Original Post:

“Greetings from Detroit. I’m enjoying a little bit of success with my invention the ‘Bogdon Box Bass‘. It won Best in Show in its category at the Summer 2008 NAMM Show and has a rave review in a national magazine called Bass Player Magazine.

Bogdon was kind enough to elaborate on his original post in a follow-up post.

Follow-up Post:

“The world needed a $99 Upright Bass. I was totally broke and couldn’t afford a cheap $800 upright bass so I made one using a cardboard box, weed whacker twine, nuts-n-bolts as tuners, and a scrabble piece for a bridge. My cardboard box bass sounded too good to be true so I posted a video on the web. Good Morning America showed 10 seconds of footage and I began to get emails asking to purchase my cardboard box upright bass. I asked my Uncle who owns a printing shop to help. He got my cousins who are an Acoustic Engineer and an Electronic Engineer to perfect my idea and create a kit.

We started to sell 100’s on Ebay and I sent the info to Bass Player Magazine who wrote a feature story. My uncle put up a few thousand dollars to buy materials, and as we sold our product, we used the profit to protect our box bass. I started with no personal investment and we earned $100k in the first year. We participated in a national trade show NAMM and we won best in Show and as a result are now in retail stores. I’m in charge of sales and marketing, though I’ve NEVER sold a thing in my life and know nothing about marketing. All I do is write letters, make phone calls, emails, and any other way to contact everyone all over the world. My cousins are in charge of manufacturing, and my uncle oversees the business and is the shipper.

Our customers made suggestions and we’re on our 5th version of the box bass after being in business for 3 years. I originally made a 2-string bass and my customers wanted a 3-string bass so we now have 2 models of box basses, and the customer demand product is outselling my original idea! We have many prototypes of new products and have been testing them locally. We make the worlds only “Electric Washtub Bass Pickup” and it was picked up by our retailers without even showing it to them. Some retailers said “we’ll sell what ever you got…”.

We manufacture everything ourselves. When sales become impossible to keep up, we will approach a manufacturer with actual sales receipts to outsource product production. As for now, I’m having more fun than I’ve ever had in my life. I am an inventor and a small business owner. I make the Bogdon Box Bass and have shipped them all over the world. I’ve been to New York to be on MSNBC Elevator Pitch. Fox News has been to my home to feature me in a story, as did my local NBC News. My box bass has been in all the newspapers in and around Detroit along with local and national magazines. I write a letter to someone each and everyday. Some days more than just one, but I never go to bed without making at least one contact in sales or marketing.

Oh yea, the moral of the story is that everything is possible, some things just take more time than others, and most of all ASK FOR HELP when help is needed.”

A very inspiring and informative article… thanks again to Bogdon for writing up his success story!

BE SURE to visit his website at http://www.bogdonmusic.com for more information about his products (and inspiration too).

Best regards,

Brian R. Rayve

P.S. Be sure to protect your invention PRIOR TO advertising it on the Internet or elsewhere… read my previous posts for further information.

P.P.S. One thing I recently learned that Bogdon has been practising for quite awhile… as Bogdon put it “I write a letter to someone each and everyday. Some days more than just one, but I never go to bed without making at least one contact in sales or marketing.”.

But I was working on my laptop computer and kept the game on for some background noise. As the fourth quarter came around and the Garrett-led Longhorn offense scored some points, I found myself once again enthrawled in the game!

And so I have to ask you another question… any fans out there like me that were rooting for the “Crimson Tide” to win only to change your mind to root for the “Longhorns” in the 4th quarter? Aha, I thought that I was not the only one!