Doubling Business Every Year: The Simple Secret Behind Snug Plug’s Explosive Growth

Our guest on today’s episode, Salim Mitri, turned a common household issue into a thriving business by founding Snug Plug, an innovative solution for loose electrical outlets. Alongside his partner, Joel Switzer, he transformed what was initially a DIY fix into a scalable product that has doubled its revenue year-over-year and is now making its way to major retail shelves. But it was not an easy ride.

"We thought it would be easy at first, but we quickly learned that success requires proving your concept step by step," Salim shares. Their journey involved securing patents, navigating the manufacturing process, and overcoming repeated rejections before finding traction on Amazon and leveraging the power of social media.

Salim’s experience is packed with insights for aspiring entrepreneurs and product innovators, from perfecting the design to changing business models and launching a national TV campaign. So if you’re looking for inspiration to take your product from concept to market - or you’ve hit roadblocks trying to prove your idea’s value, this episode is for you. Join us now.

In today’s episode of the Harvest Growth podcast, we’ll cover:  

•  Why starting small and refining your process is key to long-term growth.
• Using Amazon and organic marketing to validate your product.
• Why community and networking are essential for entrepreneurial success.
• The advantages of national TV campaigns for building brand awareness.
• And so much more!

Are you tired of loose plugs in wall outlets causing frustration? Visit www.snugplugstore.com to learn more about this game-changing solution, or find Snug Plug on Amazon.

To be a guest on our next podcast, contact us today!

Do you have a brand that you’d like to launch or grow? Do you want help from a partner that has successfully launched hundreds of brands totaling over $2 billion in revenues? Visit HarvestGrowth.com and set up a free consultation with us today!

Transcript

Jon LaClare [00:00:00]:
In today's interview, we discuss the entire product launch journey, from patents to manufacturing to marketing. It's a short but efficient discussion on the right timing and sequence of each part of the product marketing journey and how our guest used this process to double his business each year for several years and then to employ a tactic this year that is projected to 10x his business in the next 12 months.

Announcer [00:00:26]:
Are you looking for new ways to make your sales grow? You've tried other podcasts, but they don't seem to know. Harvest the growth potential of your product or service as we share stories and strategies that'll make your competitors nervous. Now here's the host of the Harvest growth podcast, Jon LaClare.

Jon LaClare [00:00:46]:
Today I'm excited to talk about a product called the Snug Plug. Now, I've been a user of this product for a long time. Actually before I met today's guest, Salim, I bought it, used it in my own house. If you've got loose plugs that fall out of the wall, like I do, like everybody does, this is a really ingenious and simple solution that helps solve that. I'll let Salim describe it in more detail, but it's a great product. You're going to want to hear about the product itself and the interesting journey that they've had in bringing it to market and really growing it every year since then. First of all, though, Salim, welcome to the show.

Salim Mirti [00:01:17]:
Yeah, thanks for having me, John. Good to meet you.

Jon LaClare [00:01:19]:
Absolutely. Can you describe what is the Snug Plug product and how'd you come up with the idea?

Salim Mirti [00:01:26]:
Yeah, it's, it's a really simple concept. It's, it's, the purpose of Snug Plug is, like you mentioned earlier, to prevent or stop plugs falling out of loose wall outlets. And this is a very common problem. You know, everyone experiences this with all, all walks of life. You know, if you're, if you travel, you know, airports, hotels, they always have loose plugs because. Loose outlets because they get so much usage or just people in rentals, apartments, older homes, older office buildings. And so what Snug Plug does is it essentially provides convenience for a lot of people who maybe don't want to pay 100, 150 bucks for a service call fee for an electrician to come replace their outlets. You know, if they don't know how to replace them themselves.

Salim Mirti [00:02:12]:
It's, it's, it's essentially a quick fix for, for tons and tons of people. And the way it came about, we brought it to market was my partner, Joel Switzer. He was an engineer and he started engineering and he was a tenant renting and his apartment always had issues with plugs falling out. And he was just sick and tired, frustrated with it. So he, you know, shimmed up some little device and it worked. And, and he created a cad, you know, CAD file of the, of the Snug plug. And you know, a while later, you know, we convened and it, you know, after much talking, that's how we ended up partnering and bringing it out to the market.

Jon LaClare [00:02:56]:
And I've got one here. Here's a box where our audience can see if you're watching the video of the Snug plug, you can also check it out@snugplugstore.com but it's a really simple small plastic device. You just insert right into your outlet and it makes the fit tighter. So, and it works with any, any outlet, any type of plug. Super easy to use, really inexpensive as well. But it does solve that problem. Did you, I imagine, go through quite a bit of iteration or development as part of the process to get just the right type of plastic, the right type of fit?

