Hi, this is gift biz on rapt episode 94, I looked out about halftime and the squirrel had emptied my bird, Peter, and I said, this has got to stop. Hi, this is John Lee, Dumas of entrepreneur on fire, and you're listening to gifted biz unwrapped, and now it's time to light it. Welcome to gift bears on wrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop and grow your business. And now here's your host, Sue Mona height. Before we get into the show, I have a question for you.
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If you know what to do to help you with this, I would like to offer you a coffee chat for the price of buying me a cup of coffee. We can sit down and I'll tell you everything that I know about networking and how I have personally built two multi-six figure businesses, primarily through networking to learn more about this opportunity. Just go over to Bitly forward slash network Ninja. That's B I T dot L Y network Ninja. And now let's move on to the show.
Hi, there it's Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast, whether you own a brick and mortar store sell online or are just getting started, you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your business. And today I have joining us, Tom degular with squirrel await bird cafes. Tom grew up on a farm in central Illinois and had a rewarding career in agricultural sales and marketing. When he retired in 2008, one of his chores was to keep the bird feeder full.
This chore led the way to his retirement advocation of the squirrel away for a cafe. These unique squirrel proof bird feeders are sold through several retail outlets and also at craft shows, flea markets and online Tom enjoys the craft shows and flea markets the most because of the direct contact with those with a squirrel problem, there's a lot more to this story. So let's jump right in. Welcome to the show, Tom, thank you for having me.
I am thrilled that you are here and as our listeners know, we like to kick this off by having you describe yourself in a little bit of a different way. And that is by telling us what your ideal motivational candle would look like. So if you were to tell me the color and the quote on your self-made candle, what would that be? I suppose it would be multicolor. Although if I had to pick one would probably be blue because I like blue and the slogan, or my message would be fool of squirrel and feed a
family. There you go, right along with your product right now. I have read your brochure. So I know a little bit about how this idea formed, but I'd love for you to share with our audience, how this all came about. And then also describe what the product is. Well, it started back, I suppose, in 2008, when I retired and my wife told me that one of my jobs would be to keep the bird feeder full.
And so I would happen to be watching football one day, watching the Chicago bears since I live in the area. No bears. Yeah, there you go. I looked out about halftime and the squirrel had emptied my bird, Peter, and I said, this has got to stop. I didn't sign up for a program that strenuous to keep the bird feeder falls. So I guess that sent me a quest, trying to figure out if I could be smarter than the squirrel and keeping him from eating all my bird feeds.
So that started, I looked in stores and found that the ones that I thought would work were very expensive. You know, they can range up to a hundred dollars or so for the really good ones. And so I thought, well, I could do this. And so I started out with several designs, a lot of things that didn't work, obviously, but then came up with something that did and seemed to be attractive enough to sell. So I went to the flea market and tried to peddle some there just to see what it would be like.
And I sold more than I thought I wouldn't be able to. And then that just kind of mushroom from that point. So how long was it from that afternoon when you were sitting watching football to when you actually had a product in terms of research? Cause you probably went to find the solution to just buy something different and then that didn't work. So in terms of advice to our audience, how long did that take you? Probably six months.
I would say to six to eight months before I thought I might have a saleable item, you might say, and then it's developed since then number originally, why it was not as attractive, not as durable. So it's kind of grown from that point, as I jokingly say, I'm now on version 8.25. So my S my son tells me, what are you going to do next?
Put Corinthian leather on the purchase for the birds or what, you know, so I don't know what else I can do to it, but I'd see, they're trying to be one of several things trying and make it more attractive, more affordable, more profitable, one of the other and more durable. So those are the things that I tried to strive to make it better. So you just keep working on it over and over.
Yeah. And that's probably also why you like the craft shows because you can actually talk to people who are either using the product already or looking at it and making comments. That's correct. Several of the improvements have been made just because of comments from customers. And that's how you find out how to make your product better. Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more and gift biz listeners.
