Mom of five invents Wheelsox Covers from her kitchen table
Tell us a little about yourself?
I am the Inventor of the Kidems Wheelsox Cover. This August I will be married 28 years & have 5 children. I suffered a traumatic brain injury 17 years ago which has taken a great deal of time to recover. Although I have long term effects I have never lost sight of my dream to my product to succeed. I have been able to use strength & experience to get my oldest son’s life back on track after a traumatic brain injury from a car accident sustained while stopped in traffic. Held my youngest daughter through 10 operations plus other health problems due to a congenital birth defect. I knew something was off in my oldest daughter when everyone said she will grow out of it. She was diagnosed with Dyslexia. Supported another daughter through a rare & crippling illness which took 3 years to diagnose, because doctors said it was in her head or she was on drugs, anorexic or faking it. She has P.O.T.S. (Postural Orthostatic Tachycard ia Syndrome) in which there in not a cure or actual medications to control it. I have a son with Autism who is now about 90% Autism free due to me not giving up on him. A therapist told me, he is as good as he will get (Age 6) without much hope now 12 & brilliant.
As you can see I take life head on playing out the cards God dealt me. My belief is that everything happens for a reason & that although you may not think so at the time, it does make you stronger. Due to the above issues with my children, getting my product to market has not been a major priority until the past 2 years as I am struggling to find my way in getting it out there.
Where did the inspiration for Wheelsox Covers come from?
This idea for Wheelsox Covers originated when my oldest daughter and I were trying to come up with an idea for her school Invention Convention. As we sat at the kitchen table my youngest child (who has Autism) was picking up the front end of his ride on toy and slamming it down. He then proceeded to scrape the wheels back and forth from my hardwood to ceramic tile kitchen floor. My then 20 month old son was driving me crazy with the noise along with the fact that he was destroying our newly refinished floors. It was also a problem after being outside with the Ride-on toy. I did not want to bring it back into the house but his mind was set on not giving it up.
At the time we on top of having 5 children had 3 large dogs, 2 cats & 4 ferrets, plus all of the neighbor kids loved to hang out at our house. You can imagine how crazy it was & what was tracked through the house. The fine grains of dirt, sand or animal fur would also stick to the wheels causing a grinding sound on the floors, plus he was scratching the new coating right off of them.
I decided to figure out a way to cover the wheels so he could enjoy his toy, inside and outside, and I could keep my sanity while protecting our floors.
My husband also appreciated it since after listening to all kinds of noise from machines at work all day those wheels were the last thing he wanted to hear at night.
Hence the Invention of WheelSox.
What kind of approximate start-up costs were involved in getting Wheelsox Covers from concept to launch mode?
At this point we are in the hole for close to $35,000. A portion of that is for developing & manufacturing the product here in the US. A big mistake I made was falling for an infomercial. Although the commercial is nice, the times & channels it was shown were not my target audience. My customers are not watching cattle being traded or rodeo shows, HeHaw or Perry Mason in black & white. To make matter’s worse we used our house for a note in which the Lien is now due.
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Who is Wheelsox Covers for and how does it benefit them?
My product is for anyone who has or takes care of 12 to 36 month old children who have Ride-on, Push Ride-on & Motorized Ride-on toys. I have had Grandparents purchase them for their homes, because Gramma’s house has been redone & her floors are nice. I have also had special orders for particular ride-on toys which I have been able to accommodate like the 3 wheelers. One Grandmother who had my covers for her grandchildren’s toys contacted me needing them for her walker since he fell & broke her ankle. I also make them for vacuum cleaners. If you take a look at your wheels even if they are rubber sand sticks to them causing fine grain line scratches on your floors.
Please provide one business tip that you feel can really help a mom entrepreneur with her business.
Never give up or lose sight of your dream. So many times I have had one foot in the door for something to go wrong causing the deal to fall apart. It just wasn’t meant for that time. Just keep at it & when the timing is right it will happen. It took the guy who invented the Super Soaker Water Gun 10 years to get his product on the market, so hang in there.
1 thing you do for yourself to unwind from it all?
My kids. I unplug & watch their sports practices. Most parents just drop & run, but I stay so they know I am there for them also. I also take the dog for a walk every night.
Share a website you like to browse just for fun.
I do not go on any particular web site. I view twitter, Instagram & snapchat, other than that I really only go to look up thing or work. Zillow.com for houses in the area for sale for fun.
Share a favorite book.
I read for research mostly last book I read was by Sylvia Brown
Connect with Marcia
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/kidemswheelsox
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