Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/90974
By Sharon Verbeten Shall we dance? IN FOCUS { SMA L L B U S I N E S S } Neenah's Cat Dancer products are a global cat's meow Harvey the cat enjoys the original Cat Dancer toy. The simple combination of wiggly wire and corrugated cardboard developed by Jim Boelke has been irresistible to many cats for the past 30 years. fashioning his own toys. "Over the next few years, I gave away thousands of them," he says. But aſter working sundry unsatisfying jobs, Boelke finally listened to his friends and turned "the cat toy thing" into a career. "It just started doing really well, he says. "I really started to see that it had some unique marketing to it. It was very lightweight and very small. " his company's success – but there's no disputing that his 30-year-old Cat Dancer Products in Neenah has done well, selling more than 8 million of the company's eponymous products. How has he done it? "One step, one day, one customer at a time," says the 58-year-old feline fanatic. "I was lucky." And to think that all it took was a "A 42 | INSIGHT • ny day now, I'm going to be in the black." That may be Jim Boelke's playful (and modest) joke about little nudge – and some scrap wire and corrugated cardboard. Here, kitty kitty In the late 1970s, when Boelke was in college, one of his three jobs was November 2012 maintenance work at a factory. "One day, I picked up a piece of wire that was too big to sweep; it kind of bounced around erratically, cats and, Boelke recalls, "Darn if the cats didn't just go nuts. It was just hilarious to watch." Soon all his friends were asking He took it home to his two shelter " he recalls. 1983, financing the venture with $1,500 of his own money and using a Commodore 64 computer to compile his mailing list. The company, housed in a 6,000-square-foot factory off Hwy. 41, now has a dozen products and sells worldwide. "We created a few (production) For very little money, Boelke could put samples of the toy on the desks of buyers throughout the country. Boelke launched Cat Dancer in " for one for their cats. So Boelke began buying inexpensive 20-gauge spring steel wire, topping it with a twisted nugget of corrugated cardboard and "My original product, Cat Dancer (originally called "Kitty Flip"), is a " he says. machines…they are very simple, but they're the only ones on the planet that do it, "The pet industry has weathered the recession very well. Cat toys are a relatively inexpensive indulgence." –Jim Boelke, Cat Dancer Productions www.insightonbusiness .com COURTESY NATALIE VANDEVELD