James Collinsworth, president of Mail Safe Inc., made his first visit to the SBDC in July 2007 and has resulted in an ongoing three year partnership of business development counseling and training. Collinsworth, a retired military officer and postal service supervisor, had a friend who had an idea about securing mail and preventing mail theft. Together they developed a mailbox with a bottomless storage area that will keep mail safe and dry from the elements. They contracted with a local company to manufacture the molds, thus creating business for a local company. The molds were made but there was one problem, the one piece unit was too bulky and costly to ship. Collinsworth decided to buy out his friend and redesign the mailbox. He knew that a patent should be secured to protect the invention. A friend referred him to the SBDC and the partnership began. Collinsworth and Doretha Brooks, Certified Business Analyst, began with the process of securing a patent for the new designed mailbox. A patent attorney was hired and the process began. A marketing tool needed to be developed. What would this new design mean to the customer? What could be offered to make these mailboxes unique? After many sessions it was determined that different colors would offer variety, the redesign would reduce the shipping costs and a theme established of why the product is needed.
While waiting for the patent we began to develop strategies for marketing the mailboxes. The main theme was” safe and secure”; no need of cancelling the mail or newspaper delivery when away from home; no need to ask friends or neighbors to get the mail when away from home; and knowing that the mail is safe from people who resort to stealing mail to steal identity. We gathered a list of homeowner associations, contractors and hardware stores to start the introduction and possible sales of the units in the stores. The sales began on a small scale. Ace Hardware stores was the first to retail the box. The sales continued.
Collinsworth then began to develop his business plan looking to the future of increased sales and the need to finance the operations from this point. The initial investment of $35,000 was from personal funds. The idea of website sales was developed and sales continued. Recordkeeping became a concern and the SBDC provided training in Quickbooks for Collinsworth and staff. Accounting for third party sales and shipping was soon resolved.
Collinsworth contracted with a local company to improve his website and focus on key words. In May of 2008 he started receiving calls from wholesalers nationwide who wanted to feature the mail safe on their website. This increased his sales by 400% in 2008 and another 80% in 2009. Presently he is selling mail boxes all over the United States to include Hawaii and Canada.C
