So not boring

Even though his company has gone from selling typewriters to providing IT services, Dean Boring will correct you if you suggest Boring Business Systems keeps reinventing itself.

“We've always been in the technology business,” says Boring, the third family member to run the business, founded 91 years ago as Lakeland Typewriter and Supply Co. “In 1924, typewriters were a big deal. It's a long way from a quill pen to a typewriter.”

Over the decades, the business machines Boring Business Systems sells and services have changed from manual to electric to computerized and networked devices. The newest technology wrinkle came in 2012. That's when Dean Boring acquired a small IT company, a deal he believes will keep the business prospering even as the number of copies and prints people make continues to drop.