N.C. A&T Alumnus Thrives As a Top Entrepreneur in the Triangle

Ryan Major ’08, has been an entrepreneur for more than five years and the road to entrepreneurship has not been an easy one, but the process has been all worth it. He is the founder and president of Triangle Business Systems, located in his hometown of Durham, North Carolina, where he has grown his business to be one of the largest authorized Xerox dealers in the United States.

In 2008, Major graduated from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, and his first job out of college was a sales and marketing position with Caterpillar in Peoria, Illinois. While working at the company, he didn’t feel passionate due to the tedious workload and he just felt out of place.

However, according to Major, everything happens to him in sequences of threes.

“One day, I saw a guy out at a café who looked like money, and I asked him very boldly about his profession. He answered and said he was a medical device representative, however, he started out first selling copiers and he made six figures,” said Major

“After that conversation, the man referred me to a recruiter in California. The recruiter didn’t have any positions open, but he recommended that I should start selling copiers. Then on that same day, I saw a fellow Aggie out shopping, who looked really successful and when I asked him about his career, he told me that he sold copiers for Toshiba and that he was making $90,000. I told the guy if he could prove it by showing me his pay stub, I would quit my job that day and apply for a job at Toshiba.”

After these three encounters, Major applied for a job at Toshiba in Raleigh, North Carolina. He secured the position, and within four months, he sold $90,000 worth in copiers and he received a $24,000 commission. After one year with the company, he was promoted as a sales manager with a team of five people.

“Sales is the only field that will pay you exactly what you earn,” said Major. “It is a performance-based job and you have to always stay consistent.”

After five years with Toshiba in 2013, Major thought he was doing really well at the company, but due to some differences with his position, he was let go and he soon discovered that it was hard to find a copier sales job in the Triangle area.

“When I was let go from my job, I honestly had to make a drastic change and the path to entrepreneurship was bound to happen to me,” said Major. “I had to take a leap of faith because my back was up against the wall after losing a stable position, and this was also during a time that my son was born and I was purchasing a house.”

Within 90 days, Major decided to start Triangle Business Systems and faced challenges due to not being in business long enough to become an authorized reseller. He had to think quickly and he decided to partner with a struggling copier company that had been in business for 10 years.

“I ended up selling $350,000 worth of equipment for this small business and 75 percent of the profit went to my company. I hustled every day and I met with 40 people to build up my network,” said Major. “I leveraged my relationship with this company to help increase my chances of being authorized by the manufacturer.”

Major continued to work by faith for three months and he eventually reached out to a man who was authorized to sell Xerox copiers for a recommendation. He was able to convince the dealer that he was qualified and he secured the recommendation.

“I credit my success to my faith in God and paying my tithes,” said Major. “The opportunity of becoming an entrepreneur has allowed me to give $300,000 to local churches and nonprofits and school supplies to surrounding school systems. Most recently, my company built a computer lab at a primary school in Jamaica.”

Triangle Business System is now ranked the number seven reseller in the United States and to date, it has sold $16 million worth of copiers. In 2016 and 2017, the company was named the Triangle Business Journal’s largest minority-owned company, and in 2017 one of the largest family-owned business by the same publication.

In 2018, Major was named to the National Xerox Dealer Advisory Council. In the future, he plans to continue growing his company, giving back and building a legacy for his son.

For more information about Triangle Business System, visit www.tbscopy.com.