Sweet, Sweet Music

In July 2004, Patrick Misterovich was a stay-at-home dad when he read an article featuring an entrepreneur who had turned Altoid tins into iPod speakers. The idea inspired the 40-year-old ex-IT administrator to make a list of other possible candies and electronics that could be combined: laser pointers, Life Savers, USB drives. But nothing seemed to fit until he noticed “MP3 players” and “Pez dispensers” sitting idly on his list like two lost souls waiting for someone to play Cupid.

Five minutes later, Misterovich was e-mailing Pez about licensing its dispensers to create a Pez dispenser-shaped MP3 player and was only steps away from turning his self-proclaimed “crazy idea” into reality.

“I knew it was feasible after five minutes of research,” says Misterovich, “but I had no clue if there was a market or how much it would cost.”

That weekend, Misterovich spent $50 on Google ads and created a short survey to test the market. To his surprise, everyone from toy collectors to anti-establishment teens was interested in the product.

But after waiting six months to finalize the license with Pez and stopping production at 1,500 after learning he would need approval from product compliance agency UL to continue with a second run, Misterovich started feeling as if someone had pulled the emergency brake on his sprouting home business.

“When you come up with an idea, and two hours later you have the company saying, ‘We’re willing to license you,’ you think everything is going to happen quickly,” says Misterovich. “But it takes time to make something.”

The response has been positive, and current sales are at $120,000. In 2006, Misterovich sold out of his origi-nal production run and received approval from Pez to go forward with the second edition of Pez MP3 players, which have passed UL testing and will go into production early this year. In the future, Misterovich also hopes to expand outside his online sales forum, www.pezmp3.com.

Says Misterovich, “It just makes me feel good that I came up with a product people think is cool.”

Darren Crouch: Urn Maker

From our sister site, Final Embrace (a funeral home management and marketing blog): 

The biodegradable cremation urns from Passages happened by accident.

Darren Crouch and his business partner, Tim Rivera (a licensed director and funeral home owner) started the company after noticing that most of the cremation families they served were bypassing the traditional urns and taking the least expensive option (a plastic or cardboard box).

After diligent research, it became obvious that families were not being presented with realistic options.  The traditional urn offerings, even when priced extremely low, were rejected by the new breed of cremation buyer.

Their focus quickly changed to finding an appropriate non-traditional urn design that would fill the gap.

Because they couldn’t use traditional materials such as polished wood, stone or marble, they searched for another option.  This search led them to biodegradable papers.

The papers (made from mulberry tree bark sometimes infused with flowers) are both biodegradable and attractive.  An added benefit to the makers:  they don’t look like traditional urns.

“There’s a close connection between cremation consumers and the environment,” says Crouch, president of Passages.  And since burial is often touted for its preservative nature, many who want a more natural or “ashes-to-ashes” disposition turn to cremation.

(Pictured above:  Journey Earthurn from Passages)

During the first several years of existence, the men fielded numerous requests about using their urns for water scattering.  While their Journey Earthurn (a staple of their line and a big seller) was suitable for water disposition and unique in its own right, they searched for something that would be “clearly themed” with an obvious use.  Further research revealed that 40% of cremation families intend to scatter the remains, while 70% of those will do so over water.

Taking into account the challenges and shortcomings of other urns designed for water burial, the men created the Shell Deep Water Bio Urn.

A step above the competition, the Shell urn is easy to load (no seams to match up or sides to snap together) and comes with a convenient carrying case and a water-soluble plastic bag for the remains.  Each urn is specially-molded from recycled paper and handpainted in a choice of three colors.  A best seller, their Shell line now includes a permanent keepsake shell urn.  Interestingly, Passages donates a portion of each sale to The Ocean Conservancy in memory of the deceased.

Selling Homes by Setting the Stage

Lori Matzke is the founder and president of Center Stage Home, a company that assists real estate agents and homeowners prepare their house for market. After introducing her services in 1999, it wasn’t long before she gained enough exposure and recognition for her work to add affiliates in major cities nationwide. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she now conducts workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Canada, recently published her first book, “HOME STAGING: Creating Buyer-Friendly Rooms to Sell Your House”, and still offers staging and consultation services in the Twin Cities Metro. Lori is a frequent contributor to the Minneapolis Star Tribune column, “Staging It,” and has been featured in numerous print and on-line publications including Realtor Magazine, CBS MarketWatch, and the Toronto Star.Her proficiency in the industry and down-to-earth appeal has allowed Lori the opportunity to appear as a guest speaker at real estate conferences, home and garden expos and in television and radio broadcasts across the country, sharing her knowledge and experience in the art of staging a home to SELL!

