Local entrepreneurs hope to add jobs, income streams

Local entrepreneurs hope to add jobs, income streams
By Blythe Terrell (Contact)

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2009/may/03/local_entrepreneurs_hope_add_jobs_income_streams/

Steamboat Springs — Several at-home workers are looking at ways to bring jobs or wealth into
the Yampa Valley.

They use different methods. One is a manufacturer of kayaking accessories who’s considering expanding. Two others are in network marketing, a sales industry through which people sell products and build a network of others to do the same.

Rick Franken has been designing kayaking gear since he was 18 — half his life. He started the original Bomber Gear company in 1995, and it expanded before collapsing in 2003. Franken was left with merchandise and the trade name.

He started up again in 2007, selling to customers online, limiting store sales to shops that completely agree to his terms. Franken designs the gear, selling items such as spray skirts, wetsuits and gaskets.

He has a small warehouse and works from his townhome.

“I restructured the business with absolutely no overhead except my cost of living,” Franken said.

He and his wife are considering creating some production jobs in the Steamboat Springs area.
“I’m working toward trying to get a shop and start some light manufacturing here on a product I already make overseas,” Franken said.

He’s thinking about starting a small production plant that employs four to six people.
“My wife is looking at getting some grants in order to create some jobs here because we know there’s some opportunity there,” he said.

Franken said he appreciated the smaller structure of Bomber Gear. It allows him to design products and sell them for lower prices. It also allows him to get on the river.
“I live and breathe boating,” Franken said. “I started kayaking at 15, and it’s been my main focus in life besides climbing.”

Network marketing

That flexibility to enjoy life also attracts Rebecca Hanson and Judy Strnad, who work part time in network marketing.

Hanson works with Send Out Cards, a Web site that allows people to personalize greeting cards online, which the company creates and mails. Users can add photos to the cards and add gifts or gift cards. A basic card costs about $1, including postage.

“When someone gets a greeting card in the mail, it means something,” Hanson said.
Businesses use the cards to thank customers and build relationships, she said. Personal greeting cards also are available.

Hanson has worked with Send Out Cards for a couple of years, after a friend referred her. That’s how the company works. People can use the site just to send cards, or they can build it into a business. There is a startup fee, which Hanson said people could make back through commissions and referrals.

“Why it works is, it’s very duplicatable,” Hanson said. “You show it to somebody and then somebody can show it to someone else, and it makes it very, very easy.”
Send Out Cards has grown since its inception in about 2004. That year, the company made $875,000 and sold 145,000 cards. In 2008, it made $41 million on 13 million cards, according to a company video. The Better Business Bureau gives the company an “A-” rating and shows no complaints against it.

Hanson, who lives in Oak Creek, also works part time as volunteer coordinator at Horizons. She said she’s sent about 2,300 cards through the site and enjoys that the company allows her to provide a service.

“I help other people become more successful in their current existing business,” Hanson said. “Or, if they want to grow Send Out Cards, I am helping them. It’s all about giving; it’s a very, very supportive company.”

Strnad also works in network marketing. She left a job in the construction industry in October, hoping to find more time to spend with her family.

“You get married to be together; you have children to be together,” she said. “And we weren’t able to be together.”

Strnad considered starting her own business or franchise, but saw those as expensive or high-risk ventures. She searched online for location-neutral and nontraditional companies because the corporate world wasn’t working for her.

“I kept trying to climb Mount McKinley in a Volkswagen, and it wasn’t going to work,” Strnad said. “I needed a different vehicle.”

She has an online shopping site called Simple Solutions. She makes money mostly by commission — when people buy products through her site. It’s a private franchise through Amway Global, Strnad said.

Some people are wary of Amway, she said. But Strnad said she doesn’t pressure anyone into buying. Simple Solutions’ site includes four sectors of Amway products, but it also offers retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Dell, Bass Pro and Ace.

“You buy what you want,” Strnad said. “You buy what you were going to buy anyway.”
She’d like to get 10 or so families in the Steamboat area who are interested in making money on the side. It’s not meant to be a full-time job, Strnad said. She does consulting, marketing and accounting work.

“It’s not a pyramid (scheme). Those are illegal,” she said. “You make money by expanding.”

The Better Business Bureau gives Amway Global an “A+” rating.

People who want to start a franchise must pay a fee, but shopping is free, Strnad said. She’s her own best customer. But it’s a job, Strnad said. You have to work.

“It’s not pie in the sky, get rich quick,” she said.

It does allow her to be at home with her family, and that’s what Strnad wants to share.

“I hope people pick up that our life is going to be what you want it to be, and you can design it whatever way you want,” she said.

Try the Steamboat

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