As a clinical psychologist, Brenda Ellner advised patients to write down their goals and aspirations on a notecard and read it four to five times a day.
While this may have worked therapeutically, her patients grew to dislike the cards and wished she'd come up with another device that could accomplish the same purpose.
"And I started thinking about it. Walking the beach one day, it became clear that it had to be in a watch because it was an indispensable item and it was something on the outside you could see the time and on the inside you would have a quiet moment on a busy day where you could put a message," says Ellner, president of HourPower (http://www.hourpowerwatches.com), a marketer of watches containing a secret chamber for inserting inspirational messages, photographs and the like.
About four and a half years ago, she started up the Cleveland-based firm. Today, HourPower has a base of more than 20,000 customers who come from the Internet, jewelry stores, corporations and some nonprofit agencies, says Ellner, who no longer sees patients.
"This has become a fulltime position now," she says.
To publicize Hour Power, the company is relying on things like press releases, word of mouth and search engine marketing.
"We're just moving into podcasts and using all the kind of guerilla ways that a small company can use," she says.
In addition, HourPower has some business from nonprofit healthcare agencies like the March of Dimes as well as with some drug and alcohol abuse programs. The firm is also seeking to develop more business in the wedding market—where watches are given as gifts traditionally, says Ellner.
Going forward, Ellner hopes her company can help redefine the product category
"You know 200 years ago, people wore glasses on their nose and they didn't have something to put around their ears," says Ellner. "So we think we can expand people's ideas about how watches can be used in terms of energy. We have patents for electronics, memory and all kinds of things that we'll eventually be able to bring out.
"Right now we're at the simples stage which is kind of inventing a new iteration of the pocketwatch—one that's much more convenient, that people really use, rather than throw in their drawers or whatever," says Ellner.