News from the Oven Claw™

Bill Leikam, President, Leikam Enterprises, LLC

Before getting back to Part II of my previous blog, I’d like to invite you to sign up for the upcoming launch of our 18” Pro Oven Claw™. All you have to do is to go to our contact page. Just give us your name and your email address. We absolutely do not share any of your information with anyone. See our policies. (If you wish to make a comment about our website or the Oven Claw™ please do so. We’d love to hear from you.) Once you sign-up you will be added to our opt-in list and when we send out notices you will receive it in your email in-box. This will give you advanced notice when we launch this product. Along with the notice you can also enjoy the benefit of getting a coupon that you can use when we release the Toaster Oven Claw™.

As we build and move ahead, you will see on our website a list of stores and websites that will be selling all three versions of our Oven Claw™: the Pro version (18”), the Standard version (12”) and the Toaster Oven Claw™ version (7”). In addition, we intend to manufacture the Oven Claw™ in a variety of woods. You will then have a broad choice of colors available that will match your kitchen’s color scheme.

In any case, we would like to hear from you. Our visitors are our life-stream and we would like to get to know you and you can get to know us.

The Oven Claw™ Goes to Market – Part II

In Part I of this article (“The Oven Claw Emerges–Part I”) I told how the Oven Claw came about and ended when people responded well. With that positive feedback I wondered whether I could place it in stores and so with twenty Oven Claws™ in hand, I drew up a list of stores and visited a number of them. Remember, these few were hand turned and my cost was $20.00 each. In order to make a profit I needed to sell them wholesale for at least $25.00 each. At that time I knew very little about the actual market, actually walking into a store and talking either with the owner or the manager. The key thing I learned was that retailers often sell at 30 to 50% of their wholesale cost. In the end I happened to hit some high-end stores and sold them while at other stores, they rejected it because it was too expensive. That I hadn’t expected.

When all was said and done our return on investment (ROI) was either non-existent or only a couple of dollars each; hardly enough to make a viable business. I remembered what one of the guys who turned the first prototype said. “You’ll never make it unless you have it manufactured in China or India. There’s no profit in your oven gadget.” His words rang in my mind but I decided that I wouldn’t let that get in the way. I thought, “There must be a way to get the Oven Claw™ manufactured for a cost that would give the company an acceptable ROI.”

I told my team where we stood. I said, “Stop everything. We need to put your focus on finding an acceptable manufacturer.” It didn’t take long and we had several such companies calling us. We eventually eliminated several and settled on one company. We made the deal and are expecting delivery of our first supply by late November. Once they arrive we will be in the market.

A few things I’ve learned:

1. Be persistent, there’s always a way to make your dream come true.
2. Put together a competent team. They will be invaluable.
3. Trust yourself even when you have doubts and listen to your team.
4. When you engage in an area of business that’s new to you, understand that you will make mistakes but learn from them. They won’t knock you out of the game.
5. Know that you are constantly in a learning mode and that you’ll never know it all.

The Oven Claw Emerges–Part I

When I began to design the Oven Claw, I didn’t even know what it was called. I had seen one being used but Tanya didn’t know. It was simply their Oven Buddy. She knew that it was a great tool that kept her from burning her arms or hands when she needed to withdraw hot food from the oven. She swore by it. As time went on I described it to friends and acquaintances and asked them what it was called but interestingly enough, no one knew. I thought, “Well, if no one knows what this thing is called, maybe it’s not that widely known or widely used.” That led me to think that just maybe there was a market for it. Out of such ignorance, I decided to carve one of my own designs from soft pine. That version didn’t impress me but it did form the first rough pattern that I then worked from.

I continued to be bothered by the fact that I still had no generic name for it. Finding out what it was called, took a lot of digging but I finally discovered that it was called an oven rack puller / pusher. With that, I searched the internet and found eight to ten different designs; a few good looking ones, the rest almost toy-like. What most struck me, however, was how similar in design they were and how flimsy some of them looked. At that point, I hadn’t yet developed the design as it presently stands but I did think that whatever emerged my hot oven rack puller had to be sturdy enough to withdraw a hot oven rack laden with a large turkey. It needed to be elegant so that it would fit in a modern, high-end kitchen. Additionally, I understood two things:

1. Develop my hot oven rack puller into a well known oven utensil and
2. Create one that would virally sell in the high-end marketplace.

By that time my design had begun to emerge and soon I came to the point where I needed to take it to a woodturner to turn the first prototype. I was excited by the outcome. I showed it to friends and they were impressed and said that they wanted one. Since the first wood worker was not equipped to turn a larger number of them, he referred me to someone who was a professional woodturner. It was then that I had twenty five of them made and gave them away as Christmas gifts. Along with the gift, I included a brief letter asking for honest and clear feedback. Several people replied that they were happy to receive it but that they wouldn’t change from using their oven mitts. (Habit is sometimes hard to break.) Many more replied with very positive feedback, loving its design, loving its usefulness. One person replied that she had wanted something like this because she was tired of having burnt, dirty mittens lying around. It was enough to urge me onward. (Next installment – The Oven Claw Goes to Market – Part II)

Going Quasi-Green – Scrap Is In

Everywhere we turn these days, someone is jumping on the green bandwagon, claiming that their products are Earth friendly and yet there is still far too much waste that finds its way into the local dump. Too often manufacturers fail to see that scrap can be used. When scrap is used we can call it being quasi-green meaning that we leave a minimal carbon footprint or unnecessarily use natural resources.

