He Made Millions,Selling WhiteBoards To Hospitals

The doctors on NBC's "ER" series used a Magnatag on set to keep track of patients. This year, the New Orleans Saints mapped NFL draft picks on a Magnatag. A Colorado sheriff's posse swears by their Magnatag for plotting search-and-rescue mountain missions. "You can get to people faster," says volunteer Norvan Huff.

For 20 years, a little known company called Magnatag Visible Systems in Macedon, N.Y., has thrived making highly specialized versions of an item that couldn't be less special -- the erasable whiteboard. In the commoditized world of office products, this is no small feat. Basic, cheap whiteboards flood the shelves of office-supply stores. There are dozens of higher-end brands aimed at the professional market and classrooms. So universal is the whiteboard as a teaching tool, that UPS has made one the centerpiece of its current ad campaign "Whiteboard" to educate consumers about its services.

So how does a tiny manufacturing shop tucked away on the shores of the Erie Canal compete amid the fray? The answer: by taking the common out of the commodity. Instead of mass-producing generic boards, Magnatag goes the opposite route, selling whiteboard systems tailored for hundreds of applications, from athletic scheduling and church groups, to hospitals and mortgage brokers. Instead of a plain, white surface, Magnatag boards are printed with customized grids and graphics and come with equally specific supplies such as magnets, lettering, symbols and card holders.

A manufacturing plant seeking to reduce on-the-job injuries might post a "SafetyCross Safety Motivational System," which uses a variety of green, yellow and red magnets in the shape of a cross to highlight "accident-free" days. A sales operation with a large fleet of cars could opt for the "Vehicle Service Monitor" with specific columns dedicated to inspection needs. There are boards for advertising agencies and music instructors. The White House Communications Agency this month purchased a 4'x8' MagnaStaffer organizational chart.

A Magnatag whiteboard had a recurring role in early episodes of NBC's 'ER.'

So specific are Magnatag's applications that the company's 75-year-old founder, Wally Krapf, chafes at being dubbed a whiteboard maker. "Our boards are problem-solving devices -- they are aspirins for people's headaches," he says.

That medication doesn't come cheap. Individual boards range from $100 to about $1,500, while systems of multiple boards go for $10,000 and up. Due to volume of kits -- more than 2,300 -- Magnatag boards can't be found at retail; Mr. Krapf sells only via his own Web site and catalog. But turnaround time is quick: Boards typically ship within three business days, a byproduct of Mr. Krapf's meticulous inventory management. To date, he's sold more than half a million boards and says Magnatag's revenue is "in excess of $10 million and quite a bit above."

That's a small slice of the overall whiteboard market, estimated at roughly $2 billion in annual sales world-wide with about half coming from the U.S., according to one of the largest players, Acco Brands Corp. of Lincolnshire, Ill. Acco, which also owns well-known office supply brands such as Swingline and Day-Timer, markets its whiteboards under the Quartet name and sells to consumers and businesses mainly through big-box office-products chains such as Office Depot. "We're more mass scale than specialized niche product," says Acco spokesman Richard Nelson.

Other U.S. manufacturers have notable chunks of the business, though few if any produce the array of applications that Magnatag does. "We do some customization, but people still prefer plain in the marketplace," says John Rouse, senior vice president of Ghent Manufacturing Inc., a large whiteboard manufacturer in Lebanon, Ohio. Other producers, such as Marsh Industries Inc. in New Philadelphia, Ohio, focus on niches such as the educational market. Still, "to some extent, one board does look like another," says Bill Singhaus, Marsh's executive vice president of sales and marketing.

As such, Mr. Krapf has managed to carve out a respectable sweet spot with his buffet of systems. "When you take a generic tool, and turn it into something that is very specifically about the need for a customer, then they will take the time to seek you out," says Seth Godin, author of several best-selling marketing books including "Purple Cow" and most recently, "The Dip." "What most people do when they go into business is they try to fit in, and what he [Krapf] did was try to stand out."


Mr. Krapf started his informational display business in 1967 hawking a myriad of products, including traditional green chalkboards jury-rigged into displays with magnets and printed lines. He dabbled with whiteboards in the early 1970s, but it wasn't until the mid-1980s that he landed upon his cash cow magnetized product made of a porcelain-like coating he calls "MagnaLux" over steel. While his company, W.A. Krapf Inc. doing business as Magnatag, still sells a range of items including fabric boards and photo-posting panels, whiteboard systems are now his best seller.

To date, Magnatag has spent little on marketing other than mailing catalogs.
His site:http://www.magnatag.com
More at:http://www.startupjournal.com/columnists/enterprise/20070627-bounds.html

GoodStorm

Anyone can get in on the music business with GoodStorm's MixTape, a hot new widget that users can add to their personal websites, blogs or MySpace pages to promote independent music acts—and make a cut of the profit for selling downloads.

