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Armed with my video camera, I set out to shoot a short infomercial for my guitar stand product. I wanted to make a video commercial that showed potential customers exactly what they should expect when they order one of my products.  I wanted them to be able to see how the product will be delivered, how easy it is to set it up, and what it will look like in their living room.  Below is the infomercial I include in all my ebay listings. Keep an eye out for America’s next top supermodel!

I bounced some ideas off a coworker that was also into the Guitar Hero game.  Not only was it important to have a stand that would organize the plastic guitar mess, but it would also be nice to be able to display your guitars.  After all, they do come with sticker sheets so you can customize them, so why not show them off?  I built two prototype stands, one for me and one for my coworker.  Each stand held two guitars and they were angled in such a way that you could see the front of both guitars.  The stands turned out great and worked like a charm.

Then I started thinking that with the huge popularity of the Guitar Hero game, there must be other people out there with the same clutter problem.  I took a good look at my design and made small changes so that I could make them at low cost using readily available materials, and make them very quickly with very little waste.

I posted my first Guitar Hero Stand on ebay and was elated when it quickly sold.  After I sold a few more, I ramped up production and began selling them as fast as I could make them.  Before long, I was receiving special requests for stands that would hold 4 guitars and requests for wall hangers to hold the guitars on the wall.  I started making 2-guitar stands, 4-guitar stands, and diamond and lightning bolt shaped wall hangers and selling every one I posted for sale.  I was also receiving requests for different colors and designs, the most popular being the black stand with flames shown below!

In March of 2008, I proudly started my small business Measure Twice Products, LLC. 

Click here to visit my website at www.measuretwiceproducts.com!

I started out building typical projects such as bird houses which never seemed to turn out so good.  As I got older my projects became more complicated.  I remember building a tall coat rack for my mother’s Christmas gift one year.  A coat rack sounds simple, but as I quickly found out, each project has its own challenges.  How big should the base be to prevent it from tipping over from the weight of coats?  How tall should it be?  I still don’t think it’s possible to cut the end of a post off perfectly square with a hand saw.  I finished the coat rack and mom loved it, even though the post was standing a little crooked.

After many blisters, cut fingers, and hammered thumbs, I became old enough to begin using power tools.  I think the first power tool I used was a jig saw.  My first thought was “What was I thinking trying to cut wood with a hand saw all this time?”  But I know without using hand tools first, I would not have had the same amount of appreciation for power tools.  One can never have too many power tools right?  It’s funny how still today I sometimes resort back to using a regular old hand saw.

Over the years, I have created other projects such as tables, foot stools, chairs, curio cabinets, bed headboards, and even an armoire entertainment center.  Each project truly does have it’s own challenges, but one project in particular brought out the entrepreneur in me that I didn’t know was even there.

Being a guitar player, the first time I played the Guitar Hero video game back in 2005 I was hooked.  I was amazed at how well they captured the feel and excitement of playing a real guitar, without having to actually learn how to play a guitar.  And there were no strings digging into your fingers either.  I purchased the first few versions of the game and soon had plastic guitars and wires laying on my living room floor.  Kids were stepping on them and wires were getting sucked into the vacuum cleaner, so a solution had to be found.  This was the beginning of what became my own small woodworking business.