The Life of A Small Manufacturer
Posted by: Jim in Making Money, Our Story, Work
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We haven’t lived the typical office life for nearly a year now, since selling our business.
And I must say, we don’t miss it one bit.
We got a pleasant reminder of running your own business, however, while in Los Angeles.
We had the chance to meet Arnie Costell, who owns Watson’s Pet Products – manufacturers of the Bottom’s Up Leash. More about that to come on Jerry’s site soon.
But having run a busy graphics shop with just the two of us, we could relate with how Arnie manages his entire business all by himself.
Arnie is quite a character, a great guy, and a smart business man. He pitched for the NY Yankees from 1978 to 1988 and is proud of his two world series rings. He’s worked in the garment industry and has been burned by partners less passionate about his products, which were developed for his beloved senior dog Watson.
He wears all of this experience like a badge of honor. And while it comes off like he might be able to sell ice to the eskimos, well … he probably could. But he wouldn’t have to sell hard. They would choose to buy from him because he believes in his product.
After all, he develops the products, takes the orders, packages the goods, ships them, and answers the phone. Ahhh, the joys of running your own business …
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March 22nd, 2008 at 8:55 am
How come a guy named COSTELL owns WATSON’S Pet Products? Where’s Watson?
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:34 am
How did you guys stumble upon Arnie??? If you didn’t say he was a pitcher before i would have thought he was a life long husler.lol. Just shows how life can change and we have to reinvent ourselves to stay in the game…He did say he’s looking for a business partner..mmm .
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Watson passed away at the ripe old age of 14 or so. He is pictured on the banner behind Arnie. May he rest in peace.
Arnie actually found us through Jerry’s Blog. We have the Bottom’s Up Leash in his Tripawds Store, and one day we got a call from the manufacturer!
March 24th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Very cool, Thanks for sharing.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
i looked mr. costell up on the yankees website and he never played for them. look up the roster from 1978 to 1988 and you will see no one with the last name costell. was he talking about the little league yankees?
June 27th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
We met Arnie and take his word for it about pitching for the Yankees. The picture in his office of him in uniform on the mound and his Yankees ring helped … Don’t know what to tell you about the roster info.
July 9th, 2008 at 1:36 am
i know for a fact arnie costell was never on a major league baseball roster. he is lying. i am the biggest yankee fag and i did not find him in any box score book or archive. maybe he got the ring from a cereal box, it certainly was not from the mlb association.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:21 pm