I hope you heard that if you were doing something else and didn't catch that listening to your customers, they can be a gold mine for what else you can do, either product extensions or how you can enhance a product that you currently have. All right. And so for our listeners who may not know specifically about your product, because there are a couple of other feeders on the market that claim to help with this problem, how is yours different?
First of all, I would say probably the key thing that makes it a good bird feeder and very discriminating I would say is that it has Springs on the purchase so that whenever the bird lands on the perch, why he can set an eat, whereas anything larger than say a Cardinal, whether it be a grackle or larger bird, or certainly a squirrel or chipmunk, why they just can't seem to negotiate that. And so that's one of the big things that makes it do what it does.
Plus the fact, the top of it is dome shape. So even if a squirrel was hanging by his toenails from the wire, he just barely gets his nose down far enough to sniff it. And so that's just very frustrating to them. And didn't, you also do something else to the top so that they can't get in, they can't take the top off. Right. That's just one of the last things that made it, I guess, version 8.0 was that I put a finial on top of loop video.
So you could run the wire through the top, the lockdown, the top of the lid, because I had a lady that sent me a picture of a squirrel, completely encased in the tube of the bird feed. And if you, if you would have had a court big enough, as wide as the bird feeder was, you could put a stamp on him and mailed him to California. You know, it, it was very humorous. So that's what brought about the finial type lockdown system. That's good. And that's not safe for the squirrel either.
I mean, we're not here to hurt squirrels. We just don't want to leave it. Exactly. They have their place. And I just feel that it's on the ground cleaning up anything that the birds kick out, you know, exactly. So you're doing this more as a retirement hobby, but it's truly a business too.
I don't know if you felt that it was going to continue to grow and blossom as it has, but so as you were doing this, you might have had a little bit of a different motivation behind you than someone who's trying to build a product to make a business, to be able to quit working nine to five or that kind of thing. But I am quite sure there had been some struggles along the way, as you were developing the product.
Can you share with us one of those struggles Or one of the biggest is if you're introducing a new product or making a new thing or trying to design something that's better or is unique, what have you is where do you get the materials? How do you get the parts? Is there things that can be bought off the shelf to make it, or how are you going to do it? And so one of the big things was for example, the lid and how do you, where do you get a dome lid?
And so you look in hardware stores or wherever it might be trying to find domes, or look on the internet, where do you find them? And the first real innovation for a dome lid for me was I went to one of the local hardware stores and found clip on lampshades that were plastic. And they were a dome shaped and they had a clip on. So I took the clip off and I could paint the inside of the lampshade. And then I used that as mana my first dome lids.
A lot of it is trying to find the materials or the right things to build what you're going to build or make what you're going to make if you're in the production side. So was that for the prototype or was that for the actual product when it comes to, That was probably, that was probably a little later on. And the first one was just the top, a PVC pipe, four inch wide top. I had to make the length of the tube and it had to find a tube that would fit the top.
So you got to try to figure out what fits with what and what will go together to make what you want to make. Got it. Now, are you making all of these yourself still? Yes, I am. I make them all in my shop. I've got a little shop outside of my house and that is production central. And so I will build them there. And I usually do it in a, like a factory type mode. I've make a dozen bird feeders in a batch. You might say, and put the parts together.
And one day I'll make purchases and one day I'll make ports. And so you have to kind of economize your time as much as possible whenever you get into some production. Sure. I mean, we talk about that a lot just in terms of office productivity to batching. So you're applying this over into more of a production arena as well,
Right? It's not as much fun as just making one bird feeder from start to end, but it's the only way I can get enough made to make it worthwhile, to go to the shows and cover the retail and online requests that I might get. So I know that you're right now, not at home, you're out traveling. Cause that's the luxury of being, I'm only going to call you semi-retired since you've got all this going on. So what do you do then when you're not around, do you have enough?
