Becky McCray continues her series of observations from the heart of the US.

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Would you believe that small town manufacturing is a bright spot in the US economy? It is.

You’re more likely to hear about plant closures, mass layoffs, and jobs shipped off to countries with cheaper labor. But small town economic development expert Jack Schultz of Agracel, Inc., can cite example after example of small town manufacturers expanding, adding jobs, opening new facilities, and searching for more suppliers. What’s driving this expansion? Exports.

As our older massive manufacturers stagnated and have downsized, smaller manufacturers have sprung up in small towns. These modern manufacturers have seized the opportunity of the lower dollar to export a huge range of goods at more attractive prices.

In American Manufacturing – Booming!, Schultz lists the manufacturing expansions his firm is working with. They include companies in food processing, ag equipment, animal feed, furniture, metal fabrication, machinery, medical equipment, printing and building accessories. Small businesses added more jobs in May than the overall economy lost, according to the ADP Small Business Report, which monitors businesses with fewer than 50 workers.

Even as the nationwide US economy fluctuates, expect small town manufacturing in the US to continue to expand. I’ll take that as good news.

I’m really delighted to welcome Becky McCray to the blog as a regular contributor with her Small Business Letter from America. I’m sure, like me, you’ll enjoy her contributions, and unique perspective on small business.

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We small business owners just can’t make up our minds in America. Though we’re constantly hit with negative economic news, first one survey says small business owners are optimistic, then the next says we’re worried.

Here’s what I mean. Yesterday’s Administaff’s survey shows that we think our small businesses are growing even faster than we expected. That’s immediately followed by a survey from the National Association of Self-Employed that says we’re worried about even being able to pay our home mortgages. Those are just two examples out of dozens of recent surveys of the mood of small business people, with plenty of conflicting results.

Some where between our worry and our optimism, business goes on. We keep trying new things, seeing if we can improve our customers’ lives. Some businesses will fail this year, and some new ones will start. As small business owners, we are a bit different. We don’t wait for just the right timing. Our business is how we make our living. We can’t just sit out the rough economic patches.  All we can control is our attitude and our actions.

A very successful business in my home town of Alva, Oklahoma, has a small sign up that says, "I don’t care who throws the recession, this business does not plan to attend." They’ve had it up for years; decades, actually. They have survived since our town’s pioneer days, and continue to thrive in the face of competition from the huge retail chain. The current owner of that business told me that when he bought it nearly 50 years ago, his business plan was simple. He had to succeed to feed his family. So he did. That’s a pretty simple plan. His business continues to innovate. Even though he could have retired years ago, the owner continues to take training and learn new skills for his customers. He can’t control the economy, but he does all he can to succeed.

So even though we aren’t sure what is coming next, small business people are moving forward. That’s what we do.

We had an enjoyable time filming for BizPod TV at the Business Startup show in London a little while ago.

Ally did a great job interviewing two very different, but equally fascinating entrepreneurs: Caprice Bourret and Rachel Elnaugh.

I’ve copied in the YouTube version of the Caprice interview below.

For all her celebrity and model good looks, Caprice is clearly working her proverbial backside off to make her lingerie business a success. What’s more you can see her determination and passion for what she’s doing quite clearly throughout the interview.

I also interviewed Rachel Elnaugh for this week’s podcast and she faces the other side of the celebrity entrepreneur coin. Caprice was famous, then went into business, Rachel became a successful entrepreneur and then achieved celebrity through Dragon’s Den.

Celebrity and business do mix well together. As Caprice admits it’s a real boon for marketing your business. But the media is really just an amplifier, making success seem better and failure seem worse. Just ask Rachel Elnaugh.

As Morrissey once said: "Fame, fame fatal fame, it can play hideous tricks on the brain".

Remind me never to become a celebrity entrepreneur

In the seventh of her monthly blog posts young entrepreneur and inventor Rowena Mead stays patient, has encouraging discussions with multi-nationals and answers some questions.

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Hello again, apologies for my delayed posting, but I’ve been waiting tentatively for quite some time for the results of my meetings with several big multi-nationals. I’ve also been waiting on the elusive ‘patent search report’, which to all inventors out there, is like waiting for exam results.

