By Jack Lander

Eco Drain Dragon with sink 100_4626Rosalee Dodson and Cindy White invented the Eco Drain Dragon, used in conjunction with a wet-or-dry shop vacuum to clear clogged sinks and shower drains.

They were delighted when it finally aired on QVC this past January.

But the story of their long – and expensive – journey begins in 2007, when they planned to take their invention to market. Little did they imagine the discouragements along the way.

Their business plan included attending five trade shows. The first was the Home and Garden Show in Las Vegas, where they exhibited in a special section dedicated to inventors.

“We had a lot of activity, but all of it was nonproductive – mostly people trying to sell us services, like marketing for a $4,000 upfront fee,” says Rosalee. “We also paid $400 to each of two hardware chain executives to review our product. No sales. We did learn that our factory price was way too high, and that started us on a crusade to lower our costs.”

Their second show was a janitorial and maintenance event in Chicago. They had high hopes because of the excellent testimonials they had received from professional users of the Drain Dragon. The night before Rosalee and Cindy were to board their plane, Rosalee phoned the show to make sure everything was in order for their exhibit. They were informed that the show had been cancelled.

“That was about $3,000 down the drain – the only thing that our product couldn’t retrieve,” Rosalee says.

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But the show promised to give them a free booth at the next show. That show, too, was canceled. And, of course, their plane fares were lost.

Their third show was Inpex in Pittsburgh. Again, all kinds of activity, but nothing that led to a distribution deal. Several Internet businesses made overtures to sell the Drain Dragon on their Web sites. Lots of conversation, and exchange of business cards, but no business. And, again, many service companies hawked their services. The highlight of the five days was getting on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

A large magazine at the show had offered a free professional product review.  After standing in line for an hour, a young woman listened for a 15-second pitch on the Drain Dragon, said that she had never had a clogged drain, and dismissed the women inventors with a curt, “Next.”

About ready to give up, Rosalee and Cindy decided to try the Yankee Invention Exposition in Waterbury, Conn. They received one-on-one counsel as part of their booth fee, and felt that they finally had a definite plan for at least getting started on national distribution.

They were impressed that the Yankee counselors, experts in various facets of the invention process, stayed on past the appointed time to impart their knowledge and experience. It’s there they met Jim Tilberry, a catalog marketing agent, who, to date, has placed the Drain Dragon in five catalogs. They met Mike Marks, who taught them the finer points of licensing. So far, they’ve turned down two licensing deals that didn’t meet their goals. They also met Karla Hunter, an entrepreneurial mentor, who continues to advise the two women.

With Karla’s help, they contacted QVC, but were turned down. Yankee networking led to a second and more direct contact with QVC, and they were offered a 10-minute telephone interview, which they wisely rejected, saying they’d wait for a personal interview.

The day of the face-to-face interview they were to be granted a 10-minute audience with the chief buyer. The buyer was impressed by their preparation, which included having arranged for product-liability insurance, and having prepared a sell-sheet, coached by Karla.

The buyer said the sell-sheet was one of the best she had ever seen, and called in a plumbing products specialist buyer. He took less than a minute to decide that Drain Dragon belonged on QVC.

Rosalee and Cindy were pleased with sales from QVC’s first airing on Jan. 31. Per agreement with QVC, they can’t disclose the numbers.

“It’s been a long, rocky road,” Rosalee says. “We’ve spent about $80,000 to date, most of it wasted until we exhibited at the Yankee Expo. The most important thing we learned is that we weren’t prepared for the expensive trade shows. We should have worked our product costs down to the bone, because when you tell a retail buyer your wholesales price, they won’t tell you that you’re crazy; they just walk away.

“We’ve since learned that our cost has to be about a fifth of a realistic consumer price,” she adds. “And we didn’t have a sell-sheet. The sell-sheet is your product’s resume and calling card, and it’s got to be done right.”

See videos of the Eco Drain Dragon in action at www.ecodraindragon.com.

Visit www.KarlaAndJack.com

Editor’s note: This article appears in the April 2010 print edition.