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Coeur d'Alene Press, The (ID)
Bullet Tools
on target
Growth leads to state honor for Hayden business
Bill Buley; Staff writer
Published: April 5, 2009
HAYDEN - The messages are clear, concise and they cover the walls on both
sides as you walk up the stairs. "Never mistake activity for
achievement."
"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation.
Character is what you really are. Reputation is what people say you
are."
"Genius is 1 percent inspiration 99 percent perspiration."
Mary Gunn smiles as she looks over the 8-inch x 10-inch sheets taped
to the walls.
"He is a believer in motivational, inspirational messages,"
she says of her husband, Dalen Gunn, company president.
"I like to tinker and invent things," he answers.
Apparently, they work, too.
The Gunns own Bullet Tools, Inc., in Hayden, which
recently was named the 2009 Idaho Small Business Exporter of the Year by the
U.S. Small Business Administration.
"It is amazing that this company, formed only a few years ago,
has been able to grow so fast domestically, let alone internationally, said
Norm Proctor, Boise SBA district director. "This is truly a made in America
success story."
The manufacturing company creates flooring installation tools
along with other products used for construction and remodeling at its Hayden Avenue
site.
From annual sales of $22,000 that first year in 2002, the company
today posts yearly sales of about $2 million and employs 17.
"It's miraculous that we're here," Mary Gunn said.
"When we came in, the big boys out there didn't want us. Many times we
almost went out of business."
But they didn't and now, Bullet Tools has aggressive
goals and is targeting 20 percent growth.
Bullet Tools'
products are already shipped to the UK,
Germany, Australia, Canada
and Europe. Products are being shown in
trade shows in Spain, Italy, Brazil,
Japan, with sales in Taiwan and China on the horizon.
"We're always looking for international opportuni-ties,"
said Ben Toews, vice
Dalen Gunn was working as a flooring installation trainer for a
company in the mid-90s and saw the need for better tools to install
lami-nate and Pergo flooring.
"It grew to be the number one, easiest to install, especially for
the do-it-yourselfer," he said. "People would buy pallet loads, go
home and put it together, but there weren't a lot of tools for
it."
He came up with a handheld tool for repairing tongue or groove
on the flooring so it fit together property.
It was called "The Skim-mer" and sales soared.
"We never really in our mind thought we were going to have a tool
company some day. It was just some little side thing we were doing," he
said.
In those early days, Dalen and Mary Gunn worked from their home.
"This used to be my garden right here. I can remember having
dinner on the stove and home schooling the kids and answering phones for
skimmer sales," Mary said as she stood in an office at Bullet's
headquarters.
At one point, they had seven office spaces divided up in their home.
Their bedroom was filled with order forms, boxes and supplies.
"And I'm still sane," Mary laughed.
"This room was where we started making machines. Right
here," Dalen said as they toured the building.
As business grew, they placed 20' by 20' tents throughout their
property. Eventually, they were annexed into Hayden, added a new building and
bought a home nearby.
Dalen soon had another invention take off call the Magnum Shear. What
it did, basically, was cut flooring without the mess and dust. It was also,
unlike anything else on the market, fairly light and transportable.
"Others tried it and said it couldn't be done. You couldn't build
a machine lightweight enough to be portable and take it in the field and
shear laminate flooring," he said.
"We shear sheet metal. We shear everything. My thought was,
'There's got to be a way to develop a machine.'
"I started to work on a tool that would shear it without
dust," he said. "Look at it like a paper cutter on steroids."
Mary Gunn said the machine "basically changed an entire
industry."
"Because a professional installer could save one whole day of a
three-day installation just because he didn't have to get up and down to make
cuts," he said. "He could bring this little guy right next to
him."
Dalen Gunn was working for a Spokane
company at the time that went out of business after 9/11.
"Which at that point forced us to go into business for
ourselves," he said. "I actually went back to installing flooring.
In the meantime, we were working on the Magnum Shear."
Bullet Tools
Bullet Tools
was born in Jan. 2002.
Dalen was handling product development, Mary was in charge of
marketing and Ben Toews was looking after the business end. Son Brian became
part owner and works in purchasing.
By 2005, sales were exceeding expectations, and the Gunns turned to
the Small Business Administration for guidance.
"None of us had any experience," Dalen said. "I'm just
a dumb old flooring installer. I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to
business."
The SBA turned out to be a "godsend" and provided free
assistance. Securing a bank loan for expansion proved more difficult, as they
were turned down several times.
"I remember being upset," Dalen said. "The more people
said, 'It can't be done,' that was just more inspiration to do it. I said,
'Some day, you're going to ask me to put my money in your bank,'" he said.
Finally bankcda "stepped up to the plate and provided a $10,000
loan.
"That's how we got going," Dalen said.
Bill Jhung, director of the Idaho
Small Business
Development Center,
said there are two things that set Bullet Tool apart.
· They are learners, beginning with Dalen Gunn. "They are humble
enough to say we don't know how to get better so we need to learn,"
Jhung said.
· Once they understand the potential benefit they move to action
quickly. "So they gain leverage at low cost they gain great benefit
quickly," he said.
"These two combinations are powerful to keep the business
innovating and moving forward and not get stagnant," Jhung said.
What's ahead
Bullet Tools
has nine models of the Magnum Shear, its best seller, and is working on two
more to have out by year's end.
"For every idea he has, he's got a pile of them waiting in the
wings to invent," Mary Gunn said of her husband. "It's just a
matter of time."
All told, it offers about 25 products, including shirts and hats with
their bullet logo on them.
"It's not very PC, but they love it," Mary Gunn laughed.
With the current economic crisis, Dalen went back to the drawing board
to make an "economical cutter" that costs less to produce, is
lighter, retails for less and could be used for roofing, flooring and siding.
He succeeded.
One shearer that weighed 90 pounds last year, through modifications,
is down to 57 pounds.
"We're small, we're quick on our feet, we're holding
steady." Mary Gunn said. "Dalen says when people aren't building
new houses, they're remodeling the ones they're in, and our tool is
fantastic for that."
They are also branching into the rental equipment market.
"We constantly changing, discovering new things," Toews
added.
Dalen is also working on a new concept involving sports goods, and
acquired some Web sites along that line.
"We're finding the ideas developed in house, the ones that's
we've been able to put our hearts and our passion behind it, have been
successful for us," he said.
Mary credits quality, integrity and service for their success.
"Everybody says that. We actually make a quality tool,"
she said.
A good work environment is important, with an emphasis on attitude,
goals and teamwork, Dalen Gunn said.
"With the right atmosphere, you can produce with 17 employees
what some companies may have 100 employees to produce," he said.
Dalen add a commitment to "American Made" is important to
the company. Most of their vendors are local.
"The idea of made in America
became intriguing to us, and made in Idaho
has really become intriguing to us,' he said.
The name, Bullet Tools, is a play off their name, of
course. They occasionally receive calls from people asking if they sell
reloading equipment.
"It really caught on," Dalen laughed.
Dalen Gunn, president of Bullet Tools, talks about how
contractors can benefit from using his tools Friday at the company's
headquarters in Hayden.
SHAWN GUST/Press
SHAWN GUST/Press
Several Mag Shear Lite cutters, one of nine models of construction
material cutters made by Bullet Tools, are stacked on a pallet
Friday before being retro-fit with an upgrade at the company's Hayden
warehouse.
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