Every day you check your post, half hoping to see the UK IPO stamp, but feeling quite relieved when another week passes by and there is no news. The patent search report is the nasty little document that the examiner sends you after scrutinising your patent application inside out. This involves he or she digging around in patents from every decade, and even century, to find any previous citations that may put your patent application into jeopardy. So as you can well imagine, it’s a pretty stressful time!

The meetings with the multinationals have gone very well, I’m forbidden by NDA’s to speak any names, but both the brand managers and new product scouts have been thoroughly impressed by the product concepts I have presented, and I still have further meetings scheduled in case any existing talks fall through.

As the weeks have gone by more and more people have said to me ‘Why don’t you try Dragon’s Den?’. To anyone else out there asking the same question, my answer is simple. None of the dragons, to my knowledge, have any leads into oral hygiene companies. And even if they do, the dragons, in comparison to a multi-national company with its own new product agenda, is unlikely to change its direction because of their involvement. The company either likes the product, or it doesn’t. The dragons are about starting new business or helping existing ones, not about helping an inventor gain a license deal. Don’t get me wrong, I have utmost respect for them all, and thoroughly enjoy watching what they do, but I don’t believe the den is right for me.

Another question that keeps being put to me by a few people, including the MD of a company who called after he saw me on TV, is ‘Why aren’t you trying to sell the product direct to the retailers?’. I seem to have to keep explaining this over and over again. If you have a working prototype of something, it would be quite easy to do this. But I don’t. I have a display model. The product needs input from a skilled toothbrush engineer before the final toothbrush is ready – and this input can really only come from those companies which already make toothbrushes, those which have the teams, and money, to safety test, market, brand and sell this product.

The ultimate aim is to have every parent in the UK, and hopefully further afield buying my toothbrush for their infant. This isn’t something that one person with very little money, and no experience in the oral care field, would be able to achieve. So let’s hope my efforts over the past 11 months pay off, but for now, goodbye and good luck to anyone else attempting to tread this path.

In the sixth of her monthly blog posts charting her journey towards taking an invention to market, young entrepreneur Rowena Mead secures funding and goes in search of blue chip contacts.

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I can’t believe I’m writing my sixth blog post – the time has flown so quickly. Luckily I’m still here with things to report on my journey as a first time inventor!

With all my prototyping work completed by Pd-m International, I was ready for the BBC filming, which was a great experience, and will hopefully generate more interest in my products. The documentary ‘Britain’s Brilliant Ideas Boom’ was aired on Friday 2nd November at 7pm on BBC2.

When you start out, lots of people tell you how much funding is available ‘for people like you’. The reality is, unless you fit into certain categories and jump through the right hoops, it can be very hard to get a grant.

My situation meant it was very hard to get funding – I wasn’t a limited company yet, I wasn’t going to employ people, and my product wasn’t likely to be manufactured within Europe. This excluded me from lots of grants, but thanks to support from Business Link which doesn’t offer grants, but knows what’s out there and whether you’re eligible, I was guided to a grant that was right for me. My advisor at Business Link did a great job in helping me secure the maximum amount of funding available (£5k), which has been a godsend in paying for some of my prototyping costs and intellectual property bills!

The final part of my journey, and probably the longest, was to start approaching companies who may be interested in doing a license deal with me. I had, from the very beginning, been looking into how I could access the right people at large companies. This can be a very difficult task, as the bigger the company, the more layers of people there are to filter you out.

Most big multi-nationals have some kind of ideas submission protocol through their website – which I would never use. The small print on them gives no rights to the inventor, so I would recommend steering clear.

Using as many business contacts as you can to aid you is the best way to go about it. To give an example – when I conducted my market research back in May, a man approached me who was very taken with the idea and I ended up chatting to him for some time – he ran a PR company, and had a few useful contacts so I kept in touch with him. 6 months later, he helped me get a meeting with top paediatric dentist who worked closely with a world famous oral hygiene company.

I have had a few very positive meetings with companies, but as yet, nothing concrete. It’s very early days, and as I said, licensing deals take a long time to secure. I have learnt a lot by reading Sir James Dyson’s autobiography – a real eye opener, and a must read for anyone attempting to tread the same path as him.

Who knows what what my next blog post will bring? A deal? A patent approval? Let’s hope so!

