Archive: Business & Technology

In this day and age all you need to be in business is a computer, a modem, and a phone. You can have multiple large facilities, a space in your home, or anything in between. One such Lansing home business is Hagstrom Electronics, Inc., the brainchild of Dave Hagstrom.

The company makes keyboard encoders and other interfaces and electronic gadgets. A keyboard encoder is a device that makes the computer think you pressed a key, or series of keys, on your keyboard. It allows the keyboard to function normally, but allows another device to provide input as well.

In the early 90s Dave Hagstrom, an electrical engineer, found a need for these devices in many of the projects he worked on, but the service given by the manufacturers was unacceptable. Frustrated, he built one for a specific project he was working on. Then he thought, "If I just tweaked this a little bit I can try selling it as a product." Thus his company was born.

Owner Dave Hagstrom and Stan Tucker

Mr. Hagstrom, originally from Owego, started the company in 1994. He moved the business and his family from Endicot to Lansing in 2002. When the Hagstroms built their house, a separate space was designed on the ground floor to house the business. The company does no walk-in business, but it was important to have a space that allowed for modest growth in an area zoned to allow about three full time employees (not including the family).

Building the company meant reaching the right customers. "The best early exposure we had was press releases in trade journals. Those really go a long way, much further than an advertisement does," he says. He offered his products at lower prices as an incentive for customers to jump from established companies to his. "Our sales have always gone up, every year since 1994."

"Price was part of it," he says, "but I really wanted to provide was customer service, because the experiences that I had with other companies were really not that good. I said, 'What if we're nice to people on the phone? What if we ship when we say we're going to? Basically listen to the customer, ask what they want and when they want it, and give it to them. And still, today, we do that." His marketing has expanded as well. "Being in business as long as we've been there is a lot of word of mouth, and now you have the Internet." There is a web site and a catalog that comes out about twice a year.

The product line has evolved over the years based on customer needs and changing technology. The original device is still popular. The company also does custom work, which has included wireless applications and an infrared project. The most unusual job was a tracking device that scanned a keypad to collect data to analyze how efficiently the cows were being milked in a milking parlor in Australia.

Customers range from individuals to large corporations like Dell Computer and IBM to individuals. "We have customers from bakeries to the B-1 bomber, says Mr. Hagstrom. "We sell to Fortune 500 companies, and all over the world." Museums, including the Museum of Science in Boston buy his devices.

One of his favorites is Ardman Animations, that produces the Wallace and Grommet animations. The animators were having to walk from the animation rig to a computer some distance away to press a button each time they wanted to capture a frame. They bought three units to bring a button closer to their equipment. The Disney company has bought devices that are used in interactive display kiosks that are used at premiers of animated films.

An expanded product line

A large part of the manufacturing process is outsourced, so Mr. Hagstrom doesn't have to keep a large quantity of finished products stocked in his Lansing office. A company in Binghamton assembles the products in a quick time frame from kits of parts he sends them. "What that gives us is unlimited production," he says. "We constantly have a flow of products coming in from them, restocking our supplies as they are used up." The final quality control testing is done in the Lansing office, and then they are shipped out.

The company currently has five employees, including Mr. Hagstrom. Stan Tucker, of Groton, is another engineer who works in the office. He had been working for Jamex Vending Systems, which has been another Lansing home business for many years and is next door to the Hagstroms. At first he commuted to Endicot and was thinking of relocating to be nearer his job. He was glad when the company moved to Lansing, and he stayed put.

The other three employees are family members. Two sons write computer utilities that go with the hardware, and Dave's wife Janice is a graphics artist who works on the catalog and web site. Currently the company wants to hire two new employees, one for a technical position and the other in sales and marketing.

He enjoys having the business at home, because it allows him to see his family, especially when things get busy. "If I had a separate place of business I never would have been home. This way I can work during the day, have dinner and be with the family until nine or ten o'clock at night, and then come down to my office and work on a few things."

It is easy to see businesses along Triphammer Road, and those that have offices and buildings, but there are a surprising number of home businesses hidden in Lansing. With obvious lifestyle advantages it is possible to make a living and have a world-wide business by finding a niche working from home. Dave Hagstrom has found his.

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