Do you have someone who can fill orders? Are you, do you just delay? Well, what I did on my website for this point, I just said no orders through the month of January, I won't be able to fill any. So just left that message on my website. And I got a call as I was coming down from one of the retailers. And I just had to tell him, sorry, I'm not going to be around. I can't send you a dozen more or however many evermore you want for your store. So you'll just have to wait.
The nice thing about being retired and having it as a sideline is what else are they going to do? Right. So, okay. So let's continue on. And considering that our listeners are all looking at probably growing and building their business, and you've had a lot of experience in terms of sales and marketing. And now you're applying a lot of that to your product. What was the next move after you got the product?
You know, it's working it's alive and well, you tested it at that first show to see that there was interest out there. What else did you do to get the word out? I started a website for one thing to get the word out that way. And that, and I had friends where I lived, as far as the retail side, I had a friend that worked at the local hardware store and I went by there and I says, take a look at this. See what you think.
Is it something that would be worthwhile to you and tell you what I can sell them to you and see if you can make them the right amount of money. But the other key to the whole process was I really didn't need the money. Fortunately, my life's been good and I wasn't needing the cash so much as this. This was more about hobby or avocation. And so I decided I would donate some of the monies. Well, actually all the monies to some good cause.
And so after being in the agricultural business all my life, I thought, well, we're staying in food. Well, let's put it into the food bank. And so that's what I ended up doing. And that was another motivator for either retailers or customers to purchase the product because they knew it was going for a good cause as well. So there was a lot of winners involved in purchasing the product As well. U S made a lot of people. Now that's a big trigger too. And not Only us made made by you.
Sure. Yeah. So really important point there too, is that this is a give back. And I know there are also a segment of people who are listening here, who are thinking about that. They're going to be done with what their lifetime career has been, but they're not done yet. You know, they either like business or they're doing crafting or that type of thing.
So this idea of taking a portion of the profits or what you're saying in your case, almost all the profits and donating them, giving, paying them forward to something is very attractive to a buyer. So you feel like you're doing a lot for your case, the food bank and the consumer does as well. Well, in my case, it just basically turns out I'm spending my time and, and whenever it goes to the donations to the bank, but that's, to me, it's, that's other people's money.
You know, I, that's not a problem because it doesn't cost me anything except for my time. And you know, a retired person, their time is all extremely valuable, but not worth anything, you know, and in case. So in that aspect, why I think it's just a good thing happening all the way around. Didn't I read somewhere that you said that you were paying yourself a dollar and a quarter. Well, I say that my brochure, I says the maximum I will ever take of that is what my wage was.
Whenever I was a kid to bring back my youth, you know, it was like a dollar and a quarter an hour. As I remember growing up on the farm, that's what my dad paid me for cutting weeds out of the beans or whatever the job was on the farm. Actually, I'd never have taken that dollar and a quarter, but I've got the option to say, if things get tough, I w I can still pull that dollar in a quarter and not be lying to people. Okay. Or telling something that's not true.
Well, and I'm quite sure the reward of doing this and the satisfaction is also huge payment for you. Certainly, certainly it's makes you feel good. And so that's great. Let's talk a little bit about the craft shows. Now you, this is besides the, I think maybe handful, maybe it's more of retail shops that you're in your favorite thing to do is going out to craft shows and flea market. How many do you do in a year?
It has dwindled down somewhat, but I'll do maybe a half a dozen or so somebody, if they were interested in that trade could do one every weekend, probably, but I'm retired. I find it fun to go to a flea markets. Craft shows that venues seems to be the most fun because, well, you get to talk to a lot of people,
somewhat. Whenever I used to do the flea markets, or when I do the flea markets, I even bring my golden retrievers shook and he probably gets more attention than I do, but I tell people that he's in charge of customer relations. And so they come by and pet him and he enjoys that. And he's worn out by the end of the day from being petted, everybody wins, you know? Yeah. And I know because that's how I ran into you was at one of the craft shows actually right before the holidays and your booth.
