Dominguez Changing Careers With BallStars - Part 1 of 4

Marc Dominguez, co-owner, Texas Photo Ball, Little Elm, Texas, had been in involved in the courier and transportation business for 14 years working for companies such as DHL, Purolator, and Greyhound. He was burned out and wanted a change.

He knew that he wanted to start his own business, set his own hours, and be his own boss, but wasn’t immediately sure what he wanted to do. So he and his wife, Monica, started researching potential franchise businesses through publications like Entrepreneur, Inc., and Web sites.

Ironically, it was Monica who first picked out BallStars as a venture she’d be interested in. She had been active as an athlete in high school and remembered all the trophies and awards she had won over the years and felt that this was a market with a lot of potential. “Monica was very sure that it would have been something she would have purchased or her mom would have wanted to buy,” says Dominguez.

Marc, who had been in the Marines but was not that much into sports, was not initially convinced that’s what he wanted to do, and instead chose a different franchise to go with. Since Monica was keeping her job and Mark would be the one running the franchise full time, Monica deferred to Mark’s first choice.

However, as Mark tried to set up his first choice, he ran into some obstacles. The biggest one was that he was originally told he could have the territory he wanted, but when he went to place his first order, he was told that territory had already been taken. Not interested in setting up a territory that wasn’t close to him, he then re-considered Monica’s first choice, which was BallStars.

“So really, it was the poor customer service from this first company that got me started with BallStars,” says Dominguez. “Monica showed me the Web site and BallStars made it so easy to get the franchise set up. They were very fast about getting me my system and they didn’t even have territories. They really made it an easy process.”

“We also thought that the cost was reasonable compared to the possible return. We researched other opportunities that we could get into for under $25,000 as that was our total budget. We thought it would be something easy to manage and fun to do in our spare time,” says Dominguez.

Ballstars Licensee Presents Football to Super Bowl Championship Team Coach!

A proven way to promote your BallStars business is to investigate ways to get your products into the hands of sports stars and coaches who then appear in the media. Mark Buckingham, Bucks House of Color, Brazil, Ind., who lives just a short drive away from the Indianapolis Colts training camp in Terre Haute, Ind., did just that.

During the first week of training for the new season, the public is invited to watch and the coach and players hang around after practice for autograph signing and questions. Buckingham, whose two children also love the Indianapolis Colts, went with Dad to a practice during the first week of camp. Buckingham came prepared with two mid-size footballs.

The first one was created specially for Tony Dungy, the head coach, with his photo and the words “Thanks Coach for the Super Bowl Championship,” which the team had won in Super Bowl 2006. He also brought a blank football to collect some autographs on.

Another talent of Buckingham’s is he is a serious amateur photographer. He recently purchased a Sony 10.2 megapixel professional-quality camera for his Ballstars’ business, which he had ready once he got his turn to talk to Coach Dungy. “He was very surprised and he thanked me for it,” says Buckingham. The licensee also got his photo taken with the coach and the ball as well as photos of several of the other players.

The next day, after Buckingham had a chance to go home and get some photos printed, he returned and was able to get several of the photos signed as well. At this time, he was invited to a private special autograph signing event in October.

While waiting and watching the team practice, Buckingham had an opportunity to show around his custom-designed ball to other waiting fans and he handed out as many business cards as possible. And in the meantime, he is submitting a press release about his experience to local newspapers.


Many Ballstars’ licensees have found that once they begin getting out to events such as this one, showing the balls, and distributing literature and business cards that word of mouth can really get sales rolling. A great way to find out about events is local newspapers, community Web sites, and regional online calendars. Check out what you might visit and capitalize on this great marketing technique.