Starting a business from scratch may happen overnight, but an entrepreneur’s vision often takes years to bear fruit.
For Tony Lee, a mechanic at Marco Automotive and developer of the Pedal Pumper, it has taken 10 years to create the current version of his brake-bleeding buddy. To remove air from brake lines, mechanics such as Lee enlist the help of a co-worker to pump the brakes.
But Lee, who has been turning a wrench most of his adult life, simply thought, “There’s just got to be a better way to do this.”
He said he’s created and used six versions of the metal and plastic product that eliminates the need for a helper by connecting the brake pad and steering wheel and forcing a pumping motion on the brakes. Lee’s boss at Marco, founder Duane Mariage, recommended Lee market the Pedal Pumper on Mariage’s repair-demonstration Web site,
www.realfixesrealfast.com.
The product has been for sale on the site for $168 apiece since February, and Lee said he’s now working to incorporate his company, TK Co. Manufacturers. Lee said he is producing 50 for O’Reilly Automotive Inc., which could lead to a full order of 100 that could be marketed to shop owners. Now, he is both hopeful and preoccupied with what could happen next.
“It turns out there is a great deal of difference between coming up with an idea for yourself and building one versus (going) nationwide to the public,” Lee said. “All of a sudden you have to figure out safety issues; cost of supplies; costs of time; how to manufacture it; how to manufacture it safer; make it more dependable; make it more attractive; and then there comes packaging and marketing. … It seems like there is a hurdle every few days.”
Lee said he’s been selling about two of the patent-pending Pedal Pumpers per week for the last four months, and it’s taken him about six weeks to fill half of the O’Reilly order.
O’Reilly Automotive spokesman Mark Merz confirmed the company was interested in the Pedal Pumper but stressed an order has not been filed.
“We look at lots of different products from lots of different companies on a daily basis. Some we end up buying to sell in our stores; some we end up buying to market to professional installer customers as equipment-type sales; and some we never do anything with at all,” Merz said.
Christine Daues, former news anchor at KSPR-TV and co-owner of Granolove LLC, started her company out of her home in November after making a family favorite granola mix for years.
“I started making it for my two young children because I wanted them to have something that was good for them and was also convenient,” said Daues, whose original mix with blueberries and cranberries had been popular with friends and co-workers who encouraged her to start her own business.
She’s added dark-chocolate cherry, mocha java and peanut butter chocolate mixes, developed last summer while selling at the Greater Springfield Farmers’ Market. Daues has since launched www.granolove.com and rents kitchen space at Parlor 88 on East Sunshine Street, where she bakes product three mornings a week.
Daues, who is married to KSPR anchor Joe Daues, said her granola mixes are now being sold at Homegrown Foods, and she has just reached an agreement with Harter House on South Eastgate Street to sell the products, which should hit the shelves by July.
Challenges for Daues, like Lee, have been in finding suppliers that offer affordable prices. Her current production levels – 150 to 180 bags per week – aren’t large enough to gain price breaks. She is working with four companies to supply the nuts and berries required to make the 12-ounce packages that cost $7.95 on her Web site.
“We kind of had an idea that it would be difficult to start a business, but I don’t think we really had a sense of how much there was to do,” Daues said, adding that she has applied for several licenses to operate in the city and county and hired an attorney and accountant – all steps that weren’t part of her original vision.
Andy Cobb, owner of Traders Printing Co., has produced vats of Rock-A Billy Rub out of his home for a couple of years now. Product sales under Rockabilly Rub LLC began in spring 2010, and its medium-hold all-natural hair gel, in particular, has been gaining traction with “greasers” ever since. Cobb now sells to 16 retailers, two of which are international.
He said he’s sold about 1,000 four-ounce units of his flagship pomade rub for $15 by promoting his business at concerts and festivals and talking to local salons. Cobb said he’s reinvested every penny he’s made into the company.
“I’ve been using pomade for a long time, and I just wanted to see if I could come up with something that was natural and used a lot less ingredients than what you would find in a commercial grade product,” Cobb said. “I started playing around a lot, and I finally came up with the pomade formula that just worked.”
His first batch of 15 to 20 cans was shared with friends, and the positive feedback encouraged him to consider a full-fledge business. He now sells Slick, a shaving soap with organic oils; Crowbar, a heavy-duty soap with activated charcoal; Balm Shell lip balm in cool peppermint or hot cinnamon; Stiff Upper Lip, a mustache wax; and Cobra Spit aftershave.
“I just wanted to see if I could find my niche market, which is the rockabilly culture, the car guys, the greasers, which is how I consider myself,” Cobb said.
Cobb’s printing company has designed the labeling and marketing materials, including the Web site,
www.rockabillyrub.com. His products are available locally at Walnut Street Barber Shop, Moda Salon, Paper Dolls & Pompadours and Good Girl Art, among others. In response to retailers, Cobb is developing a thicker version of the pomade.
Each of these ground-floor entrepreneurs acknowledged a surprising investment of time to get the businesses up and running.
“You do find out quickly what your free time is worth,” said Lee, who since February has obtained liability insurance, talked to painters, searched supply options and priced drill presses, while maintaining his full-time day job. “You can’t outthink all the steps you have to make – there’s too many of them.”
Darrel Adamson, who as CEO of Mansfield-based Engrave-A-Crete Inc. has experience obtaining patents, said planning is key for new commercial ideas.
“We all think we’re pretty smart,” said Adamson, who recently received his fifth patent for an concrete engraving tool.
Adamson started his company in 1991 out of his bedroom and today he operates out of an 85,000-square-foot facility, with roughly 500 catalog items sold to customers as far away as South Korea and Botswana.
He said the patent process typically takes about a year, and costs about $6,000 on legal fees.
“We all fall in love with our own ideas, but then people will ask you ‘How are you going to make a buck?’”[[In-content Ad]]