I didn't even know what you were displaying because there were so many people in your booth until I got closer as I was going down the aisle, I'm like, okay, because I'm always looking for guests to know with interesting products, new stories and your booth. There were so many people I'm like, Oh my gosh, what is that? Let's go find out. And there were so many people there. What do you do when you got a crowded group right around your booth? How do you manage and work with everybody?
Well, the interesting thing I've found is marketing is if I can show the product in action that has tremendous impact on people and to actually visualize how they might utilize it in their home. Early on, I took several videos out my patio door of squirrels, trying to get at the bird feeder and bird setting on it. It's cetera. I put it together in like a two minute video, which I show on my website as well.
And then there's a second video of just birds coming with nice serene music, but it's more like the squirrels making their various attempts to attack the bird feeder and failing people, get a big kick out of watching that. And there, they can see how it works. And then with a few small demonstrations of the features of the product, Y and then I tell them the closing thing is usually that, well, all the proceeds go to the food bank. So 50, 60 people are going to get fed with each bird feeder
sold. So if you're interested, why here it is not really. Don't have to put a lot of pressure on anybody to purchase it. And so it's just a lot of fun and they end up and the customer enjoys it. The funniest part is the, it's probably the funniest enjoyable. Two minutes they'll have particularly the husbands, if they were drug along with her wives or whatever that they'll have while they're shopping at the flea market, Really humorous, I have to say it, it is on the website. Gift is listeners.
We're going to talk about the website at the end, and it's also going to be on the show notes page, but it is extremely entertaining. You should take a look at it for sure. A couple of things that Tom just mentioned in terms of working with the craft shows is product inaction action.
And the video we've heard this before, you know, when you hear about how to display and how to attract, especially if you have a new product that is going into a retail shop, any of those demo videos are really, really helpful for selling your product. And you're saying time, you just used your own camera, right? Yeah. I may.
I put the video together and I went to Dreamweaver and put the well, not Dreamweaver, but one of the, the movie sites that I could put the movie together and put sound to it and some sound effects and all of those kinds of things, just to make a low cost production movie for two minutes. Yeah. I mean, low cost, but high value. Right. And that was fun in itself. Just making that and putting that together as well.
Now, at this point, my experience with the bird feeder is I can't do any of those squirrels falling off videos very much because they're pretty smart animal. And so they don't even try anymore. So I don't have any of those action shots and I can, I can utilize. So, I mean, they learn and then they're then mission accomplished, Right? It's kind of a 10 step program for them.
I think the other thing I want to bring up the Tom was mentioning in about in a craft show, but this could be really in any type of a purchase when you're talking to a customer and you're doing some type of give back. I really liked the way he phrases everything that says, you know, it's $10 off of every purchase that goes to the food bank. And then he does the extension of that then feeds 60 families.
So when you're showing some type of a benefit for your product, if there's an further extension to it, that brings the point home even further. It makes sense to think through an, add that then to your conversation. Cause like you said, then it's pretty easy. People are ready to go, the wallet start opening and you're going to be making a lot more bird feeders. Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm making about as many as I want.
The thing about it is when you're retired and you're doing this for the enjoyment of it, sometimes just so much enjoyments enough, It could easily flip a switch to being real stress. Certainly. And I just enjoy it. So that's where it's nice for me. If one was in business, obviously you want to grow your business as much as possible, and I'm just not interested in growing it much larger than what it is right now. I'm fine with where it is.
I love that you say that too, because when we're entrepreneurs, it doesn't mean you always have to be bigger, larger, more money. You know? I mean, certainly if you're doing this for lifestyle where you can be at home with your children or something like that, you know, you have to make a certain amount of income, but there does come a point where it's no longer fun. You're no longer energized and passionate about it.
