Keeping Kids Off the Bench

 

For Sandy Slade, success in business is a lot like spinning a basketball on one finger-it takes skill, coordination, focus, and will. Slade should know. She's built her career on basketball. For 22 years, she was a professional sports entertainer, spinning and dribbling basketballs at more than 300 shows a year, including NBA and college half-time shows and school assemblies. She appeared in national television commercials, a major motion picture, and on the Late Show with David Letterman.

 

Realizing the physical demands of her chosen profession, Slade began looking for another way to make a living. "One thing that weighed heavily on my mind was the growing epidemic of inactivity and the obesity rates in children. I had seen school gyms and had an idea about the facilities and equipment on hand." Slade soon began creating videos and DVDs on the fundamentals of basketball and eventually came up with the idea for Skillastics™ -- a series of five interactive fitness games.

 

To raise the $60,000 needed to start the company, Slade dipped into her savings and her mutual funds and got a loan from her parents. Then, she found a consulting company on the Internet to help her apply for a patent. Patent in hand, she approached a former sponsor, a physical education equipment catalogue out of Chicago, for a list of overseas companies that could make Skillastics™ mats, beanbags, and dice. When the business cranked up, Slade again turned to the Internet and found a fulfillment center in Wisconsin that could manage and ship the 20 to 30 orders per day.

 

"Whenever I hit a crossroad, I know I've got to find somebody who knows more about the obstacle than I do," Slade says. This included writing a business plan with assistance from a small business development center, which helped Slade secure a $100,000 loan to expand
her business.

 

Since its introduction in 2003, Skillastics ™ has been used by more than 8,000 schools, camps, Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs, parks and recreation facilities, and other youth organizations. Slade has 10 teachers across the country who market Skillastics™ at approximately 90 conferences a year. Fifteen catalogues carry her products, and she recently started doing some direct mail marketing.  In March, she hired a vice president of sales and marketing. "That was a big decision. But you can't do everything yourself; you have to delegate--surround yourself with good people," says Slade.

 

To share a Success InSight, e-mail Greg Galdabini at ggaldabi@uschamber.com or call 202-463-5563.