After recovering from the Big Move, MB and his lovely wife DB need to move heavy boxes and move a heavy TV around the house. What do you do after the movers leave? Enter the Save Your Back tool, BigSlider™ Professional mover.
“Thanks…I used it to move that really heavy tv my parents gave us =)” said MB. And DB said it helped her get heavy boxes moved from the den into the bedrooms. Now they can’t wait until Black Friday when the flat screens go on sale!
Here's that heavy TV
We received a call yesterday from NL, who lives just south of Yosemite National Park in California. Needless to say, she works in a sloped, rocky area. She’s in her 60s living alone and enthusiastically told us that even though she’s getting weaker, she’s going to be able to continue gardening, moving heavy potted plants and heavy landscaping rocks…moving heavy stuff by herself, and placing them exactly where she wants them.
She’s showing us how to make landscaping projects easier by using the BigSlider™ small appliance mover to slide 100 lb pavers and heay potted plants in to place on rocky slopes. Two years ago, we upgraded her from a YardPal to the Small Appliance mover due to the rocks she landscapes on. Now, she’s finally ready for another one.
NL says her Small Appliance Mover is a “miracle worker” and “there’s no way I could’ve done without it. BigSlider turns ‘impossible’ jobs into just ‘hard’ jobs.”
Way to go NL – keep up the good work!
Jeri @BigSlider, the Save your back tool
BigSlider(tm) helps with landscaping projects
Small Appliance Mover for 100 lb landscaping pavers
I had a great experience today with the US Postal Service tracking down a registered package. Did you know there is a Postal Service Postal Customer Council? Here’s a link to the Houston area group. I’m assuming they have similar groups in other areas.
http://houstonpcc.com/houston_usps_contacts
With the exception of the Consumer Affairs / Complaints and Inquiry phone number — for which there was no voicemail — every phone call followed by an email was promptly returned. They were able to locate my registered package, let me conference in my customer, and held it for pickup at the destination before the delivery trucks were loaded out in California. Thanks Sandra Beridon!
Very exciting – we heard Saturday from one of the CFI-ers who took us up on the FREE tool for video program, and his video is complete! We’ll post the video from Nate at The Enchanted Floorist just as soon as we get it. Nate is certified in Hardwoods, Carpet, and Laminate. Find out why this is SO important.
Our theme for CFI and other commercial/industrial users is the “Save Your Back” tool. Our biggest goal is to prevent back injuries by easily moving heavy objects like furniture, rolls of carpet, or boxes of tiles.
We hope BigSlider™ will help the floor covering industry save backs, save time, and save money!
Photo source: About.com
We had a call yesterday from a happy owner of BigSlider™ Professional model. He’s just retired and gone to live with his mom to take care of her — what a great son!
He’s going to set up a woodworking shop in the garage and plans to mount the 250+ lb drill press on a piece of plywood. He wants the bottom of the plywood to slide easily along the garage floor so he can move it away from the wall when working with larger pieces of wood. He wondered if BigSlider™ Small Appliance mover would be a good choice.
His plywood is 25 x 29 inches. Since our sheet material can’t be glued down (it’s too slippery to hold glue!), we debated whether he should try screwing in enough furniture sliders to not exceed the load limit per cap. Then he could slide the drill press on to BigSlider™ Professional model. Instead he chose the thinner, more flexible 26 x 31 in YardPal™. 
He’ll wrap the ends around the plywood and use a mechanical attachment like screws or nails. We’re shipping some extra sheeting material for reinforcements.
Thanks for the great idea, RD – please send photos!
We heard recently from one of the “FREE tool for a video” program we launched with the carpet and tile installers at the CFI conference mid-August. (CFI stands for Certified Floorcovering Installers.) Scott Terryberry of Rocky Mountain Floor Design is getting ready to install carpet tile in a hospital project just as soon as the floor is ready.
He plans to use his new BigSlider™ Wider model to distribute the heavy 25 in x 25 in boxes of carpet tiles around inside the job site so he doesn’t have to use a pallet jack. His goal is to avoid two problems he’s previously had with pallet jacks on a new install site, namely: (1) the pallet jack can leak oil on the newly installed floorcovering; and (2) if the pallet breaks, splintered wood can damage the new floors.
Awesome Scott – we hope the BigSlider™ “Save Your Back” tool makes your job easier and more productive. Can’t wait to see the video!