You know, Tom, you've got the perfect situation because you can do as many or as few as you want. That's right. That's what retirement's all about. And I've had people say, well, you ought to go on shark tank, you know, and show this, you got the video and all that kind of stuff. And I said, wait a minute, this is not suitable for shark tank because they want to make money. And I give all this money away. So they wouldn't be interested at all. Right. I mean in success has many Different looks,
right? And this is success for you. You're giving back. So that makes you feel great. You clearly love making the feeders. I'm imagining you've got music going on in their work room or something, you know? Oh, certainly I have my Cirrus on all the time with whatever music or radio program I might be interested in hearing fabulous Forward. I just want to ask you one more question, just drawing on the experience that you've had in the past.
Are there any other suggestions or words of wisdom that you would give us in terms of sales and marketing when you have a new product coming to market? Well, let's see. Whenever you asked me for words of wisdom, that's one of the things, you know, I always thought it'd be nice to be wise, but I don't know that I'm there yet.
So I guess the thing is to do the things that you enjoy doing is the key, because if you don't what you're doing in your business, why it's work and if you enjoy it, it's play. And so that's the biggest thing I could suggest to people that might be getting started in some type of adventure or adventure, whichever you want to call it is do the things that you enjoy and everything else will come together.
If you're enjoying it, people will know that you're enjoying it and they will catch on and you'll do fine. Right. I think also if you're not enjoying it, you're not going to be able to keep with it for very long. That's true. Okay. We're going to go now into our reflection section. And this is called look at you where people can kind of relate to whether they have the same traits or the same thought or that kind of thing.
If there was one natural trait that you have, which has made you be successful in terms of putting this all together, what would that be? Probably a bit, got a good sense of humor, you know, because Of watching the squirrels or what, well, Everything you gotta, you gotta just take stuff lightly enough and hopefully entertainingly enough to make it fun for you to do. And like I said, in my situation, that's one of the big things for sure.
And being focused in what you want to do as far as what you're going to make or what you're going to sell or whatever the case may be. I've always enjoyed being with people. And a little bit of the edge of each one of those relationships is probably ground on seeing the funny side of life or just trying to be observant on things that maybe other people don't see Whole thing about it being observant too.
That's how you identified the need to have a solution to the squirrel problem in the first place. Right? Well, that's true. You figure that well, like in my case, whenever I solved or partially solved my problem, or then it became, well, maybe some other people have that problem as well. And so maybe they'd be interested and then just kind of going on from there to making the product, as I said before, more affordable or more durable or find a new ways.
The only thing that I have manufactured for the bird feeder itself is the tubes that I use for the major body, the bird feeder. And I use a PVC material that's clear and you're not going to find that kind of stuff in the hardware store. So I had to go to an extruder, a gentleman that was making those kinds of things and made it to the size that I needed. And so whenever I have a new order of tubing, why I am making a commitment for 800 more bird feeders.
So that point in time is always critical because I have to ask myself, do you want to make 800 more of these suckers or not? And so I ordered a batch this fall, so I guess I'll be in the business for awhile. Well, that's good. I'm like feeling like I need to go order mine soon though, just in case I'm seriously, you're going to be seeing an order coming from me, but I know it's going to be delayed because you're in Florida golfing. That's right. It won't be till February,
sometime. So just back off a little bit, relax and go from there In terms of balancing your retirement life with making the bird feeders, do you set out like certain days that you're going to make them, or do you have any set schedule or you just kind of fly free and just do what you need to do in the time? Well, weekends are used, see, during the summertime golf plays a big part of my life, I guess, because I live real close to a golf course and that's one of my retirement enjoyments.
So I do a lot of that. And most of the actual sales occur as far as shows in the fall because of Christmas and holidays and that type of thing. And then again, around mother's day father's day, you got to think in terms of when people are looking for something that maybe they don't find, they don't know what to buy, you know, for that grandmother or whoever.
