Who We Are
Bullet Tools is a manufacturing company that creates flooring installation tools
along with products for varied construction and remodeling markets across the globe.
Starting from a simple tool idea in 1998, to celebrating its 10th anniversary with
a full product line in 2008, Company revenue has grown by over 300% in the last
five years, with greater than 50% being exported to the UK, Germany, Australia,
Canada and Japan. In the same time period the number of team members employed by
Bullet Tools has grown from 4 to 17 and they have expanded facilities from 2000
sq. ft. to over 10,000 sq. ft.
Bullet Tools is the developer and innovator of tools that have changed an entire
industry. Over the same five year period Bullet Tools has introduced over a dozen
stunning new tools into the construction industry while staying ahead of the competition
by improving the main tool line on almost a quarterly basis.
Bullet Tools is also an innovator in business systems and processes. This is evidenced
by their application of lean principles throughout their company as well as a focus
on quality processes, enterprise resource planning systems and employee development.
Bullet Tools is family owned and operated by Dalen Gunn, Mary Gunn, Ben Toews, and
Brian Gunn.
Where We Came From
“It can’t be done.” For too many people this statement spells the death sentence
for their dreams and aspirations. But, for me, the all too frequent ‘harbinger of
the unattainable’ often unwittingly inspires me with the spice of challenge rather
than the distressing poison of assumed defeat. It is my father and my family to
whom I must give credit for showing me the power of taking the challenge and running
with it.
When you first meet my father, Dalen Gunn, you would never guess that he is the
CEO of a successful company. His garb usually consists of jeans and a T-shirt and
he likes it that way. But as you get to know him you soon realize that to say he
has an inventive mind would be equivalent to saying that Lance Armstrong just owns
a bicycle. The fact is; his use of his never ending creativity and ability to innovate
continues to impress many people to this day. I cannot count how many times I have
seen my father make something better than before or create something new altogether.
As children we had the pleasure of experiencing many homemade toys and contraptions
such as marble-rolls, maypole swings and impressive tree-houses. And much to the
chagrin of my parents they discovered that little boys believe human beings are
the Holy Grail of all targets as the creation of “The Bottle Rocket Gun” produced
a few unwanted side-effects; mainly the not-soglorious smells of burning hair and
scorched flesh.
When Dalen was young his father would take his boys salmon snagging on Lake Michigan.
While snagging for salmon it was not uncommon to feel the fish “bump” the three-pronged
snag hook as many as twenty times before catching one. So, while in shop class,
Dalen created a mold for a fourpronged hook that resulted in snagging a fish every
four hits or less. Cheers of delight and piles of fish became the undeniable evidence
of the success of Dalen’s new snag hook and soon nearby fishermen where lining up
to purchase a couple of ‘Dalen’s Dominators’
For many years the majority of Dalen’s ideas were packed away in his head as he
worked many long and hard years installing floors while Mary, my mother, remained
home filling the role of homemaker and teacher to me my brother and my sister. In
the late Nineties Dalen was offered the opportunity to take his two decades of flooring
experience and use it to train installers for a major flooring manufacturer . With
a nudge from his wife, he took a step into the unknown. Over the following three
years he traveled the world and his mind became a swirling vortex of ideas as he
discovered a continual need for new and better tools.
"Success is Dressed in Overalls & Looks a lot like Work."
The first, in this new family of tools, was the Skimmer: a small, hand tool designed
to reshape and repair the tongue and groove of laminate flooring. The company that
Dalen was working with at the time had landed a new customer in the Dominican Republic,
so they sent him to train a few of the locals to install their product. When he
arrived he was surprised to discover that none of the ten men he was supposed to
train had ever installed a floor, had never even used a power tool in their life
and only one of them spoke English; a whopping five words. Dalen thought he had
his work cut out for him only to discover the shipment of flooring that arrived
was almost completely ruined as the record levels of humidity from the recent hurricanes
caused the flooring to swell like “wooden sponges.” Hailing straight out of a scene
from a movie our hero whips out the first prototype of the Skimmer, consisting of
a chunk of wood, three files and a cabinet handle, and begins to repair almost every
single board in the shipment, saving the company thousands of dollars and months
of time.
Forty pots of coffee, seven prototypes and two patents later our family began assembling
the first production model of Skimmers out of our kitchen and living room. I will
never forget watching my mother with a telephone sandwiched between her ear and
shoulder selling Skimmers on the phone all the while stirring a giant pot of homemade
chicken noodle soup with one hand, placing an apple pie in the oven with the other
and closing the refrigerator door with her foot. Her talents and dedication to her
family never cease to amaze me.
When my brother-in-law Ben graduated from Gonzaga University, with honors, my parents
had the idea of giving him a certificate representing part ownership in the company
as he had been with us since the beginning. I remember sitting in the back seat
of the car on our way to the graduation party listening to my mom worry about whether
they should give him part of a company that was worth about seventy-five cents more
than a dream… or a watch. What at the time was a gamble, for both my parents and
Ben, quickly became the greatest investment either could have made: his skills,
intelligence and hard work are truly an irreplaceable foundation for the company.