Music lovers who want to impress their friends by discovering cool new musical acts—and make a little pocket change in the process—can sign up for a free account. They can hand pick songs from GoodStorm's collection of more than 2.7 million indie tracks to create their MixTapes, or they can upload their own music, provided they hold the appropriate copyright. Each MixTape can contain up to 100 songs and can be posted on any web page, where visitors can listen to clips and purchase downloads via the widget for USD 99 cents, 65 cents of which goes to the artist and 5 cents to the seller—modest amounts that can add up quickly. For instance, a band would make USD 6.50 for an album of 10 songs, and the seller would make 50 cents just for recommending it on his or her blog or site. GoodStorm takes its own cut of 29 cents per download.

Essentially an affiliate sales program built around widget technology, MixTape offers a new way for artists to get noticed, and for fans to support independent musicians and become a force in the music industry. It's an innovative approach that's already creating quite a buzz—Amnesty International is using it to promote viral sales of their Instant Karma CD, which features re-recorded John Lennon tracks to raise money for aid to Darfur. Of course, the concept will only work if consumers are willing to buy digital music outside stores like iTunes. But we love the practice of giving customers a revenue cut for their marketing efforts.
More at: music.goodstorm.com

MizPee

MizPee, which offers one very simple service: helping users find the nearest, cleanest restroom when they need one.

Customers simply go to www.mizpee.com from their web-enabled cellphone, type in their current location (city and street address) and click on find. MizPee comes back with a list of nearby facilities, including details such as distance, user rating and whether a purchase is required, if the toilet is located in a store or restaurant. The service is initially launching in San Francisco, and allows relief-seekers to narrow their search to facilities with handicap access or diaper-changing areas. Desperate but dainty users can even limit results to restrooms that have been awarded a five-star rating for cleanliness.

While it may seem frilly, MizPee is actually a smart mobile service, providing information that almost every consumer needs at one point or another while they’re on the go. It's infolust brought back to the basics. Time to brainstorm and find other essential information needs aren’t yet adequately fulfilled? Collect them, let users fill in the missing blanks, and serve up the info along with relevant marketing messages. MizPee is currently free for users, and sponsorship by a toilet paper brand or bathroom cleaning product seems like a logical next step. Related: Luxe London loos.

More at:www.mizpee.com

NowLive

NowLive is a recently launched broadcast service for people to have a live radio talk show from just about anywhere.

On the plus side, you won’t have to download anything in order to get set up with NowLive. You can use your mobile phone, Skype or GoogleTalk to host your own talk show, and broadcast it live over the Internet. Each show can have multiple hosts, and the show’s page as embedded chat for listeners, and a media gallery that supports images, audio and video clips. NowLive is also a community at large, stocked with a photo gallery, a user directory and a host of current and upcoming live shows.

More at:http://nowlive.com/
Via-Mas

Just ask Fluther, and they’ll direct your question to people who can help.

Answers from people. We think there’s still nothing better than getting an answer from a person. So we made it easier. Just ask Fluther, and we’ll direct your question to people who can help. Simple, isn’t it? Ordinary experts. Imagine having five Uncle Franks to answer your car questions, eight Aunt Marthas to ask about astronomy and six Grandma Gerties to advise you on your garden dilemmas. Tapping into our collective is like extending your entire network of knowledge. And Fluther lets you share your massive brainpower with others.
More at:http://www.fluther.com/

MyPickList.com

MyPickList.com helps consumers make informed purchase decisions. In English terms - MyPickList.com drives word-of-mouth commerce 'which retailers love'. MyPickList.com integrates a user profile and their favorite product recommendations into a portable widget (what we call a PickList). Once a user creates a pick list it can be shared with family, friends or the public by adding the widget to any site that accepts it, including popular sites like MySpace, LiveJournal, Xanga, Friendster, Tagworld, Typepad, Blogger, and hi5.
More at:http://www.mypicklist.com/

YoTask

Using Yotask you can send Task, to the users in the network and keep track of that Task. For e.g. Joy sends the Task to Rahul and Hari of same network, as soon as Rahul and Hari completes that Task they will close that Task, and Joy will also get to know that Task given to Rahul and Hari is done. It is as simple as using an email account, but Yotask is not a mailing service, it's a Task Management System within the users of that network, with lots of different Functionalities. With YoTask, one can be Associated with infinite network, and can Add infinite users under a network with only one user account, by giving them their Designation, Department and Different Rights, to perform under you or your Company's Network. The best part is you can view the Whole Network, which display as an Organizational Chart. Even you can track the communications done by the members of your group with other users of the same group, who are under your direct branch only.
More at:http://www.yotask.com/