A Real Jewel

Kathryn Kinev has been into jewelry ever since she was a child.

By 1977 she was designing and making jewelry for friends. After working for other jewelers for several years, she started her own business, Jewel Creations, Inc., from the closet in her apartment in 1983 while attending Georgia State University in Atlanta. Only two years later she moved into a shop in the prestigious Buckhead area of Atlanta where she stayed for over 15 years.

She really does do it all: designs, appraisals, and repairs, alloys her own metals, draws her own gold wire, and weaves her own gold mesh.

She is also one of the very rare jewelers who uses granulation, an ancient and time-consuming technique of applying tiny spheres of gold to a surface.

Though it is not her main activity, she also has exceptional skill at repairing jewelry. It is not unusual for another jeweler to come to her with a particularly tough repair job.

Heather Turner: Web Developer

from her website:

Heather Turner is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and has spent over 20 years in the restaurant business. She trained under one of the PBS Series “Great Chefs of America”, Chef Eve Labbe at 4 Star acclaimed restaurant, Le Cheval D’or and has been the Executive Chef at Bellini’s Restaurant, The Cliff House at Stowe Mt. Resort and Harvest Market in Northern Vermont and at The Olde Inn on Cape Cod.

In 2003, Heather decided to make a major career change and start her own business, she had a personal background in photography and the fine arts which she wanted to put to good use.

After developing several websites for friends, it was suggested to her that she try it as a business undertaking. Thus Forfeng Designs was established in November of 2003 as a creative and alternative outlet to the restaurant industry.

She has provided design services for Bed & Breakfasts, Restaurants, Spas, Sailing Charter Companies and a wide variety of other industries. she has taken existing sites and completely redesigned them and has brought brand new sites into existence.

Barbara Kavovit, Founder of Barbara K

Originally told to Darren Dahl and Inc.com.

“One day I heard my mom talking to some of her friends about how hard it was to get things done around the house without a man around, like hanging picture, fixing a leaky faucet, and tightening a doorknob. That’s when a lightbulb went on for me.

“I realized that women are tired of having to rely on men to help with home improvements. I thought women might like to deal with another woman instead. So I went to a local printer to have some business cards and fliers made up. Then I went to the mall and started talking to women about how I had just started a home-improvement business and asked whether there was anything I could help them with.

“After I lined up a job, like putting up Sheetrock, I would go to the phonebook, find the contractors that could do the work, and check out their references. I would then drive the contractor to the job and talk with the customer as he did the work. I made my money by charging the homeowner more than the contractor was charging me. My first year, I made $25,000.

“After a while, I actually decided that I wanted to learn about things like plumbing and carpentry myself. I also expanded the business into the corporate world after I landed a few contracts for small repair work at companies like IBM, Coca-Cola, and Reader’s Digest. Then, in 1995, when I was 23, I landed a condo-development project in Weehawken, N.J. All of a sudden, I had a name in the industry and was earning more than $2.5 million a year.

“Between 1995 and 2001, I moved the business to Manhattan and grew revenue to about $50 million a year, got married, and had a baby. Then 9/11 happened and everything just stopped. All of a sudden, I had to lay people off. It was a real time of uncertainty.

“Things seemed to hit rock bottom not long afterward when my husband and I decided to get a divorce. I remember going to fix something in my apartment when I realized that my ex had taken my toolbox. I was upset. Then, after watching an episode of ‘Sex and the City’ where Samantha has trouble hanging her curtains, I came up with the idea to create the perfect tool kit for women.

“I wanted my tool kit to look like the iMac — slim and stylish — and it would have all the tools and parts needed to fix the 10 most common home-repair problems. I spent $8,000 on a prototype and partnered with a manufacturer in Taiwan to make the tools. The big break came when we landed Bloomingdale’s as our first customer. I even got them to do a window display for it. Everything kind of took off after that.”

Barbara K currently has 10 employees and sales of $12 million.

Visit her website at www.barbarak.com.