Stephen Lane reached into his black bag and started pulling out examples of success.
First, Lane pulled out a series of small boxes, emblazoned with the titles; “Make Your Own Chocolate,” “Make Your Own Gummies,” and “Make Your Own Gum.” The products are all the brainchild of a local school teacher whose niche is to use all natural products from the Rainforest. The kits have been a hit in upscale toy stores and enabled the entrepreneur behind them to do between $500,000 to $600,000 in business, all from her kitchen table.
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Lane, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate is principal and co-founder of the Providence-based ITEM New Product Development, Ltd. Lane recently spoke to a group of prospective entrepreneurs as part of a series of seminars presented by the Center for Design & Business, a joint venture between Bryant College and the Rhode Island School of Design.
In short, Lane’s message was a simple one: Anything can happen.
“There are examples of this kind of thing happening all the time,” Lane said.
Lane was talking about success stories, some big, some small –some high tech, others, more low tech. But all of them share a common theme, that being a decision on the part of the entrepreneur to incorporate technology and design to make his or her product better — to allow it to rise to another level.
Lane’s next example from his black bag came from one of Rhode Island’s most noted success stories — Uvex Safety, a division of the Smithfield-based Bacou USA. Uvex manufacturers safety eye ware and other equipment. Uvex Safety, Lane said, is a perfect example of a company willing to make the most out of technological advances. Not only does the company make protective eye ware designed for windy, dusty and dirty work environments — but it makes things that look cool, too.
“We are a profoundly vain society, Lane said. “Uvex wanted to put good design on people’s faces. They wanted to create the next standard.”
Lane worked with Uvex Safety on several designs.”We decided we were going to design the coolest lab goggles out there,” he said. “They invested. They knew they could capture market share. They did not compromise anything.”
Philip Barr, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Bacou USA, points out that a commitment to capitalizing on design and technology is critical to the company’s success.
“We’ve attained market leadership for safety eye ware,” Barr said. “That’s based on many factors, one of which is innovative new designs. It’s an important element of our new product strategy.”
So whether it be a new toy for children or a new design for world renowned safety goggles, similar elements tend to fuel success. Exciting designs, capitalizing on what technology has to offer.
Cheryl A. Faria, director of the Center for Design & Business, conducts seminars for budding entrepreneurs. On a recent Friday morning, about a dozen of them attended such a seminar, “Product Entrepreneurship Basics,” at 20 Washington Place in Providence.
Faria’s presentation touched on a variety of issues — including an all important question that all entrepreneurs must ask themselves; Does this new product design have the potential to grow into a business? There was also the inevitable question of money, as in; Do you have any — or access to money? As Faria pointed out, getting off the ground is only the beginning.
“The steady income is not always there in the early years of a business,” Faria said. “You have to be able to deal with that.”
According to a recent University of Chicago study that defined an “Entrepreneurial Profile,” Faria said, entrepreneurs are among other things, “risk takers.” They are also, according to the study, often from a family of small business owners. They are determined to do things their own way, and many, in fact, have recently been terminated.
“Most entrepreneurs were the squeaky wheel — they just didn’t fit in,” said Faria. The realities, Faria said, are that entrepreneurs are not always their own bosses, instead they must answer to suppliers, investors, bankers, etc. They work long hours and have limited spare time. And vacations soon become an afterthought.
But if that isn’t discouraging — and for many who attended the seminar at RISD, it did not appear to be — then the chance to create one of those success stories being pulled out of Lane’s black bag, is simply overpowering.
According to Lane, there is good reason for entrepreneurs to be optimistic. There is a market out there — for just about everything. “We live in a society that loves its things,” Lane said. “And people will pay for a well designed product.”
And it is the products that are just a little different, just a little better that often hit it big, Lane said. And when better to create such products than at a time when “the pace of technology is so fascinating.”
“If you can tap into that desire and seduce them by raising the bar, you’re in business,” he said. And, Lane said, don’t be discouraged by competition. “If there are competitors, that’s good,” Lane said. “That means there is a legitimate market for the product.”
