The Corridor Journal of Strategic Alliances Long Island - Global | Page 10

MANUFACTURING
& TECHNOLOGY

A Head for Business

Overseas

By Andrew S. Hazen

In 2003 when I picked-up a bobblehead in a
Spencer’s Gift Store and thought about my dad and
me selling bobbleheads online, I never imagined
that a decade later we would be one of the largest
custom bobblehead manufacturers working with
four factories overseas and over 100 skilled sculptors
and artists.
From 2003 thru 2010 my father, Michael Hazen, and
I were leveraging my ability to drive Internet traffic
with an eCommerce bobblehead business at www.
AllBobbleheads.com (no storefront) that bought
bobbleheads wholesale and sold retail online.
AllBobbleheads was really a hobby that quickly
turned into a six-figure business.
As sales plateaued in 2010 we became a “me-too
business” and I knew it was time for us to pivot! At
that same time we did a joint venture with a group that
had the license for Michael Jackson bobbleheads
except they could not manufacture the dolls.
We seized the opportunity and brought in
Stewart Barnett as our partner because
Stew had decades of
experience in licensing,
manufacturing,
importing and selling
to
brick-and-mortar
stores,
which
we
desperately
needed
help
with. Needless
to say, between
online and offline
sales, we sold tens
of thousands of
Michael Jackson

10

bobbleheads and quickly became experts in
bobblehead design and manufacturing.
As the Michael Jackson bobblehead frenzy was
underway, we received many inquiries about our
custom bobbleheads and minimum order quantities.
It seemed as though the industry standard was
to manufacture no less than a few hundred
bobbleheads, which was confirmed when we
contacted several factories overseas and they would
not produce orders under 500 pieces.
“What if we could make just one single custom
bobblehead at a time?” I asked Michael and
S tew during one of our regular Saturday morning
meetings. Both of them smiled from ear to ear and
we knew instantly we had a BIG IDEA!
Tons of research and sleepless nights
ensued as we explored options
on how we could design and
manufacture one custom
bobblehead at a time and
deliver it to our customers’
door.
We
contacted
countless
polyresin
factories across the globe
to find one that could
not only communicate
with us but would be
willing to manufacture
one bobblehead at a time.
Obstacles such as language,
time differences and currency
did not discourage us nor get
in our way; in fact I think it
drove us to succeed!

Our perseverance paid-off (literally) when we finally
connected with a factory-owner overseas who not
only could communicate in English via email but
could also speak with us in English on Skype. We
began placing small test orders to validate that we
can produce small order quantities for handmade
bobbleheads overseas, ship them to customers all
over the world and handle all the customer service
here in the U.S.
We learned A LOT in the beginning and quickly saw,
heard and felt that doing business overseas is very
different than doing business in the U.S. The twelvehour time difference is typically advantageous as
work is literally being done while we are sleeping but
can be frustrating at times when you need information
at 4pm EST and it’s 4am overseas. There are also
times when cultural/language differences impact our
work, like when a person requests ‘mutton-chops’
(a/k/a sideburns) on their bobblehead and instead
of sideburns, the person’s cheeks literally have the
word ‘mutton-chops’ affixed to them #OhMy!
Having successfully worked with one factory for
nearly a year manufacturing thousands of custom
bobbleheads, one at a time, we took a two week
trip across the globe to not only visit our one
factory but to find more! We worked with several
trade agents in advance of our trip and even used
LinkedIn to connect with potential new factories and
scheduled visits. In less than one year from our start,
AllBobbleheads was manufacturing bobbleheads in
two factories and within three years we now work
with four factories and have licenses with NHL, MLB,
NBA, WWE, Betty Boop, Popeye and more. This
summer, AllBobbleheads made the Inc List of Fastest
Growing Companies Ranking #72 in the U.S. and #4
in New York.

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Manufacturing overseas certainly has its challenges
and quite frankly my partners and I would like nothing
more than to manufacture our bobbleheads here
in the U.S. We’ve been researching and testing 3D
printers for years but the quality, speed and cost are
still not right; I suspect it will be another two to three
years until we can seriously begin manufacturing
bobbleheads here in the U.S.
Andrew Hazen, in addition to heading AllBobbleheads,
is an angel investor, domain-name “addict”, and CEO
of LaunchpadLI, which offers space and resources
to startups and early-stage companies in Mineola,
Huntington, Great Neck, Stony Brook University and
at NYIT, with more to come.

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