The Idea.

It all began with an idea. An idea that wasn’t too out of the ordinary. If you call trying to make a pair of duct tape shorts not out of the ordinary. After all, it was only the beginning.
I was in 8th grade at the time. It was 5 days until graduation. I had an urge to do something crazy. I wanted to be different. I though making a pair of shorts out of duct tape would meet that goal and get me some attention, something to be remembered for after my long and mundane 9-year educational career at Andrew Jackson Language Academy. I was a very quiet and overlooked in elementary and middle school, so in order to stand out and be remembered, I needed to do something crazy. It worked.
With July 13 came my brother’s birthday. On our way to Giordano’s we came across some teenagers with a sign that read “FREE HUGS!” I was caught off guard. I didn’t give them hugs. Later on that day, I wish I had. It seemed like a good way to spread love, peace and happiness and I wanted to be part of that. Not all was lost that day though. It got me thinking. The rest of the summer I used duct tape to make free hugs t-shirts and gave away free hugs in downtown Chicago. I even created a sign with poster board and sharpies.
One rainy day, the urge to give away free hugs came to me. I didn’t have a waterproof sign, so the logical conclusion was to create a pink and purple free hugs sign out of duct tape so that it would not get ruined in the rain and I could advertise free hugs even when it was raining! It’s a great way to meet new people as well as spread joy and happiness, and show people that they are loved. While I was giving away free hugs one day, someone came up to me and asked if I could make them a duct tape “Free Hugs” sign. I agreed and whipped out my pink and purple duct tape and in ten minutes I had their mini free hugs sign finished and received four dollars for my work. The idea of selling my creations out of duct tape grew and I determined that I could create other items out of duct tape to sell. Some other items that I have tried to sell are: wallets, card wallets, baseball hats, signs, belts, roses, ties, and mini Frisbees/ Coasters.
Because I was planning to make and sell items crafted from duct tape, the next step was to buy some duct tape so I invested 125 dollars in 24 rolls of duct tape. 125 divided by 24 rolls of duct tape equals out to about $5.20 per roll, which for duct tape is a great deal for 60 yards worth of duct tape. (Especially because it was good quality duct tape, easy to work with, and thick enough to make good quality items.) If I had gotten less than a case (24 rolls) of duct tape, each roll would have cost be between 8 and 9 dollars. Most of the duct tape did not go towards items that I sold to people. I sold about 2 hats for 15 dollars each and that’s about all that went towards my business. A lot of it was used for personal things that did not allow me to aquire the cash flow to start my business. So I decided I would have to go back to the drawing board, do some more research and come up with a business plan.
Durring my time at Walter Payton College Prep, I have strived to achieve the goal of creating a duct tape business. I learned all that I could about starting my own business. I learned about net profits and gross profits. I learned about business plans and mission statements. I learned about sole proprietorships, limited liability companies, partnerships, joint stock companies, corporations, “s” corporations, and much more. I learned about cash flow and accounting. I took business courses online in order to allow me to better understand the business world and to compete in it with my business idea. I learned that I should come up with a name for my business so that it would be easier to tell people about my business. The name I chose was Duck Duct Dave.
I started to give away free hugs downtown in order to get people’s positive attention and hand out my duct tape business cards in order to publicize my business. I did not get as much attention as I had hoped. I needed to come up with an official plan for my business. On October 24, 2008 I had a prepared a preliminary final copy of my business plan for Duck Duct Dave. A couple months after my business plan was made, I checked out a book from the library called “Start Your Own Business, The Only Start Up Book You’ll Ever Need” by Rieva Lesonsky by Entrepreneur Magazine. I learned a lot from this book and created a business mission statement anyone would be proud of.
“Duck Duct Dave creates unique custom duct tape merchandise such as wallets, roses, etc. as well as humorous apparel. Through our dedication to Free Hugs we strive to create an atmosphere where customers become friends and discover hobbies that deliver relaxation and stimulate creativity. We aim to convey an image of friendship, love, happiness, comfort, and uniqueness. Through Duck Duct Dave we aim to befriend our customers and live the example of duct tape- an unassuming object that can be transformed into something fantastical. Overcome the odds… “When In Doubt, Duck It Out!” Even with all of this effort, my business is still a hatching chick struggling to break through the shell, the first major test of life.
My status as a student has lead me to encounter many setbacks and inconveniencies along the long and difficult road of starting a business. Being a student, one tends to get a copious amount of homework. With all of this homework, there is not much time for anything else. That is, if you do the homework. Through my freshman and sophomore years, I would sometimes spend time working on my business rather than finishing my homework. I became less focused on school and more obsessed with making money through my business. Naturally, my grades suffered and I started to become depressed. I struggled to balance both my business and school at the same time but while I put so much effort into my business, I was not seeing much in terms of results. At the same time my grades were getting worse and worse because of me falling behind in my school workload, spinning me down into a horrible whirlwind of feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, failure, thoughts of suicide and stupidity, mingled with hope for my future and the future of my business. On top of all of this, hormones and girl problems both added to all of the emotional strife and drama included in a teenage life. All of this added up together and you have, let’s just say, an emotional wreck.
All of this experience has shaped and influenced my idea of what I want my life to be like. My dream job is to be a Professional Free Hugger. Going around the country, living in a car, Volkswagon Bus or Subaru Outback, giving away free hugs in order to spread love peace and happiness, selling my items that I make out of duct tape in order to make a living. This way I Can be there for those people, who are depressed and are in need of someone to love them, and I can be that person to love them. I can be there for that person in there emotional wreck. And love them, and help them and be there for them.