It came as a surprise. When I answered the phone that morning and the person on the other end said that she was a writer for Business Week in New York, that Leikam Enterprises and our Oven Claw Pro was chosen to be included in their feature “America’s Most Promising Startups.” At first I couldn’t say anything. She asked if I had a little time for an interview and I replied, “Sure.” Once I’d supplied the information she asked whether I had a picture of myself using the Oven Claw Pro. I told her that I would get one for her. What a scramble that was.
With everything accomplished, we moved ahead and waited. This morning (Tuesday, April 07, 2009) I was advised that the article about our company had been published in Business Week’s America’s Most Promising Startups . The article can be read online and there’s even a picture of me using the Oven Claw Pro. In part the article reads, “Although there are other similar devices on the market, Leikam, 68, says the Oven Claw is sturdier and better designed. The 18-inch long grabber can easily extract a cooked turkey from the oven without making a cook reach her arm inside (and possibly be burned).”
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Friday, November 14th, 2008
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.
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™.
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:
- Be persistent, there’s always a way to make your dream come true.
- Put together a competent team. They will be invaluable.
- Trust yourself even when you have doubts and listen to your team.
- 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.
- Know that you are constantly in a learning mode and that you’ll never know it all.
Tags: hot ovens, kitchen gadgets, oven claw, oven rack puller, pusher, safe oven, toaster oven
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Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
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.
Tags: green, kitchen gadgets, oven claw, safe kitchen, scrap
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