Backwater Paddle Company Blog

Backwater Paddle Company has struggled to get where we are now.  It has been a long slog through a nasty recession.  Backwater Paddles almost faltered at the start due to the bad economic times.  On top of that, breaking into a new, yet growing market, where your product has never existed presented its own unique challenges.

After a year or so of just keeping the business together, all the little things I have done have seem to come together.  Maybe it was just throwing enough fodder out there that something would catch and hold on.  Maybe it was changing the business plan in mid stream and coming out with the kayak fishing hand paddles.  Maybe it was just the market starting to rebound.  Maybe it was because I did find the right product at the right time for the right market?

Nevertheless, Backwater Paddles has been fortunate enough to begin feeling like we are somebody.  The past two months have been a renaissance in company and product awareness.  We are being noticed.  Somebody likes our product and sees a useful benefit.   We are generating sales, albeit very nominal, but someone does want to try our Predator and Piranha kayak fishing hand paddles.

Starting a project in a niche market is hard enough.  Try designing and selling a product to a market that has never existed before!  I am not saying kayaks nor fishing have never been around, but kayaks and fishing togetherhave spring boarded into the paddle sports market…bringing us kayak fishing.  Ever being an optimist, where  there is growth, there is opportunity!

Getting noticed in your market is an overwhelming task.  Let me back that statement up.  Getting noticed in your market without dumping boat loads of green backs into your marketing campaign is an overwhelming task! 

As a start-up company owner, working from savings, and a part time job is all you have to work with monetarily.  Without big corporate sponsors, investors and funding companies at your disposal, getting your marketing campaign off the ground requires tons of patience and good luck. 

Once Backwater Paddle Companies investors bailed at the start of the recession, I knew all bets were off and this would be a struggle.  I had to knuckle down and explore EVERY opportunity, EVERY contact, EVERY lead, and EVERY scheme.   I had to be proactive.   I know deep down, there would be no one else sitting down at this computer, for hours on end, doing this for me.

With the evolution of kayak fishing came new equipment, new gear and accessories.  Being in the right spot at the right time was all we needed for a competitive edge.   The evolution of  kayak fishing hand paddles became the focus of our market campaign and Backwater Paddles rise into the paddle sports community.

But again, it all boils down to the green backs.  Fortunately, perseverance has paid off to some degree.  Backwater Paddles is breaking into the paddle sport news without having sunk beacoup green backs into marketing.  

Is this good luck?  Will the exposure keep growing on its own with little or no more input from me?  Has all the last year of relentless Internet research finally paid off?  Sure, I’d like to believe that.  Sure I’d like to believe in perpetual  motion too.  But I know at some point I am going to have to get some green backs from someone to keep this marketing machine moving forward.

By the way…do you know anyone wanting to get in the ground floor of a paddle sports company?  I am going to need some green backs soon!! 

Paddle on my friends!!

Tags: kayak fishing, kayak paddles, kayaks

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 5:48 pm and is filed under Marketing My Company. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.