Yoke Har Lee: Bold strategy capped off by sales

Gail McJorrow, with granddaughter Jayah, sold her first 5000 Wondercaps, and most of the next 20,000 are already sold. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Having survived the rollercoaster ride of developing a product from scratch and marketing it in New Zealand and Australia, Gail McJorrow reckons she can now take on any business enterprise. "Once you have done it - everything I have learnt - I can use it on any product."

The Wellington grandmother and entrepreneur designed the Wondercap - a showercap-like wrap infused with gel that allows women to pamper their hair at home.

Jo Morgan (mother of Trade Me's Sam Morgan) loves the product, as do many women, judging by the testimonials they give Wondercap.

The first run of 5000 has sold out and 20,000 more are on order, of which 15,000 have been presold.

One of the biggest risks McJorrow took was having her Wondercap made in China without ever setting foot there. "I knew it was risk, that I should get on a plane and be there, but my daughter was going to have a baby."

She found the manufacturer online, and then a quality control inspection company, Silk Road International, to function as her "eyes" in China.

She sent her design and had specifications drawn up for Silk Road which managed the quality checks and ensured production was on schedule.

Her heart sank when she saw a photo showing boxes of Wondercaps stacked on an open truck, held together by wire netting. "I thought, oh my God, I hope it doesn't topple over on the motorway."

But the shipment arrived and of the 5000 Wondercaps made, only six were rejects.

Her initial design was made like a wheat pack - rather expensive, difficult to market, and raising biosecurity issues.

McJorrow's eureka moment came when she thought about infusing gel into the Wondercap, making it cheaper to produce and negating any biosecurity issue.

She is aware that success is not about the product but the result. "The secret is to always remember all the customer is interested in is WIIFM [what's in it for me]."

Another key is building a strong distribution network and a strong brand.

"The most important thing is to find a great distributor for your product. This distributor must have representatives that are educated about your product because yours will be one of many. It helps if the reps love your products and become evangelists for it," she says. But remember, "basically distributors shift stock, they don't build brands".

Luck was also on her side. On holiday in Australia, she found a henna treatment made by Hugh Gresham of Inline Cosmetics. The instructions said to wrap your head in a hot towel, but "I had something better and I told Hugh ... that is basically how it all started". Gresham's company now makes the hair conditioning product sold with the Wondercap.

McJorrow says Gresham mentored her, teaching her, among other things, the importance of pricing a product correctly.

McJorrow is not afraid to aspire to build a cult brand. "A lot of people don't go ahead with an idea because they are scared a big company in their industry will simply copy it. But big corporations can be very slow to move, and it is a lot cheaper for them to buy a cult brand that has gone out and validated the product than to do it themselves."

She hopes that one day the Wondercap brand will attract a buyer in a global hair company.

For the moment, she is now working with a US agent to break the American market, and is looking for an investor to help take the Wondercap company to its next level of growth.