Inventor, Entrepreneur Becomes Successful On-Air Vendor
Christmas decorations are already up at the Miller house in Glastonbury as QVC, the popular TV shopping network, shoots footage that will air during the holiday shopping season.
On Friday, the cameras focused on several novelty items designed by Garold Miller: a suction cup that secures holiday candles to the window and a reusable, silicone tie that fastens garlands to the banister.
These items are only part of the Miller repertoire. Jewelry is his main business, and QVC markets his line of necklaces, earrings and bracelets under his name on both its website and on television.
Miller’s sales run between $2 million and $4 million a year — not bad for someone who got a “D” in marketing at Glastonbury High.
He is hoping that this year’s big seller will be a gadget he patented 10 years ago, the E-Z Hanger, which helps hang a shelf or large picture evenly. QVC has ordered over 4,000 hangers, and plans to market them during the holidays.
As a bartender in Newport, he used to ask the regulars how they’d made their money. Many were in the costume jewelry business, and Miller was intrigued. He came up with the idea of a guardian angel pin, and made a list of 300 gift stores, which he proceeded to contact, one by one. Two hundred stores said no, but the 201st placed an order — then reordered.
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Photo by Hartford Courant.
Jaclyn Wells on October 1st, 2009 4:43 pm
I love the suction cup for candles idea! I always go all out for christmas decorating, but simply just setting a candle in front of a window on some sort of bench or stand just doesn’t really create the glow in the window like this invention would.
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