And so that's the time that this just kind of pops for, I guess you might say, because everybody has a squirrel story or grandma or grandpa or mom or dad, or whoever has had that problem. My neighbor, my friend, everybody ever, well, not everybody. Well, if you're a bird feeder person. Yeah. Yeah. So they've had a challenge. So that's what I try to zero in on, far as that time is concerned. Of course my significant other, my gal, Dorothy, she actually helps me build these things.
And she's my best salesman because she can go to these craft shows and make it sound better than maybe what it is. I don't know, but she does a good job for me. So we spent a lot of time on weekends together, et cetera. So there's always something to fill the day. Yeah. You just kind of choose it as you need to.
And except when you have the bigger orders that you, then you definitely, I probably still have that work ethic of Monday through Friday, you ought to be doing something productive that's in your brain. But so that is probably the major times that I do it. And I do it during the day from the most part, although sometimes you got to buckle down and work harder at it to meet the orders or meet the needs for the next coming show.
Tom, is there a book that you've read either recently or in the past during your career that you think would offer some good advice to our listeners? Well, I've read a lot of motivational books in my career. I guess I did. And areas of trying to improve my capabilities, my skills, as far as sales and marketing, et cetera, I just purchased the book, the undoing, trying to figure out what that was all about. That's the last book that I picked up and went through.
So gift biz listeners, just as you're listening to the podcast today, you can also listen to audio books with ease. I've teamed up with audible for you to be able to get a book for free on me if you haven't done so already, all you need to do is go to gift biz, book.com and make your selection. That's gift biz, book.com. Well, at this point, Tom, I would like to invite you to dare to dream. I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future. So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable Heights that you would wish to obtain. Please accept this gift and open it in our presence. What is inside your box?
I think what, what would be inside my box if I had a longer term goal, is that up to this point, I've figured out through the sales and what I've given to the food bank or what other people have given to the food bank through the squirrel away bird cafe, it's over 380,000 meals that have been brought about because of this bird feeder and given to the hungry people that take advantage of the food bank. And I guess if I was looking at that gift, it would say a million meals.
That would be the thing that would be a goal, I guess. I don't know if I'll make that. If you get tired of, of doing something, I hope I don't get tired of it, but that would probably be in that box. I love that.
And honestly, the first thing I thought of when you just said that is definitely a business person, you're still thinking business because your goal is so specific, 1 million nice round even, and specific, I could have said 1,000,002, I suppose, maybe that would have been more realistic. No, I like the million. Perfect, nice and clean. So gift biz listeners the best way I think for you.
And I believe the only way you could see and, or order one of these, if you were interested is on the website, correct time. Well, unless you're in the Geneva area, the, the local hardware store carries them. They're the main retailer that handles the product. But online seems to be the way, or I try to put on my website and this shows that I'll be at. And most of those are in the Chicago land area. What is the website? It's squirrel proof.biz, nice and easy,
right? And that has the videos on it. It probably got more information on the website about squirrel and squirrel proofing, your bird, feeder, et cetera, and so forth, then you'd ever want to know, but it's everything you need to know about. My business is on that website, along with phone and everything else, if you want to talk or emails, et cetera, You know, also that there'll be a show notes page attached.
So if you are out and not able to capture the information right now, just jump over to your computer, get on the show notes page and you'll have all the information there. Tom, thank you so much. I really appreciate all the information you've given us a little bit of a different view of how you can take a craft and really integrated into your retirement world and enjoy it.
And you know, you talk about fun and being happy and the humor and just doing this because of your love of creating and then also giving back. And it's just, it's a wonderful story. I really, really appreciate your sharing it with us today. And may your candle always burn bright. Thank you. Where are you in your business building journey, whether you're just starting out or already running a business and you want to know your setup for success.
Find out by taking the gift biz quiz, access the quiz from your computer at bit dot L Y slash gift biz quiz or from your phone by texting gift biz quiz to four four two, two, two. Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the next episode. Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company, looking for a new income source for your gift business.
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