Interview with Jim Powers, Creator of the Perfect Purple Picker

Meet the Puna Preneurs

With introduction by Sylvia Dolena, director of the Entrepreneur Hub.

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Interview with Jim Powers Creator of the Perfect Purple Picker

The Interviewer is Raydiance Joy Grace

Interviewer: “What benefits did you receive from being in the Entrepreneurial Hub Program with Sylvia Dolena and Robert Golden?”

Jim Powers: “I would say it was nice to have connections to other businesses that were new and trying to become successful.

Business owners are usually isolated from each other. It helped me to work on my business plan. It helped with the discipline of creating a format for the plan rather than starting from scratch. In the course, we went through different parts of the business plan and had time to rewrite and revise those parts. We had to think about worst-case and more likely scenarios and how to respond to those situations and be realistic. Business people tend to be too optimistic. I got to review the basics of how to start a business, which is always good, even though I had already been making sales. When you are starting a new business, you are trying to do everything at once and playing every role without help or staff. Later in the course, we had mentors we could talk to, who had experience in business that we could dialogue about what we were doing and that had good ideas for us coming from a different point of view. I found this very useful.”

Interviewer: “How did your work with Sylvia Dolena influence you?”

Jim Powers: “She led the program outlining what we would be covering in each topic and then we shared what we were doing based on the subject matter. We got a chance to put into words what we were practicing at that stage while other participants could make comments. We helped each other brainstorm new ideas that we would have not thought of ourselves. We became a think tank for each other. Sylvia led us, kept us on track, was the guide, and gave us a roadmap to follow which was very useful because a new business owner is doing everything themself. She also encouraged us to fully participate at every level. The curriculum was presented online once or twice weekly with concepts, thoughts, and ideas that we would discuss that related to the business plan or our skill building, public speaking, and how to present yourself. All kinds of things that we would not have thought of ourselves.”

Interviewer: “ Would you recommend this program to anyone wanting to start a business?”

Jim Powell: “Absolutely! Anyone starting a business would be lucky to be in this program and I think it will continue to get better as there are now 10 of us who have gone through the program. I suspect we will be the mentors for the new business owners. If they continue getting the grant, this program could build successfully and help a lot of businesses to succeed, otherwise they would fail. I think if the businesses that were in this program had not participated, they would have had a higher chance of failing. We are a group now that can help each other as problems arise.”

Interviewer: “What initially inspired you to invent the Perfect Purple Picker?”

Jim Powers: “I was living on Kauai with papaya trees that got so high, I couldn’t safely stand on a ladder to pick them. I had a claw picker which is a metal basket on a long pole that damages the papaya I was trying to pick and also the ones surrounding it. It would poke holes and scrap the surrounding papayas. I was very unhappy with it, so being an inventor, I thought how could this be improved? There’s got to be a better way to pick a papaya! I went back to the hardware store and bought everything round and made out of rubber. I had a 3D printer at home to create a model that could connect to the extension pole. After I returned to the Big Island several years later, I continued to pursue this idea with research on different types of rubber and I discovered that silicone is a sticky rubber. I finally found a company that could produce a round cup. I love the color purple and thus the Perfect Purple Picker was born. I ordered my first 100, then 300 and next I needed 500. I took my picker into an Ace Hardware store locally and talked to the manager who had just lost his supplier to the claw picker. I showed him the picker and after negotiations, the manager said, “Let’s try it in four stores”. They sold well, so he decided to put them in all 10 stores on the Big Island. As orders continued to grow, I was placed in all 20 Ace stores on four of  the Hawaiian Islands.”

Interviewer: “Did you have an “aha moment” when you knew you were on your way to having a successful, viable business?”

Jim Powers:  ”I still am afraid that this won’t work but every time I get an order, I get a dopamine hit and I think this may be a good idea. It was a great opportunity and I feel fortunate to have made the connection to Ace Hardware because working with them allowed me to grow gradually. The Entrepreneur Hub program helped me to be realistic instead of freaking out about all the things I hadn’t done.  I created a business plan that had 3 phases, the first phase was to grow gradually so I could learn what I needed to learn so we were not in a hurry and that enabled us to make changes, adjustments, and try new stuff. I had a miracle happen at the Maku’u market because of Puna Happenings. We had advertised our “Perfect Purple Picker” in their online newsletter which attracted a customer to our booth who wants to distribute our picker in Colorado where they pick a lot of peaches”

Interviewer: “Do you have any inspirational messages for new entrepreneurs wanting to start their business here in Puna?”

Jim Powers: “If you are lucky enough to get into the entrepreneurial program, go for it! If not, find other people that can help you to get started. Be optimistic and at some point, just start because if you stay fearful for very long you will never start your business. You learn a lot from your failures, take baby steps, try to be fearless, and find other people you can talk with.”