Founded in 1987 this organisation is the developer and distributor of a personal electronic device that enables people of all ages to make desired changes in their own behavior and habits. Invented by a clinical psychologist, the device has applications in the fields of education, healthcare, self-improvement, training, and sports. Sold directly and through resellers to individuals and in volume to institutions like schools and clinics, the product has thousands of enthusiastic users in over fifty countries.
Co-founded and led by the inventor, by design, the company has operated on a microscopic scale and has always placed greater emphasis on helping people make desired changes in their behavior and habits than on maximizing profit. Relying almost entirely on word-of-mouth rather than paid advertising to drive sales, the company has created a highly credible and useful product with an enthusiastic following.
Beginning in 2017, sales and earnings were adversely affected by the failure of the company’s overseas manufacturer to deliver product of acceptable quality in sufficient quantity to satisfy demand. The company responded by undertaking an (overly?) ambitious effort to redesign/reengineer and upgrade the device and establish more dependable manufacturing arrangements. Unfortunately, delays in developing the redesigned product forced the company to endure a rather lengthy period with literally no product to sell. And although sales quickly rebounded once the redesigned product became available, after just a few months of smooth sailing, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With many schools (the company’s greatest source of sales) closed, or at least preoccupied, sales again declined sharply.
With product inventory nearly exhausted, anticipated supply chain issues threatening to delay and complicate further manufacturing, and advancing age and health concerns of the president/CEO, the company eventually decided to stop producing and look for opportunities to pass the torch to a business entity with the vision and resources to take the device to the next level.
SCALE: As-operated, the business is compact and totally portable. Consumers placed retail orders via website, phone, fax, and mail. All business functions including warehousing of product inventory, shipping, order processing, customer service were carried out in a small rented office. The business was run entirely by the company’s president/CEO with parttime help from his wife, an experienced customer service specialist. There were no other employees.
MARKETS: Although there are potentially far more lucrative opportunities in larger markets, the business focused mostly on the education market because sales in that market required little in the way of marketing effort or expense. Used by children, teachers and parents, the product benefits from extensive teacher buzz at conferences and informal gatherings as well as from a sizeable body of independent research documenting the device’s effectiveness. Many school districts have purchased the device in volume for over two decades.
The device stands to help users make useful behavioral changes in a nearly endless number of areas, most of which have not been the subject of marketing effort.
Based on feedback from actual users, here’s a partial listing of other markets for the product that we believe could prove to be quite lucrative.
• General self-improvement
• Rehabilitation
• Assistive Technology
• Business
• Training
• Yoga
• Sports (we know it’s effective and the potential is incredible – just think about golf, for example)
• Mindfulness
• Speech, stuttering treatment (our oldest reseller is an NYU Medical School speech clinician who sells the device to stutterers worldwide); speakers, announcers, performers
• Work ergonomics (taking standing, walking or stretching breaks every so often)
• Drink H20 (and prompting other positive health habits)
• Eliminating teeth-grinding, jaw-clenching and other troublesome dental habits
• Increasing executive productivity
• Mental health applications
• Behavioral Analysts and other professionals who engage in observing and measuring behavior
• Spiritual
ASSETS
• The device has a registered trademark. The name has essentially reached Scotch tape or Kleenex status in the Education market, where it’s commonly used to identify a tool that enables kids to change their own behavior.
• An extensive customer list that includes established retail/institutional customers as well as resellers. (High producing resellers include a catalog company in the Autism market, that purchased over $50,000 worth of wholesale in a year.
• Tooling, engineering, and software for producing the latest version of the device by an established U.S. firm with facilities and engineering resources in both the U.S. and overseas. The firm is able to supply the product tested and fully packaged.
• A content-rich old-school website that features many custom resources based on psychological expertise and extensive experience using the device to help people of all ages change their own behavior and habits. Resources include tutorials, helper’s guides, brief videos explaining the and apps, technique tips, troubleshooting guides, etc. Although many of these clearly could/should be presented in a more appealing and effective form, it’s important to note that these resources are based on specialized psychological expertise and decades of experience with the product and its users.
• Domain names registered and maintained
• An autoresponder system: Automated email system for maintaining contact with and sending custom instructional material to device users who opt in. Separate lists for teachers and other customers who use the device with children vs. other users.
• An order processing and customer communications system with custom forms and letters.
• Tech support and product repair routines and resources.
• Virtual app for iPhone.
CONCLUSION: This business has spent over three decades perfecting the device, cultivating the loyalty of its users worldwide, and creating a solid foundation of credibility. It’s achieved a degree credibility that is rare for a new product, yet because it’s never been aggressively marketed, in a sense, the device has some of the potential of a new product. This combination of established and new represents a unique opportunity for a business with the vision and resources needed to take the product to the next level.
The president/CEO remains as passionate as ever about the device and its potential. Although he’s ready to retire from the fulltime responsibility of running a business, he’s eager to see to it that the concept is optimally positioned to benefit as many more individuals and organizations as possible, and he would welcome an opportunity to play a supportive role in the device's future.
We believe that the business is uniquely positioned for substantial growth in sales given the addition of marketing expertise and effort.
