My Biggest Mistake "I abandoned my carefully laid-out business plan"

Business section, Chicago Tribune, Monday March 3, 2003

Name: Paul Munsen
Title: President
Company: Sun Ovens International Inc.
Location: Elburn, IL
Type of Company: Manufacturer of solar cooking ovens for the developing world
Founded: 1998
Employees: 5
Web Site: www.sunoven.com

My biggest mistake was to forsake the business plan that could have done so much for so many to chase a fad.

In 1997 I was a marketing consultant working with a variety of small businesses when one of my clients introduced me to an almost bankrupt inventor of an unusual device that could bake, boil and steam foods, powered solely by the energy of the sun. I was amazed at how well it worked.

When I learned of the desperate need for an alternative energy source to wood and charcoal in developing countries, I became very intrigued about the possibilities. I jumped in with both feet and immediately volunteered my services on a pro bono basis to try and introduce the Third World to Sun Ovens. Six months later I was so convinced of how these ovens could improve the quality of life of women in the developing world that I raised investment capital, and in April 1998 I set up a facility to make the ovens.

In June 1998 we noticed an increasing number of inquiries from people in the U.S. who were interested in buying ovens. When we investigated further, we kept hearing over and over again about something called Y2K and realized there were millions of people all over North America who were preparing for what was predicted to happen on Jan. 1, 2000.

A new industry of "preparedness products" suddenly emerged from nowhere, and I abandoned my carefully laid out business plan for the developing world, shifting all my efforts to a new market.

Throughout late 1998 and 1999 it was difficult to make enough ovens to keep up with the new demand, and my small company was growing so fast that we were bursting a the seams. We went from a half-dozen domestic outlets to more than 250 and were featured in the media, being closely associated with Y2K. We added staff and overhead to try and keep up with the demand, all the while turning our backs on the reason that we got into the business in the first place. I deserted working with people who actually needed Sun Ovens for people who thought they did.

When New Year's dawned in 2000, the lights still worked, and people could turn on their gas stoves to cook. We suddenly had no market. To make matters worse, we were left with a high fixed overhead, a large inventory, a huge accounts receivable (from retailers that were suddenly out of business) and an even larger accounts payable and no market for our products.

On top of all this, our involvement in a movement that turned out to be a hoax made many people think we were "way out there" and should be avoided. The worst part about it was that the plans to introduce this technology to people who could really benefit from it had been put on hold for 18 months, and the financial resources that would have made it possible had been squandered needlessly.

Three years later we finally are digging out of the Y2K hole that we so willingly vaulted into. We are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel as the sales of the ovens in developing countries are taking off. In places like Haiti, women who used to spend half of their income on charcoal now spend less than 20 percent and have additional money to improve their standard of living by purchasing needed goods and services.

Women in Uganda who used to spend six hours a day gathering wood to make dinner have time to take classes and expand their horizons. Women in Ghana, who inhaled enough smoke from cooking fires each day to equal three packs of cigarettes, can breathe easier by using the sun instead of burning coal or wood. And hundreds of tons of greenhouse gas emissions no longer are going into the Earth's atmosphere.