Good Luck !!! :)))

I talked to the Jax show today, I have to sacrafice my four hundred dollar down payment but they will discount my fall 2012 entry.

I also changed my brush head order from 10K to 15K today.

Farin, I think that is all off for the moment. I am in the center of a buyer’s anual Hearth, Patio and BBQ/grillin MFG’s show in Atlanta on March 1,2 & 3. I will be busy with all my stuff if even one buyer and I connect…..Probably will commit to that buyer or small pool of buyers till I can build bigger manufacturing volume.

This came out of nowhere. As I was typing, I realized I need to cancel the Jax show til the fall one

When you say 4k per show… are you saying spend 4k pr show or profit 4k per show? i feel at home and garden shows to have something that grabs you and makes you want to go SEE is a great catch… !! And then top it off with something fun is appealing…

30 brushes vs 200 brushes is quite a difference… who knows 200 then 600 as it catches on… i am sure each show brings a different types of people depending on the area.

A friend of mine makes her own jewelry that is laser cut… was selling out of her van up and down the coast and now sells laser cut jewelry and wall art etc… all over USA and Europe…sells to other businesses only… is doing great even now in our down time economically… owns several properties etc… went from tiny to big in about 8 years… !!! never let go of her dream and put herself out there !!! it worked !!! she still goes to shows to this day !!!!!

GOOD LUCK and enjoy the ride… !!!

Thanks penster. I have to go back to work, then to bed.

See ya tomorrow D, you have passion and I wish you the best! Just look at the numbers, without your dreams, just your common sense.

Nite.

P.S. I know those pick up trucks……on the column.clutch and..two doors and just cool…fun

I designed a prototype that was turned over to our stay at home engineering department. I was gone for 2 years at a time some times. I looked up and one of kids handed me an awsome test instrument that was from my prototype….. :)

It gives you a warm feeling. You sign away your rights to anything you come up with when you are working for any company that designs…

The first AirTryke was actually an AirBike,,,, at the tender age of 12, suck out in the middle of dusty Nebraska, 2 miles from the nearest farm house. I figured out that dad’s order to not use the welder would never be found out.. Mom was taking his lunch to him everyday out in the fields anyhow. I had been sneaking the welder since I was 8 anyhow. I was responsible to mow the lawns, junky old lawnmower, so I learned how to fix engines, found a small wooden prop in my gramp’s barn…..as they say, the rest was history.

On the farm in those days, you had to drive the pickup truck following dad to a field 3 miles away during field change…you were only going 18.5 mph, but you better know how to stop and go…lol

Lov u pen. This is exactly what I need.

I was compairing larger markets like Miami, Tampa and Orlando to Jacksonville’s Home and Patio shows, they all have them.

Jacksonville has a 29,000 people regisered from the one they just had.

I went last Feb to a bbq festival in Tallahassee as my first show. they had 4,000 people attending. I sold 30 brushes in the 2 day show.

From that I extrapolated that I should be able to sell over 200 brushes in 4 days in March at Jax show.

I need more brushes bad, I am working with 3 separate vendors on an order that will be 10,000 brush heads. We should be able to finalize this order this week or next. I am using money that I have had for 16 years from the sale of my second small business to my partner…

I have sold for a living before for over 10 years. I worked for 13 years for a global small bus with 3,000 employees. I was a field rep traveling all over the globe. They were a neat co, they were a specialty upgrader of engines and gas turbines and the like. The most I traveled was around the world in 5 days.

I may seem crazy but that little boy is one of 3 and their uncle is also downs and lives with me also. I have never went into this before because it was no ones business. Now it is because because.

At 19 and 20 I was having to deal with admirals because of the stuff my co built and it was built to Naval requirements… was so fun, go to those meeting then take the renta car to the ski slopes in Seattle.

Drrroth, it is late but….you need to do the math….4,000 attend, sell 30 brushes…0075%
The fishbowl…….are you selling the grill brush or the trike…..not the fat old man….or the gifted son.
4K per show? Have you made that much to cover? Don’t spend the family savings……….your brush is good…..amongst…..many hundreds good ones.

Set your limit…financially for your family…….responsibly for your bbq brush of hundreds and more….more importantly, keep the family financially safe and your dream alive………..balance the scale with the most important being……….family.

I wish you the best………….and to keep those priorities you know are the most important……family first….dreams…are good….family….the only sure thing…order of life is one’s own choice……..we don’t want to regret our choices……….especially the most important ones.:>)

Good Luck to you Sir…and that so special and gift…your Son….You got the best gift ever in him…a life lesson of Love, unquestionable Love, not a sales tool.

So, give me some feed back.

I am going to take the Air Trike to the show, everybody wants to know how fast it is. I am going to have a contest 2x’s on thursday and friday 3 times, Saturday and Sunday probably 4-5 times per day. A large plastic fish bowl to collect the forms of everybody that guesses the top speed of the trike and the “fat old man”.

