Wealthymr's blog: "The Original Indoor Grower"

Marketing The MH Grow Light

The First completed MH Grow Light systems came to me from the distributor in early 1978. The excitement of seeing what we drew on paper in completed form was overwhellming. Remember I was a teenager (Although to all business associates I lied about my age and said I was 21) who was new to the concept of product development and Strategic Marketing, but I was an ambitious type who never took no for an answer so sales came easy to me. The first thing I did was go to all my friends and try to sell them on a light, I sold two. The problem for most was Price...The cost to me was $125.00, I marked them up 100% to $250.00 and at that price my friends had to pass. The reality of having to find buyers that wanted and could afford a light hit me then...I had to find the Growers or I could never sell the lights, It's not like I could go door to door and sell them like I did with my Curb number painting business, I needed to be creative and fast, I only had 30 days until I had to pay the distributor for the lights.

I had been succesful with my other business ith leaving a "Notice" on there door encouraging them to contact me to paint their curb number, I had a God given talent with writing advertising copy (I am now recognized as one of the top Direct Mail marketers in the US). I decided to run Line ad's in the local papers, There was the Recycler and Easy Ad's in Southern California and most that wanted to buy a used or specialty item used them to find it. This is where I first used the Tag Line "GROW THOSE PLANTS YOU WANT TO CAMOUFLAGE 30% FASTER THAN GROWING OUTDOORS". I knew I could not advertise..Growing marijuana, so I came up with that advertising slogan and the papers let me place my ad's. I also started taking the Lights to local swap meets to show and sell along with the Lighting supplies and lamps I had been selling. This marketing efforts brought about five light sales a week....I was not going to get rich off that but it was a start.

I found out early on that there were three types of buyers, there was the consumable buyer who wanted to grow his own to smoke, not sell, there was the Get Rich Quick Buyer who only saw dollar signs and a way to make quick money and then there were the real "Growers" - These guys were the serious, hard core growers that you did not want to piss off. I realized as I would try and sell the first two groups a light, that they knew nothing about growing and expected me to tell them how to use the lamps. I was no grower, but knew that to sell any product you needed to know it well and believe in it so I went on a mission to learn all there was to know about growing....and the real Growers were my teachers.

This Article/Blog is not about how to grow but it is important to point out some facts that we, the Growers and I learned as we all were new to MH Growing. The first lessons we learned were how long to run the lights, how to mimic the growing season with time adjustments as the process of growing these plants indoors needed to mimic real life conditions to succedd. The learning process lasted a few crops but we finally got it right!! I found that as I learned more about growing the higher my closing rate was with my prospects. Although I did not grow my own crops, I was involved with every cycle of growing through constant contact with my clients. The obvious benefit to indoor growing on the economic side was that you could grow ALL YEAR Round...there was no growing season..and the growers saw this as the future of underground growing and would buy my lights on a regular basis.

I was selling about 50 units a month at this time and as a 17 year old naive kid that was alot of money, although as with any business that profit was going into inventory and other areas, like my self indulgence in other substances that the 80's became known for. I was so busy with the day to day side of the grow light business that my other income streams from the curb painting and fluorescent lighting sales dried up as I paid no attention to them. I was hooked on this Miami Vice type of business and wanted to do more, hence I needed a national audience...Thats when High Times Magazine came into play 

DRAFT DRAFT - More to write latter...I am to damn tired now..lol