Driven

Some people are driven to perform. Meet Don Carlson, CEO of Deliverance Safety Hammer. Don began his career working in his parents’ business selling office supplies in 1954, helping them build the company. Since then he’s developed and grown many affiliate companies in everything from real estate to engineering.  When Carlson decided to retire at age 79, he went on to start another company!

Carlson and his buddy Rudy Canlas, an engineer at Everwin, had a discussion about the tools available for driving nails and the lack of an ergonomically designed option.

“There are lots of powered hammers to drive a nail,” Carlson said, “but they are injurious to the hand and wrist.”

The injuries that are likely to result from pounding with most hammers include repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel, trigger finger, and tennis or golf elbow. Pounding nails can lead to injuries causing pain, missed workdays, and delays. People who start young in construction may be harming their musculoskeletal system over years and years of pounding.

With that in mind, Canlas, developed a couple of adaptations for an ergonomically designed pneumatic nailer that pounds nails 1 1/2″ to spike size. They strike the nail 37 times per second making pounding fast, easy, and painless, helping to correctly position arms and wrists to avoid stressing them. Carlson saw great potential for remodeling, refurbishing, and demolition and Deliverance Safety Hammer was born.

Innovation

A friend — a manufacturer and farmer who was driving fence staples manually  — suggested developing an ergonomic power stapler. At the time, he was using a manual stapler, and Carlson says that they couldn’t find an ergonomically designed option, so they introduced one, The Deliverance Stapler. It works with variously sized staples with quick-change coupler stapling and staple removing for wire fence staples.

The company is getting ready to launch its newest product — a tool dedicated to driving nails into metal connectors and hangers, and of course, it offers the same protection from injury as the first two tools.

The company’s innovative ideas all come from friends and associates who are facing problems that the market has not adequately addressed. Carlson divulged that they have yet another tool to introduce to the market, but it’s not ready to be revealed.

Pounding Away

The company is small, consisting of Carlson, his wife Lynne, and son-in-law Wyatt Demasseo, Director of Marketing. They are located in Scottsdale, Arizona, but their products are not limited to any region. Their main market is construction hardware suppliers, and these safety tools can be shipped worldwide.

One of the main challenges the company has faced is getting the word out. To remedy this, they are running more advertising, and they have enhanced their website with videos so people can see how efficiently their tools work. Demasseo still has quite the job before him; there is a huge target market out there still to be tapped.

A marketing enterprise Carlson’s team has had much success with is STAFDA (Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association). This network has a membership of over 2,000 businesses that support each other by buying mainly within the network. Its response to Deliverance Tools has been outstanding.

Business Advice

Every tool has to be repaired sooner or later, Carlson said, so make sure that you have a good setup to repair the tools. This is good customer service, and if the shop is local, the customer is likely to buy other materials while he is there.

Every new product needs a good marketing plan. Go to trade shows; talk to suppliers. These things are easy to put off, but Carlson says that he wishes now he had started sooner. Don’t count on word of mouth alone; get your name out there. RB