I will give out 10 dollar gift certificates to the various stores that stock my brush. 15 certificates will do it. $150.00 even if I pay for them.

In a festival of 4,000 attendees spaced over 2 days I sold 30 brushes. I should be able to sell over 200 at this event. That will pay for this stall and the certificate. And it will be a great example to the buyers in Atlanta of it’s apeal. That is what I am doing with this event.

What do you think. I mean, I could start booking Home and Patio shows all over the country. 4K per show would look great in the bank and I may do it but I want to hit the Atlanta show also.

Josh and I go 25mph some times and most of the time about 18mph. I am fat at 250lb and he weighs 130 so it has a good push. Customers love it at the store entrance and we have a lot of fun.

Now that’s what i call an invention if that does not attract attention and put a smile on your face what would. En needs to book your air bike for their next meeting of ener’s . Looks like a bit of fun.

I changed my avatar so you could all see him here, It is still worth a trip to ebay to see him bigger

That would be cheaper than shipping steel brush stands, now wouldn’t it…lol

I home school him daily and take him on a special needs field trip with 43 of his buds every friday morning….we went to the fire house last week and he was allowed to give them a brush, he looked a bout 10 feet tall giving a buush to the guys. Then we backed the trike off the trailer and gave them a show.

He goes on every sales call, we take the Trike and ride it to the store from the parking lot, we very rarely miss a sale.

The first month on ebay, 100 people looked a the site…

I ABSOLUTLY LOVE Josh…. !!!!! He looks so happy in that picture riding the advertisement bike…. !!! i am sure his confidence in self has sky rocketed !!! You are awesome !!! :))))

PS… i can see one of those cardboard life size posters of Josh at ACE… with the brushes next to it !!!!!!!!!

Great you know your numbers when i run out of fingers it all go’s over my head. As always best of luck with your products.

here is my best bud, now a national advertizing model :)
ebay.com/itm/170704754660?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

David, very interesting. I have 1.3 mil in Jacksonville local area. Tallahassee has aroun 70-100 thousand I belive.

It is a testing ground for me and I think this spring I am going to launch my next grilling product the same way. By this fall when I go to Georgia, I will have filled in the type of store that can sell it. The Pinch a Penny is I believe a pot of gold. I told my first owner, I never get in my pool and neither does any of the parents of the kids who come to swim, I think you guys should start carrying a line of grills for the parents.

Missed you guys and all the help I got, maybe some day I can give back. I have refered at least 30 people to the board. I talk to a lot of people, any store that takes my product gets between 3-6 “Boothings”, I come to their store for 1/2 day and set up my AirTryke and sign, then answer questions about the silly bike and the grill on it and the air power and the like, we have a lot of fun. I offer rides to grumpy old men(no I do not give rides) for a dollar and after we talk they go buy a brush and come out and show me.

I can not afford advertising. I find after a couple rounds, the word gets out and the store is selling 10-12 a month. Even in october they are selling on the average 6-10 each.

I think when I show these stats to buyers, I will be busy. I will have over 16 months of instore stats by the time I go to the buyer’s show.

I already can prove it sells well in ocean front area stores, even better, I can show it sells in very blue collar store neighborhoods owned by the same family. Perfect comparison. No mgmt differences

Forget local totally it will give you a false reading and if some people know you they may just want to be mean for the sake of it. You can also over expose the product and if all stores sell it they may take longer to turn round the product and they may think it will not sell. I have walked this path. My first testing ground was my town and i pitched that well i got 5 merchants wanting to sell it in a area of about 5 miles . This was good data to get me in with big company’s but i have only one tool outlet that now buys that product and he buys through a bigger distributer that buys from me in bigger volumes. Good luck with what ever path you take.

Welcome back, Darwin – I wondered what had happened to you. That is great news about all those stores – wouldn’t it be great if Ace or True Value would mention your product to their headquarters. I am assuming that, like Walmart, the stores are able to pick up products they think they will sell, without going through HQs.

Good luck – let’s hope that your tenacity will pay off.

I like the sign.

Instead of more local stores, I am going to build between 10,000 and 20,000 brushes by next fall to take to the bbq equipement convention in Atlanta, they only have 7,000 participants but they are the buyers for the industry. A booth cost more than twice the one here in Jax but they have bigger wallets

I know they will be concerned about my capacity also. I will be building a second and 3 line of machines also this year, upgrading also. Example, my first roundy round welder took 1 minute to weld a handle on, the second upgrade to me to 37 seconds per pass. The latest upgrade incorporated a puddle warmer which balanced the heat requirement and I now weld a handle on in 12.5 seconds and it provides the smoothest welds yet with the lowest failure rate and wire usage phenominal drop in cover gas useage.

I have 2 presses that I have designed batch automatic feeders for. You put 200 plates into them and they make the bends, and a air piston pushes out the finish piece into a tub.

You still have to hand feed the welder,,yet,,