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Reel Mowers, Etc.
We are celebrating our 10th year in business! Free shipping to most USA locations!* |
‘Mowing down pollution, one yard at time’Reel Mowers, Etc. owner
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Daily News Photo/Jamie Gentner - Marjorie King, owner of Reel Mowers, Etc., looks up from her computer, where she spends hours each day running her home-based business. |
GRENADA – Five years ago, Marjorie King moved from Fairfield, Calif. to
Siskiyou County because her surroundings were literally beginning to kill her.
The pollution and fast-paced life were causing her to have asthma attacks that
threatened her health.
Now that she’s here, she’s running a business that is helping make sure other
people don’t go through the same thing.
“I’m on a mission, and it’s one of sustainability,” King said. “It's a good
feeling to know that, in a small way, I’m helping to preserve the fresh air and
quietness that people moved to this area for.”
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King is doing so through her home-based business, Reel Mowers, Etc., which
sells manual and electric mowers and products that assist customers in,
according to her slogan, “mowing down pollution, one yard at a time.”
Reel Mowers was started 10 years ago when King was looking for a way to get out
of Fairfield. With the Internet just beginning to pick up speed, she saw that as
her ticket out. Everywhere she considered moving, there were no jobs, but she
knew that if she could build a business that could be run primarily through the
Internet, she could move anywhere.
“I thought that since the air quality had been messing up my life, I would fight
back and try to improve it,” King said.
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So, King took action, starting with attending an air quality meeting the city
held. City officials were talking about a mower trade-in, where community
members would bring in their old gas mowers and the city would give them a
discount for an electric mower.
“I asked them, ‘What about manual mowers?’ and they just laughed at me. There
have been many people who have done that throughout the years,” King said.
“Those naysayers just give me a huge burst of energy and confidence.”
King now sells products from several manufacturers – including Great States,
McClain and Agri-Fab - to thousands of people a year in every state in the
country. In the past, she had to work two years to convince a manufacturer to
let her market their product, and now, manufacturers are calling her and asking
her to sell their product.
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A May 2007 Associated Press article claimed that manual mowers are making a
comeback, “due most notably to growing environmental concerns and an increasing
number of women who do the mowing.” King even found a statistic on the
California Resources Board Web site that says spending 30 minutes on a gas mower
produces as many emissions as driving a 1995 car 100 miles.
King also said yard debris ranks as the second largest waste category that gets
dumped into landfills each year, but since reel mowers produce clippings that
return nutrients to the soil, waste is reduced. Manual mowers also reduce the
risk of fires, which King is fervent about.
That's why King starts working at 6 a.m. every morning - two hours before she is
technically open for business. She spends hours a day on the phone and the
Internet taking orders and answering questions.
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“It really is an art helping people pick out just the right mower for their
needs,” she said. “I have to pay attention to details. I bought every type of
mower when I first started and tried each in different situations to see what
worked best where. I like to know that I can help people put together and
maintain their old products rather than buy something new they don't need. From
a business stance, that doesn't seem to make sense, but I have a conscience and
would rather help people than make a bigger profit.”
That attitude has made King a lot of friends, since she considers her customers
her friends.
“I don't go by numbers,” she said. “Some people will call up and give me their
order number, and I just stop them and ask their name because to me, they are a
name, not a number. Then, some people look for an excuse to buy from me again
and bring me into their lives.”
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King has received pictures of people's children and even has some repeat
customers who bought a mower from her and have come back years later to buy one
or more for their children.
Those customers even come back despite Reel Mowers being a little more expensive
than some of its competitors.
“I try to keep the customer's cost low, but I know I'm not the cheapest,” King
said. “There are some people who look for the cheapest product, but there are
also a lot of people who look for something more - for someone they know they
can count on, and that has always been my strong point. People tell me that I
have better customer service than most companies because I'll sit and talk to
them on the phone for hours.”
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King knows she has had a few bad years, but with a more determined focus and
renewed passion this year, she has at least doubled her sales from last year.
And she has advice for those looking to start up a business of their own and do
the same thing.
“Do your homework,” she said. “You have to do research and look at what sells,
if it's a product that people will buy online, whether it will produce a high
return rate, who your target customers will be, how much time it will take and
all the little details. You have to be the type of person who will be hard on
yourself and work even when the phone isn't ringing and be creative enough to
market the product. If you want to be an entrepreneur, your mind has to be
working all the time, looking for and creating opportunities.”
For more information on Reel Mowers, Etc., call King at 938-0350 or
888-384-1033, or visit www.reelmowersetc.com.
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