Things had been going well when we discovered that a major tool company decided
to infringe upon our patents and create a copy of the Skimmer. What ensued was a
battle to save our company that taught us a valuable lesson: “It’s not the size
of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog” since your patent
is only as good as your ability to defend it. We barely won and forced them off
the market.
"Somebody Said that it Couldn't Be Done"
By 2001 Dalen had developed many innovative tools including a strapping device that
was a threehundred percent improvement over the industry standard. But the greatest
creation to date began with those fateful words “It can’t be done.” Dalen had an
idea rolling around in his mind about a machine that could shear laminate flooring
without the use of electricity. He mentioned this idea to several of the industry
“experts” and they all said they had either already tried it or just plain “knew”
that it couldn’t be done. Too late, the gauntlet had been thrown; Dalen had been
challenged. He proceeded to create the industry changing Magnum Shear capable of
shearing laminate flooring, without using electricity or creating any dust. And
so Bullet Tools incorporated in 2002 and the company took off.
It became apparent that the company needed more capital so with the help of a business
plan inspired by the Idaho Small Business Development Center we began visiting banks.
Almost every bank in our area flatly refused and one loan officer actually said
“If that thing was a good idea then someone would have thought of it already.” another
said “Come back when you’re bankable” but finally one of the banks took a chance
as long as everything Dalen and Mary owned including us kids was signed over as
collateral… okay, not quite.
Bullet Tools quickly began to see real growth as we sold the Magnum Shear all over
the US and landed a large distributor in Germany. The popularity of the Magnum Shear
was incredible as people began to realize that the Magnum Shear could cut a myriad
of things besides laminate flooring, and often times the cut was better than what
a circular saw could do which can be noisy, unsafe, unwieldy and generate a huge
amount of dust. All of these problems were eliminated and allowed the installer
to cut right where he was working shaving hours off every job.
In 2004 our company had five employees and sales closed to $849,000, but we hit
a roadblock: One of our primary vendors was having serious quality issues trying
to produce the cast aluminum table that was a foundational part of the Magnum Shear.
It got so bad that it almost made our company go bankrupt since we couldn’t produce
the tool without it. So, once again, Dalen hit the drawing board. Over the span
of several months he proceeded to drastically change the machine into a modular
system utilizing aluminum extrusions that could be cut to any length and a lightweight
plastic table. Not only did we eliminate much of the weight, but we were now able
to make any size of machine the market demanded.
Up until 2006 we had seen steady growth, but by mid-summer sales had leveled out,
even though we had invested and planned for growth--once again drastic change was
needed, but this time it was our company, not our products, that needed an adjustment.
So Ben, Mary, Dalen and I all attended classes and read books presented by Bill
Jhung and the Idaho SBDC, giving us the tools to redesign our strategies and once
again foster growth.
A Home and an Office
One necessary growth point was our facility: At 5:00 each morning, the phone would
begin to ring from the east coast, and our home quickly morphed into an office.
Meanwhile, production was going on in tents, under porches, in sheds and packed
into a garage that was bursting at the seams. The property that we were living on
as well as “making a living on” was rezoned commercial/light industrial. So we decided
to expand by adding a warehouse on to the garage. What a relief when we were able
to move into the new building since our small home had desks spread out into every
room - including several of them in the master bedroom - for a total of nine office
areas.
By 2007 our business expanded to seventeen employees, revenue hit well over two
million dollars and we grew to over a thousand distributors in the US with approximately
50% of our products shipping to other countries such as Canada, Germany, The UK
and Australia. Home Depot Rental took on our tools and we became the largest source
of business for several local companies.
While Dalen worked on Research and Development and Production, Mary put herself
to the task of General Management focusing on HR, Marketing/Sales, Facilities, Strategic
project development, Team building, Q/C , leading the charge in Lean thinking, and
Design. Ben focused on General Management of Finance, IT, Sales/Marketing including
International Sales, and Inventory. And I, Brian began the journey of learning every
job in the company from washing floors to Research and Development, Production,
Sales, Payroll, Solutions Department, and Purchasing. My parents believing that
understanding each perspective in the company makes for a better leader and future
VP.
Much of the company strategy is designed around the key concepts learned from books
and the SBDC classes, each of us using our individual talents as a company of effective
leaders, cross functional teams, and manufacturing with lean principles. We all
work hard to create an environment of great attitudes, constant improvement, continued
education and a place for all to contribute at their highest level. If you were
to visit the facility you might notice how the employees have the contribution they
would like to make framed prominently at their desks.
In response to a struggling economy once again the Magnum Shear will undergo major
changes. Instead of raising our prices, we developed the "EZ Shear" our newest economical
cutter. We are branching into many new markets with our shears some of which include
siding, roofing and retail industries. Bullet Tools continues to grow, as we build
a company of effective leaders and versatile teams. We are always working to create
an environment of constant improvement, utilizing lean principals and continued
education that will bring increased revenue and provide jobs in the great state
of Idaho.
If I have ever learned anything from a home-grown American family business it’s
that life never brings problems; only challenges. And that: “It can be done”
Brian Gunn
Part-Owner of Bullet Tools™