Have you recently taken a look at kitchen utensil displays either online or in local stores? Bins and racks filled with plastic and other synthetics that are far from green. (Plastic is made from oil.) Take a look in your own kitchen. What is the ratio between plastic and renewable materials such as wood? Why are these utensils being bought so readily? Is it fashion? Ease of cleaning? There’s nothing else available? A large part of the reason why we see so many plastic utensils is that almost all of these utensils are manufactured in China, cheaply. Many have their production off-shore because there is a far higher profit than if they were to be made in the U.S.A. (See our earlier blog “Oven Claw: Made in the U.S.A.)

If these companies would just look around, they’d see that there is another way. Ages ago, when I was kid it was common to watch workers tear down old buildings board by board and stack the wood in piles. This scrap lumber would be used to build new structures. This is in stark contrast to today when bulldozers crush everything and large trucks haul the remains to the dump. During those early days people especially in the lower middle class used every scrap of various materials around the house. For instance, my mother saved bacon, steak and other drippings left after cooking. She used this grease to make bars of soap that for the most part she used for washing clothes. Every scrap of cloth gleaned from making our shirts was saved and eventually used to make warm quilts. There were many such examples of this kind of utilization in not only our household but others as well. There was very little waste. Reports indicate that since the early 1990s more and more companies are trying to use scrap instead of using only new materials. At the same time people purchasing products strongly prefer new materials and shun used.

What does all of this have to do with the Oven Claw? As we build out our market, we will use more and more recycled wood and ensure that our manufacturers use every scrap. As it stands at the moment, our manufacturer does not waste any part of the tree. In this way the Oven Claw is not what one normally thinks of as a green product but it is more akin to what I saw as I grew up; using every scrap possible. Why not change your buying habits and reject plastics? Use wood products in your kitchen and save our natural resources.

Oven Claw: Made In The U.S.A.

“You’re having it made, here in this country?” “You mean you don’t have to out-source to China?” We had many such comments. People often concluded with, “That’s great. That’s the way it should be.” But when I began to design the Oven Claw™ that wasn’t what I was being told. At one woodturning shop where I had a prototype of the Oven Claw™ made, the woodturner said, “Bill, do you want the bad news?” Always eager for information, even negative, I replied, “Sure.” He went on to say that I’d never make any money from the Oven Claw™ because of the cost of wood, the cost of hiring a woodturner, shipping, and other costs. He added, “Take those numbers and you would have to wholesale it for a minimum of $25.00 and no one can afford that. Retailers generally mark-up by 50%. That would mean they would have to put them on the shelf for $50.00. It just won’t fly. You’ll never make a profit. I’d find another project.

So, with that information, I slacked off on developing the Oven Claw™ further, thinking about what I could do, how I could have it made in the U.S. and at a cost whereby I could make at least a little profit. I went in search of another woodturner; someone who might have the equipment that would enable the shop to produce a high enough volume so as to drive down the manufacturing cost yet maintains the quality. I found an elderly gentleman. He went to work on the project but when I picked up my first supply, he informed me that unless he could make more than 100 at a time, he could not make them for under $20.00 each. There would be no profit. Disheartened but determined, I sold the first small supply of Oven Claws to local high-end stores, friends, anyone. People admired them, called them works of art, elegant and yet practical. I sold all but five. I kept those so that I had a variety of woods to show store owners and take orders.

My first break came while during a business meeting someone in the group suggested that we have them manufactured by a prison industry. Immediately upon arriving back at my office, I went online and found the National Correctional Industries Association, contacted them, told them what was needed and in their return email I had three references. In the end, the prison industry I chose to work with could not accomplish the complex task of adequately cutting the Oven Claw™ head and so they bowed out.

Knowing that it was probably possible to find a manufacturer, I set my team to work. They found several manufacturers but one in particular fulfilled all of our key needs: Made in the U.S.A., use recycled wood – scrap that would otherwise be trashed in the dump – maintain quality and give us a good supply quickly and inexpensively.

So, if you do your homework and if you don’t give up, you can have your projects manufactured in the U.S.A. at a reasonable cost so as to keep jobs here in this country, help local workers put food on their table and at the same time be a responsible business by going green.

What’s Happening with the Oven Claw?

1. Updated Website
2. Oven Claw Strategy
3. Community Development
4. Design Patent Update
5. Leikam Enterprises, LLC Team
6. A Background Story
7. Call for Recommendations – Company Development
8. Thank You Christina

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