Let's twist

Nurse-turned-inventor Colleen O'Connell aims high with her niche business by going low.

She wants to get into Lowe's Home Improvement stores, that is.

O'Connell's novel product is the Rotator Rod. It's a shower rod with a twist: It can pivot. And by pivoting, says O'Connell, the Rotator Rod adds 33% of space in the shower when the water flows and in the bathroom when the shower is off. The curved-rod system, says O'Connell, “transforms one of the most used rooms in the home.”

The company behind the product, Sarasota-based Hot Rods for Baths LLC, has had some success, mostly selling online, including Amazon, and through home goods catalogs. Sales are up 40% in 2015, and the company, which O'Connell says she backed with nearly $1 million in savings, turned its first profitable month late last year. The firm consists of O'Connell and four part-time employees who assemble the products and packaging out of a 2,500-square-foot facility. The parts are made in China.

Lowe's, even with the recent sales success, is O'Connell's sales Holy Grail.

The chain dedicates sought-after space at the front of aisles to inventions and new products, called the Lowe's Innovation End Cap.

“If I get Lowe's,” says O'Connell, “it will make this a $5 million company overnight.”

O'Connell has been meeting with Lowe's officials going back to 2010. The company has suggested tweaks, from the design to the size of the box. On the latter, the initial box was 5 feet long — too big for the shelves at Lowe's. O'Connell has made many of the suggested changes, adding that she has contracts in place with her manufacturer to meet the increased demand, if and when Lowe's comes through.

A onetime cardiac nurse at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, O'Connell invented the Rotator Rod in 2007, when she grew frustrated at the lack of space in the bathroom in her apartment. “I was sitting on the toilet and fighting with the shower curtain,” she says. “I couldn't make that work.”

O'Connell bought a curved shower rod and installed it. But she didn't like that the room gained in the shower was lost outside the shower. A person who says she “likes to figure things out,” O'Connell created a rod that can flip. The first Rotator Rod was attached to each side of the shower in her apartment with closet sockets, bright orange Gatorade caps, furniture slides and lots of wire, glue and screws.

The modern version of the now-patented Rotator Rod, which took three years to bring to market, is sleeker and comes with a drill-free attachment. It's made with stainless steel and is available in bright chrome, brushed nickel or ceramic white. It sells for about $50. Says O'Connell: “I think when people see this, they get it, and they buy it.”

Her overarching challenge is to get people to see the Rotator Rod. O'Connell has addressed the marketing challenge in a variety of ways. She had a TV commercial produced, for $80,000, but that didn't lead to sales. She also recently hosted a kickstarter campaign, also with limited success.

But just like with Lowe's, and the rest of Rotator Rod, O'Connell will not give up easily. “As long as I can see the next step, I can keep going,” says O'Connell. “That's my own motivation.”

Rod it Up
Inventor/entrepreneur Colleen O'Connell says she's learned many lessons in eight years of trying to build sales of the Rotator Rod, a curved shower rod rotation system. Key lessons include:

Robust research: Looking back, O'Connell would like to have known more on certain elements of the business before she took a big leap. “In the early days, I didn't ask enough questions about what I should do next,” she says. “I did many things too early simply because I didn't know any better.”

Slow going: Gaining steady growth in online sales takes longer than O'Connell expected. “Despite the fact that you can physically see what you build instantly, the process of getting your word out takes a great deal of time and patience and lots of trial and error to figure out what works,” O'Connell says.

Stay strong: O'Connell has learned that performance must be tied to pay, especially in big expenditures. “This can be a tough negotiation, and you get a lot of push back but anyone worth their salt will be willing to talk about this,” says O'Connell. “Be willing to walk away if they're not.”

Follow Mark Gordon on Twitter @markigordon