Salim Mirti [00:03:27]:
We did originally, I mean, several variations. We originally started as doing a stamp die production. So, you know, you got a sheet of, sheet of polymer plastic. You take a really heavy stamp at a factory and they, you know, they stamp it and trying to explain it as best I can, but it's. And then you have to, you have to bend it yourself once you receive it. And then, you know, sales started trickling slowly. We originally started with a 10 pack. We were in a poly, sorry, a four pack and a poly bag with a paper insert.

Salim Mirti [00:04:02]:
And then we kind of moved up to printing on the poly bag and then moved up to, hey, let's, we can actually afford now to do, you know, make an injection mold with, with the plastic injection. So it's. Yeah, it's. We've had many iterations and it's come a long way. So definitely, definitely don't start that way. It would have made things much easier on us back in the day, though.

Jon LaClare [00:04:23]:
And on the business side you worked on, we had a conversation before this about your process. And one interesting thing that you did is you started with legal. So before manufacturing and you got to marketing, et cetera, your first step was legal. Why, why was that?

Salim Mirti [00:04:38]:
We were very concerned. You always hear in the news about, oh, so and so company stole someone's idea and they brought it to market first. And you know, the company or the person that actually invented the product is there's nothing they can do about it. So we just really wanted to cover our bases. So before doing anything, marketing, talking to manufacturers, before even getting quotes from manufacturing, we finished our legal work. We, you know, created a corporation and then, you know, interviewed dozens of patent attorneys and found a patent attorney we liked and had him file for the patent for us. And we got it. We got it awarded relatively quickly.

Salim Mirti [00:05:19]:
I think it was within about a year. But from what I've heard, you know, it could take, it could definitely be drawn out and take several years to get a patent approved. So that was, that was the initial, the first part of it. And it was, it was tougher also because we were funding it out of pocket. You know, we didn't have investors. It was just between Joel and myself. So the first year to two years was just all expenditures. Yeah, after patent, then we did the, you know, creating, packaging, artwork, manufacturing.

Jon LaClare [00:05:51]:
Yeah, you talked about your patent being early part of the process also because you were looking for a license deal. So can you talk a little bit about your process? Originally you wanted to do a license deal, but then you changed direction and marketed the product yourself. What was the decision point in changing from a license deal to now running and launching the business on your own?

Salim Mirti [00:06:11]:
Yeah, so we had in our mind, we thought that first off that everything was going to be much easier. We thought that as soon as people, you know, hear about this product and realize the frustration and it alleviates, they're going to love it and they're going to want to buy it. So we were originally planning, like, hey, let's, let's formalize this legally and then license the product and hopefully some big company will take it and, you know, roll with it and we'll just collect, you know, royalties. And we spoke with, you know, we both, Joel and I have a background in sales, business sales. So we were able to find buyers at several big box stores such as Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy, Dollar General, all those places. And we kept coming, coming up with the same rejection every single time is they want to see a track record of sales, proof of concept. And we'd explain to them like, we understand what you're asking for, but this is, you know, it's a brand new product. Never has anything like it been on the marketplace.

Salim Mirti [00:07:13]:
And we're offering you the opportunity to launch the product and, and run with it. And that's, that's really where we struggled. Well, began, began the long struggle was having a company look past the fact that we're a new product and start things that way. So what that brought us to is we came to the conclusion that hey, you know, all these companies want to see track record of sales, so let's show proof of concept. And thankfully at the time, Amazon online sales, everything's been growing rapidly last decade or two. So we decided to create a listing on Amazon and we started listing it and selling it on Amazon and it started very slowly. Sales were trickling in, we weren't advertising. It was just essentially word of mouth.

Salim Mirti [00:08:09]:
And at first it was very, very slow. We just get a couple sales a day, maybe a couple sales a week. And it seemed like week by week it was growing and growing all on its own with no marketing from our part. And that was the start of us pushing sales for Snugplug.

Jon LaClare [00:08:30]:
Yeah. So from that point you've now on Amazon and you've had success, as you mentioned, you've been growing every year, doubling your business every year. So how did you accomplish that? So getting on Amazon is one thing, and that first year sometimes is easy for a really good product like this, but to continue growing year after year after year, especially that level of growth where you're doubling your business year after year, how have you guys been able to accomplish that? What has worked really well so far for your business?