Photo source: Floor Covering News
We learned a lot at the CFI Convention in Kansas City MO last week (Aug 11-13, 2011). CFI stands for Certified Floorcovering Installers, which includes carpet installers or carpet layers and tile and stone installers. The meeting was part Reunion, part Pep Rally, and part Support group.
They’ve been meeting for 18 years now, so we’re pretty ‘late’ to the annual Reunion. Thankfully they aren’t an exclusive group, so they welcomed us with open arms. Jim and Jane Walker who founded CFI were very open and kind. The pep rally part of the meeting came from Jane’s bright enthusiasm as she told us the history of CFI and recounted the long-timers’ backgrounds. Each speaker called us to yell our response to “C” – “F” – “I” at the top of our lungs, and first-timers like us blew our new year’s eve toy horns.
Jane also did a great job of acknowledging persistence and achievement. For example, Ray Edwards work (of Anderson Carpet One in Hattiesburg MS) was shown in the March 2011 “Age of Elegance” Architectural Digest (their photo below). His beautiful red carpet is flowing up the circular staircase on page 104 at the Hood house right there in Hattiesburg. What you’re missing is a photo of the equally magnificent octagonal stone floor with an elaborate center design.
Ray Edwards beautiful staircase AD Mar, 2011
We got business ideas from Jim Walker and Dave Garden and received how-to-commercialize an invention tips from Ben Boatwright. Plus, we got a mention in Floor Covering News. Thanks Matt Spieler for this photo of Tipton moving a “heavy and bulky object” (me). I’m 140 lbs, and on the polished concrete of the convention floor I was about a 27 lb pull — a 5 X benefit — so he could easily move me single handedly. Daris Mulkin – a frequent blogger on thefloorpro.com - showed off by moving me with just one finger.
With hosting motivational speakers like Dennis Brown at this convention and their ongoing training courses throughout the year, CFI is obviously committed to encouraging and educating their membership to personal and professional excellence…both of which we strive for here at BigSlider.
We had a great time…the CFI-ers are a knowledgeable crew and willing to share what they know. Since everyone is there to learn more and share more, that really helps our business know how to best reach their industry. A BIG Thanks to CFI from BigSlider, the “Save Your Back” tool!
One of our customers needed to make delivery of a 700 lb carpet roll at Lowe’s when their forklift was broken. He needed to stay on his delivery schedule. Solution? Fortunately he had BigSlider™ utility mover on the delivery truck. They combined a pallet jack with his BigSlider™ Professional model to get the heavy carpet roll delivered.
So…BigSlider™ utility mover has officially gone from the “When nothing else will work“* moving tool to the “When other stuff is broken” moving tool!
Have a safe and productive day, Jeri
*Excerpt from a “When nothing else will work” story…”At first I was not sure what to do with the Big Slider, but now I’m really impressed with it because it worked where nothing else would. There were only two ways we could have moved those logs, a tractor which would have tore up the yard, or the Big Slider. I’m glad I chose Big Slider. It’s a great tool. Thanks for your amazing product.” — MB, TX
Happy Day! Roy, Chris, and our friend John
We’ve had two inquiries in the last two months asking how we got on Cool Tools. Here’s how it happened for us:
We were at the Handy Hardware show (a local show in Houston) and met a guy who thought we should meet his uncle, John Shoemaker, inventor of the CreteSheet™ . John advised us show in the New Products area of the National Hardware Show.
Before the NHS, Roy Berendsohn of Popular Mechanics called to ask us for our product (BigSlider™ Professional). Of course we sent Roy one immediately because Shoemaker told us CreteSheet™ won the PM award the year he launched. We were hopeful!
In fact we did win Popular Mechanics Editor’s Choice Award for Top Thirteen New Tools of the show — WooHoo! That year, PM had partnered with DIY Network’s Cool Tools to review the winning products in a special episode. Our clip from the NHS went into a subsequent Cool Tools episode called “On the Move” which aired for an additional 13 months. We had a great time with Chris Grundy!
If you’re a solo inventor, I know what you’re thinking…so how much does all this cost? Total to prep and attend the show: approx $15,000 (we had travel, hotel, advertising, a double booth and some rented furniture — as you can see in the DIY clip). We also made first contact here with amazon.com – which is an AWESOME customer to work with.
And thankfully, Shoemaker graciously hauled that 90 lb cement bag out to Las Vegas for us.
What’s been your experience in launching a new product?
Check out our new website…http://www.bigslider.com
Best, Jeri info@bigslider.com
“Need to move something heavy? Save your back!”™