Just a quick reminder to all of you who enjoy Rowena Mead’s series of blog posts here on SmallBizPod – she’s being featured on a Money Programme special this evening at 7.00pm on BBC2.

If you miss the episode, you ought to be able to watch the programme again for 7 days on the BBC’s iPlayer.

SmallBizPod will be basking in the reflected celebrity But seriously this is great news for a young woman who has worked tirelessly to bring her innovative toothbrush to market.

Well done Rowena and I hope the additional exposure works in your favour as you negotiate a licencing deal.

In the fifth of her monthly blog posts charting her journey towards taking an invention to market, young entrepreneur Rowena Mead gets a call from the BBC and drives herself mad completing here own prototype.

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And so at last I had found prototype help – my meeting with Richard Hall shed light on why I had so much difficulty in finding assistance; my toothbrush could not be made using rapid prototyping technology, it was too complicated.

The only solution was to hand insert the filaments into the toothbrush stem, which they could produce using rapid prototyping technology. To pay someone to hand insert these filaments (all 25,000 of them) would have cost my entire budget, and so I agreed to the challenge! A great opportunity to save money, and also drive me insane as I soon found out.

The main reason behind needing a prototype was so I could pitch to interested companies. Richard suggested that because of my intentions, I should look at spending my budget wisely to create more of a 360° pitch – imagery, animations, and even a prototype of the sterilising unit I had designed for the product. Great advice, so I gave the go-ahead after discussing the finer details with my business mentor.

The best thing about finding Pd-m, was not just their professionalism, but their location. Only 40 minutes drive from my house, it was very easy for me to have frequent meetings to make sure the project was on schedule. I would recommend to anyone that they need a prototyping company close to home.

Only one week after finding Pd-m, I received an unexpected call from the BBC. They were making a documentary on inventors, and wanted to film me for it. My gut instinct was uncertainty – I didn’t know whether being on TV was wise, even though my patent applications were in place. My attorney suggested the benefits of exposure were greater than any dangers associated with that level of publicity, so I agreed. Filming was to start in five weeks, which meant that I and Pd-m would be working day and night to get my prototypes finished in time.

It took me over 70 hours to insert all the bristles into my product, but I got it finished in time. My sterilising unit looks fantastic, as does my 10 second animation. My next challenge, which is the biggest yet, is to find a company interested enough to take on these two products.

I know inventors generally get rejected from the big companies, it’s a pattern that I can’t see changing soon; James Dyson, Ron Hickman and Trevor Baylis all had tough times in the beginning. I hope I’m tough enough to pull through the rejections and achieve my dream – to see my products being used by kids worldwide.

Next month sees funding approval from Business Link, and meetings with some big names!

In the fourth of her monthly blog posts charting her journey towards taking an invention to market, young entrepreneur Rowena Mead finds some valuable contacts and sees light at the end of the prototype tunnel.

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So, the Knowledge Rich scheme was my first attempt at trying to get prototype help. I heard back from two universities, both of which turned out to be non-starters. I travelled the two hour journey to one of them, to be told that actually, they couldn’t make me a prototype – it was too complex, but they would happily conduct some clinical trials on my product for a mere £230,000. Thanks very much, I said politely, but I don’t have a large yacht I can put on eBay.

The other university messed me around for four weeks, then sent me to a company down in Dorset who couldn’t help either. Great!

At this point in time, I still needed more business advice – I didn’t know what options I had. Could I do this alone, or should I go down the licensing route? I was advised to contact my local Business Link for some support and got some sound advice from them. But the lady who spoke to me said that I needed to be referred to the ‘High Growth Business Team’ for a meeting and advice.

About two weeks later, I had that meeting and they suggested licensing was definitely the best option for me. This meant, I needed to get prototypes and other display material to formulate a pitch to potentially interested parties – Colgate-Palmolive, Proctor & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Wisdom, Boots etc. But who should I approach first? So many options, my head was spinning. I needed help. My Business Link advisor directed me to a great mentor called Julian Horrocks, and thank goodness I contacted him. He has been so supportive ever since the day I first called him!