Salim Mirti [00:08:58]:
One of the things that we noticed worked very well and is kind of like a double edged sword, but actually Covid was very helpful to us. Having people at home browsing the Internet, not at work, that really helped us. So, you know, at the beginning of COVID our sales really started increasing rapidly. And then what started happening almost naturally, organically, wouldn't even, we didn't even seek this out at first was just consumers purchasing it, trying it, loving it, sharing it with friends, and more importantly, sharing it across social media, across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. So that really, really started helping us was just getting free advertising from influencers, posting about their experiences using SnugBlock online. And since then we've been in contact with other influencers and we sign contracts with them sometimes to promote for us, but that's been a huge help, is just people's word of mouth. And also posting videos online is really helpful.

Jon LaClare [00:10:00]:
And your next step now, so you've gone from posting videos online to now a national TV campaign to really catapult that growth. And as you and I have talked about, obviously TV is a great tool to be able to take a high growing business and really escalate and you know, exponentially grow the business from there. So what are your plans now? As you use television to really expand your business to the next level.

Salim Mirti [00:10:25]:
Yeah. So one of our original plans was always to, you know, be selling in big box stores, primarily the big ones like Home Depot, Lowe's, Walmart, Best Buy, those places. And that is still our goal. That's going to be our goal for 2025 is to be in big box stores. But we're really using the direct response commercials to help catapult us to that level. And we already have negotiations underway with Home Depot and Lowe's. What they're waiting for is to see how our performance runs on the commercials before they stock us in the stores. So that is really our end goal to be, is to be in the big box stores.

Salim Mirti [00:11:05]:
But the commercials, it's, it's a really cool thing that came about. I never expected it. And my partner Joel and I were actually both in the commercial and as just funny how things work out. I never wanted or looked to be on TV or commercials, but ended up falling in our lap. And yeah, it's, it's a really cool opportunity to have, you know, taken part in experienced. Yeah. And that's gonna, yeah, we're, we're airing officially. It's going to have aired right after Halloween.

Salim Mirti [00:11:33]:
So by the time everyone's listening to this, they should be able to see Snug Plug all the major networks, you know, espn, mtv, hbo. Well, not hbo but you know, Nickelodeon, all those channels. Yeah.

Jon LaClare [00:11:46]:
And a great way for our audience to check it out as well as go to YouTube and search for Snug Plug. You'll see the video there, you'll see it on the website as well and other places. Well, this is, it's been a really helpful interview, I think. Salim, do you have any advice? If you could kind of rewind and think back to your early days, what advice would you give to yourself? Right. Or to others that are out there looking to grow their business?

Salim Mirti [00:12:09]:
The single most important piece of advice I could give is to surround yourselves, yourself with a network or community of like minded people. Maybe someone who's already accomplished whatever it is you're seeking to accomplish yourself. Because having advice or being referred to someone, you know, for example, an attorney or a manufacturer or someone who does marketing, just having that connection can really help you. Because a lot of times if you're going at it alone, it's like you're, you're, you know, seeking direction in the dark and you can't find your way and you don't know what to do or who to talk to and it's it's really helpful when you're in a community, whether it's, you know, going on forums online or having a mastermind that you go to in person. It's really helpful to have other people to guide you and give you advice from their experiences. Also.

Jon LaClare [00:13:03]:
And is there anything I didn't ask Salim that you think could be helpful for our audience?

Salim Mirti [00:13:09]:
Nothing really comes to mind about you not asking, but we appreciate the support. We appreciate you hosting us on your podcast. If customers want to check us out, we appreciate the support. Like you said, our website is snugplugstore.com they can also check us out on on Walmart.com Amazon.com and and hopefully if they're watching TV, you know, just kicking back Friday night, they'll see us on the commercial too.

Jon LaClare [00:13:36]:
Absolutely. And I do want to encourage our audience. As Saleem mentioned, go to their website snug plug store.com it's in the show notes. As always, if you're driving, don't worry about writing it down. You can go check it out later. But snug plug store.com you can check out his new national TV spot. Also learn more about the product and of course find them on Amazon and elsewhere. And did you know you can meet with a member of my team absolutely free for a 30 minute strategy consultation.

Jon LaClare [00:14:03]:
We've launched and grown hundreds of products since 2007 and learned some of our strategies while growing OxiClean back in the Billy Mays days. We're here to help, so please go to harvestgrowth.com and set up a call if you'd like to discuss further.