Windsor, Connecticut Stu Ganslaw and Curt Rutsky started their business because they knew big companies wouldn't fool with this niche market and they also knew this part of the market very well. We join them in their new $9.5 million state-of-the-art manufacturing facility to make specialty adhesive products — tapes that are sticky on both sides. The two started the company in 1982 and admit their timing was perfect.

Curt was a member of the Council of Growing Companies and shares with us his Sliver of Genius

KEY IDEAS FROM THE CASE STUDY.

• Partner with someone who has skills you don't have but who shares the same values.
• Make a product big companies don't want to make.
• Support the growth of every employee.
• Invest in technology to reap profits in the long run.
• Price is an issue but not the only issue.

• READ THE TRANSCRIPT All the words of this show, right here.

• SIGNUP! THIS SCHOOL'S JUST FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS: If you enroll in one of the courses within Small Business School, you can become part of several different small businesses indexes. You and your business can qualify to:
  • Get listed within your business type and within your state's listings,
  • Be profiled on a show (local or national),
  • Generate automatically a business plan for debt financing and/or a SCOR for equity financing,
  • Be listed within a Small Business index, and
  • Qualify to be listed within the "best of small businesses within a business category" and be immediately pre-qualified for equity investments from several mutual and pension funds.

• AT YOUR LOCAL COLLEGE: Check this list of schools (partial). Also, check for classes with your local Small Business Development Center, Chamber of Commerce, and Economic Development Commission.
• OTHER SEGMENTS:
  • In the Trenches. Yvonne LaFleur in New Orleans.
  • Integrity Selling. Ron Willingham, author of When Good isn't Good Enough, The Best Seller, and Hey, I'm the customer
  • Do the right thing.Professor Dr. Laura Nash, author of Good Intentions Aside.
  • StreetFighter Marketing. Jeff Slutsky
    Law Talk. John Dolan
• LOOK AT STEPS 1- 8. Think about where you are and where you want to be.
• STUDY BUSINESSES BY TYPE.

• WATCH TV! To find out what is airing in your market, check your local PBS-member station.

• CONTACT:
  Scapa Tapes/Coating Sciences Inc.,
  111 Great Pond Dr., Windsor, CT 06095
  Tel: 800-801-0323