But I still needed a prototype. I proceeded to contact practically every prototyping company in England, and some in China, all of which were saying ‘I don’t know how the hell you’re going to make that!’ Because I didn’t understand how rapid prototyping worked, I was baffled as to what the problem was. I really didn’t know whether I was asking the impossible, or whether these companies couldn’t be bothered to take on a complex project. I was quickly running out of options at this point, until I went to the Leeds Inventors group meeting.

My business contact Steve Ascough had invited me and during the event the organiser happened to overhear my plight, and mentioned Richard Hall of Pd-m international. I’d heard of his name before – even had his business card on my desk, but had visited the wrong website and had initially ruled him out. But as soon as I emailed him about my prototyping plight, he called me straight back saying his company could help. Finally, there was some light at the end of this prototyping tunnel.

Exactly 63 days after starting my prototyping search, I had a meeting with Richard (which also happened to be my 24th birthday!) and established that his company could help me with everything – the best birthday gift I’ve had in a long time!

Join me next month for prototyping madness, and a BBC documentary!

In the third of her monthly blog posts charting her journey towards taking an invention to market, young entrepreneur Rowena Mead does her market research and looks forward to product prototypes.

Previous entries in the series:

1. Diary Of A Young Entrepreneur – innovation or bust?
2. Diary Of A Young Entrepreneur – protection and prototypes

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After filing for intellectual property protection, market research was my next vital step. Who would buy my product? How many people would buy it? How much would it cost? Designing good questionnaires isn’t easy and it’s always best to trial them which is what I did with mine.

I also needed to find someone to make the product prototypes. My first port of call was the KnowledgeRICH scheme aimed at putting universities with an appropriate skills base in contact with inventors requiring help.

The scheme is completely free – no catches. KnowledgeRICH benefits from any work you end up commissioning. An email is sent out to universities in the area with a brief. Those which might be able to help respond, and KnowledgeRICH puts you in touch with them.

While trying to secure somewhere to do my market research, I’d been advised that generating some publicity would be good now that I’d all my IP applications in place. After keeping my lips sealed for so long, I was desperate to tell people more about my idea. So, after checking first with my patent attorney, I wrote a press release and sent it to a few newspapers.

Doing your own DIY PR is a very cheap way of getting some media coverage, and for me, it was the local York Press which came up trumps. I got a full page in the business section. If I’d have wanted to buy this space, it would have cost me thousands.

But finding somewhere to do my market research was trickier. I thought it would be very easy to approach some local baby groups as I had a child myself and felt sure that I’d be allowed to ask other parents some questions. Surprisingly I had very little success. I searched the business directories and left numerous messages which went unreturned. I even contacted mumsnet, the online forum for parents all over the U.K, but no success there. I think they thought I was undercover for Colgate-Palmolive!

It wasn’t until I was flicking through a local children’s activities newsletter for inspiration that I found the perfect host, a huge indoor soft play centre called Creepy Crawlies. I’d been there myself and knew that there were parents with children of all ages. It would be great. So I called them up, and they said yes immediately. They even asked if I wanted to set up a stand. Fantastic!

I arranged to go for three days, with the aim of getting 100 questionnaires completed. In fact I got 105 questionnaires done and data on 127 children, which was a great result. My stand generated a lot of interest too with parents asking me if they could buy the product there and then.

Analysing all the data was a challenge, but GCSE maths got me through it!

By this point, KnowledgeRICH had been back in touch with the results of my application for prototype help. Definitely another chapter altogether …

The closing date for nominations in the Prowess Awards is 12 January 2007.  The awards recognise successful women in business and those who support female enterprise.

I’ve been familiar with Prowess for 4 or 5 years now.  It’s a very positive organisation doing great work to give more women the confidence and inspiration they need to start and run their own businesses.  And you’ll remember I interviewed Erika Watson, Prowess’s chief executive back in SmallBizPod #12.

Sadly, however, there’s still a long way to go to bring female entrepreneurship to levels anywhere near those found in the US.  According to the 2005 GEM report for the UK only around 3.8% of women are involved in starting a business, compared to 8.1% of men, down from 9.8% the previous year.

Strange then that the government should decide not to follow recommendations to set up a Women’s Enterprise Task Force. 

Technorati tags: female entrepreneur, Prowess, GEM, start-ups