1.24 Gabriel Hargett, Oowee Products
This lesson is an episode of USA Booming.
Listen to the episodeWhat you'll get
Gabriel Hargett tells the USA Booming hosts at his shop in Candler, just outside Asheville, how a patented leather pint sleeve, a side project he began while working in orthotics and prosthetics, became Oowee Products, built without outside money and hand stitched by adults with autism through a partnership with the Autism Society of North Carolina. He describes losing about half his revenue in 2020 when event orders vanished and using his machines to make masks and shields while keeping his staff, so it suits a bootstrapped maker weighing slow growth against hiring.
Do this week
List your tools, machines and skills, write down two other products or contract jobs they could handle if your main orders stopped for a month, and ask one nearby business whether it needs either.