’s Club trip to Cancun, Mexico.
The kids all started young in the business. “Beth and I worked mostly with my mom in accounting, but once I got my driver’s license, I would deliver toner. Joe worked in the warehouse and did deliveries.” Beth was always in accounting, and that’s where Beth has stayed. ‘She’s always managed the computer systems and the back-end systems and done all the accounting and books for us. That really wasn’t my strong suit,” said Dellaposta
After university, Dellaposta ventured out to California and attended the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. The entertainment industry was tough to crack, and then the Rodney King riots rocked Los Angeles. It was a bit of a last straw, and after a pros-and cons-list to determine whether to stay in California or leave, she left in 1992 to join her parents’ business, which by then had relocated back to Altoona.
“I said it was going be for five years. They had some managerial trouble and I thought, I’ll come in, help out, and then I’m moving. But then I fell in love with the community,” she recalled.
Beth had already joined the firm full time in 1991, and Joe would follow in 2001.
Dellaposta moved right on the curve when copiers were becoming printers and she jumped right in getting every certification she could, dragging Joe along, embracing the fact that PCs and networking were the future. WPS stayed focused on developing networking and connectivity abilities and beefing up what was then known as printer fleet management—the precursor of managed print services—and managed IT. The company also made some small acquisitions, mostly, said Dellaposta, of copier and typewriter dealers.
Last year, DBB President’s Club members took to the sea!
In 2013, WPS took a leap and acquired Van Dyk Business Systems in Pittsburgh. “That was a pretty big thing to acquire a whole new market, a whole new company, and a whole new brand. And so that is when we formed Doing Better Business,” she said. Dellaposta was named president and CEO. The company continued to operate as WPS, but as her parents began to scale back, the siblings acquired the company from them in 2017 and began operating as DBB.
The operation took off and what followed was an acquisition spree of firms in the traditional managed print services space. Purchases included Total Service, Multiscope Document Solutions, Pro Business Systems, Cooper Business Machines, Canton Business Systems, and McCleary Business Machines in May of 2025.
The Multiscope deal has been one of the biggest to date. Founded by an individual who actually came from the commercial printing business, the firm had print shops and presses all over the Pittsburgh area. “That acquisition really solidified production print understanding,” explained Dellaposta. “As well they did a lot of enterprises [and had] a lot of accounts outside Pennsylvania. They also did a lot of the ITT. So that really helped us grow in understanding a lot of the solutions and understanding enterprise.”
A DBB company picnic weekend at Rocky Gap, Maryland.
The Pro Business Systems’ deal was finalized in April of 2020, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, “which was insane,” she said, “but it had been in the works.” Acquisitions have slowed since then because they put a lot of pressure on employees to transition operations, meld corporate cultures, and merge the backend software systems.
And, there are other challenges to focus on, including figuring out how to incorporate AI and turn it in a service like managed print. The company recently expanded into AV services, which Dellaposta said is very exciting given her background in film. ‘We just put in a big event center for a church where they can do movie nights and different presentations, and that stuff is really cool,” she said.
The company also recently sold its first content services package, consisting primarily of a wayfinding solution that allows users to touch a screen to access maps and directions. The next logical step could be to expand into content services, such as video, but that’s further down the line. And, like many other dealers out there, DBB has moved into the water business, supplying bottleless water purification systems for its clients.
For now, there is no talk of a third generation taking over. The Dellaposta siblings have children who are too young to contemplate full-time roles in the company. In the meantime, the next challenges, and perhaps the next reinvention await the DBB team.
Siblings Deb (from left), Joseph, and Beth Dellaposta, along with the entire DBB team, support local charity Girls Inc at YWCA.
These five Santa hat-laden young ladies visited the dealer to sing Christmas carols during the holidays.
Doing Better Business at a Glance
- Employees: 100
- HQ: Altoona, Pennsylvania
- Locations: Eight offices in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia
- OEM partners: HP. Canon, Ricoh, Sharp, KIP Systems
- Services offered: managed print services (MPS), managed IT services, cybersecurity, cloud services, audiovisual solutions, interactive isdplays, digital signage, document management and workflow automation, AI-powered business process automation, production printing, wide-format printing, bottleless water purification systems
- Vertical markets: construction, manufacturing, healthcare, education, government, financial services
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