Q: Company name :
A: CobraHead LLC
Q: Your name :
A: Noel Valdes
Q: The first section contains mandatory questions. Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business. Please include what your business is all about, in which city you are located and if you have offices in multiple locations/cities.
A: CobraHead LLC produces garden tools for the home gardener, small scale growers, and landscapers. We are located in Cambridge, Wisconsin. We sell both wholesale and direct to consumer. We do not maintain a brick and mortar walk-in store.
Q: Kindly give us a brief description about yourself (it should include your brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major achievements).
A: I have been involved in sales for most of my career. I have a BS in Marketing and Advertising from Wayne State University, Detroit Michigan. My business career was unrelated to CobraHead. I held several management sales positions with international corporations involved in glass product manufacturing for commercial construction.
Q: What inspired you to start a new business venture or make significant changes in an existing business? How did the idea for your business come about?
A: I have always gardened and consider gardening my main hobby. While working in my garden, I realized that a modification to an existing antique tool blade could result in a unique and exceptionally useful tool for weeding and other gardening tasks. After much research, I decided to launch a company to produce and market my tool design.
Q: What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
A: Make sure you have sufficient funding to see your idea through to success.
Make sure your idea or plan is marketable.
Don’t hesitate to seek out help from others.
Q: What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
A: Perseverance
Ability to evaluate risks
Knowledge of the market you are in
Q: How many hours do you work a day on average?
A: Six, but I’m supposed to be retired.
Q: To what do you most attribute your success?
A: Luck is way up there, but intelligence and having a career that exposed me to manufacturing processes helped with the launch of my own company.
Q: How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
A: We advertise in trade related magazines and Internet outlets, we exhibit at trade shows, we do social media, but product sampling has been our most economical advertising/marketing and has produced the greatest return for the least money. We put the product in the hands of those who could be our champions and help cement the brand in the market.
Q: Where did your organizations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?
A: Self-funded through savings.
Q: What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
A: Have a plan and change it when necessary
Q: Where you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
A: Hopefully, retired
Q: Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
A: No specific business, but employee owned businesses that fairly share the profits are models I like.
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