HOW I BECAME A BIG WHEEL; LET GO BY IBM AND DEEPLY IN DEBT, A FAMILY MAN
TURNED HIS CHILDHOOD PASSION FOR UNICYCLES INTO A THRIVING ONLINE
START-UP. THEN HE ADDED A BANJO BUSINESS.
Enterprise;My Turn
By John Drummond; Drummond lives in Marietta, Ga.
745 Words
19 February 2007
Newsweek
U.S. Edition
English
Copyright (C) 2007 Newsweek Inc. All Rights Reserved.
It was supposed to be a hobby--just a part-time thing to generate a
little extra money. We didn't think we could make a living at it. I
thought I would work at IBM for 30 years and retire, just as my father
had. At that point I had only seven to go. The dot-com bust began in
early 1999, about the same time we launched Unicycle.com. The odds
seemed stacked against us. Online companies were folding. We had no
experience running a company. Amy was an at-home mom to our three boys.
I had just earned a degree in journalism by attending college at night.
We were deeply in debt.
Without telling Amy, I scraped together $700 to buy a business license
and six unicycles. I'd been riding a unicycle since the age of 12, but
quit four years later when I started driving. At 41, having gained a
pound per year since high school, I was anxious to get trim. Diets
didn't work for me. I tried running but my hips protested. Swimming
only increased my appetite. I took my old unicycle out of storage and
rode about two blocks from my home, then had to walk it back. I had no
leg strength. But I went again the next day, and the next. Within a few
months I was riding five miles per day on the sidewalks in our
neighborhood and the weight was coming off. People would often stop me
and ask, "Where do you get a unicycle?" I began to see an opportunity.
That opportunity gained momentum in June 1998 when IBM announced the
HomePage Creator, designed for nonprogrammers who wanted an online
store with credit-card processing. My research showed that only two Web
sites were selling unicycles and local bike shops had none on display.
I found other unicyclists online and read their complaints about the
lack of cycles and parts.
Unicycle.com went live on March 31, 1999, an event that was largely
unnoticed. We had announced our grand-opening date on a unicycle
newsgroup a few weeks before--but no one showed up. Eleven days later
we finally received an order confirmation--not for a unicycle, but for
a $13 rear-view mirror that mounts on sunglasses. We were so excited!
By April 30 we'd sold $1,000 in products. Our new toll-free number
brought even more orders, with Amy juggling calls, changing diapers and
getting Wishbone to stop barking. By the end of October, we were
averaging $11,000 a month in sales. Then I lost my job at IBM.
I was stunned. IBM had always provided for me. Now Mother IBM was gone.
At first Amy didn't believe it, then she burst into tears. We had a
young family and a new mortgage. I couldn't qualify for unemployment
insurance because as owner of Unicycle.com I was self-employed, not
unemployed. I took on a freelance writing project but never got paid.
Then came a Christmas miracle. Orders began pouring in. Sales in
November reached $22,000. In just eight months our little part-time
business generated more income than my full-time job would have. In
December, sales reached $55,000. I sent a thank-you note to my former
IBM manager, telling him it was the best thing that could have
happened. A few months later, IBM included Unicycle.com in a national
ad campaign. In August 2001 we bought a new 3,200-square-foot office
and warehouse.
Unicycle.com now appears to be the world's largest retailer of
unicycles, with franchises in seven countries and more in development.
I still pedal five miles almost every day, and I still enjoy it at 49
as much as I did at 12. Our mission now is to encourage others to
follow their dreams. We launched Banjo.com in 2003 and it's growing at
a faster rate than Unicycle.com has. With a lot of help and a lot of
prayer, we've turned two of my childhood hobbies into successful
businesses.
--
JJuggle
Raphael Lasar - Matawan, NJ
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