Mother Becomes Inventor After Floating An Idea
She sat poolside for hours, holding an inflatable raft, keeping her daughter atop it tanning “like a turkey” and away from the unwanted shade.
A doting mother, she was helping her daughter, Denise, tan for a party, but Lydia Woods got tired of sitting there. So she invented a fastener to hold the raft for her.
More than a decade later, the Fort Lauderdale resident says she has profited aplenty from her invention, the Tarp Klip, by selling it nationwide and abroad to hundreds of thousands of customers. The 62-year-old, who has three grown daughters and three grandchildren, said she makes enough money to support her family, and she continues to push her business.
It took Woods, a homemaker at the time, several years to research her fastener and make a prototype. But once her business took off, she showed a knack for advertising.
She advertises the versatile fastener to boaters, campers and gardeners, and sells it through stores, magazines and online. “An idea comes from a need: I wanted to please my daughter when she wanted that inflatable anchored,” Woods said.
Photo by Tarp Klip.
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