OK!-Who are you guys?

In reading one of my favorite business oriented blog sites, ducttapemarketing.com/blog, this article resonated with me.

My blog (buygafferstape.com/blogs) is almost two years.  Its a project that I have really enjoyed.

The article I am referring to addresses the issue of bloggers trying to maintain their anonymity and not posting any information about who they really are.  It has never been my intention to remain anonymous, but the idea never crossed my mind to do a posting about who I am.

Here goes!

After 20 years in the special event and concert production industries our company, Harrison Bros. Inc. gradually migrated from being a “hands on” production company to a seller of production supplies online.

My background as a sound tech and special event producer covered both freelance work and a stint at Duke University Technical Services during the 1980’s.  I left Duke at the end of 1985 to start Harrison Bros.

As a production company we offered multiple services, including sound, lighting, staging, labor brokering and production management.  The scale of the events we were involved in spanned a huge range from building dedications with one microphone to constructing the stage for one of the stadium dates on The Who’s 1989 “The Kids Are Alright Tour”.

It was challenging work and I had a chance to travel the country and work with some really high profile acts-Frank Sinatra, DollyParton, Bill Cosby, and lots of others.

Realizing that there wasn’t a great future in hands on work for someone staring down the barrel of his 50th birthday, I knew that it was time to turn our little company in a new direction.

We started out selling colored duct tape, and quickly found that there was a customer base for production supplies out there who were more than happy to tell us about production supplies they needed that were either difficult to find or way to expensive.

I gradually added other tape products like gaffers tape, then batteries, flashlights, tie lines , extension cords, etc. to the point where we now offer about 400 products.

We started by doing catalog sales and direct mail marketing, long before the internet evolved into a  an ecommerce engine.

It didn’t take long to realize that the internet provided a perfect medium for marketing and selling and we rolled out thetapeworks.com and buybattery.com. This took a little while to gain traction, but after a year or so, it really took off.

2003 was a really important year in our business development.  We left Main Street in Carrboro, where we had been since day one and built a new building about 5 miles south of Chapel Hill, and only four miles from my house.  The entire back of the building is a 100′ wide loading dock and having a “purpose built” facility has provided a tremendous  asset for our growth.

In the summer of 2006, we rolled out an important new web strategy, goodbuyguys.com.  This allowed us to combine lots of websites, including buytape.com, buybattery.com, buyextensioncord.com, buywireties.com, buyspeakercable.com, buymicstand.com and buymiccable.com, under the same web portal.

One of the best things about developing this site was being able to use cartoon characters that my Father, Bill Harrison, had drawn for his 1960’s comic strip “Guess Who“.  They are great spokesmen for our company, and using them to represent us has really helped me “find my voice” when blogging and creating web material.

I spend my spare time gardening, sailing, building furniture, and doing metal sculpture (my yard is full of this work).

Even though I left Duke University as an employee, I am a charter member of the Duke Chapel Congregation.  My wife Gina (we were married in Duke Chapel) is a 25 year member of the Duke Chapel Choir and I enjoy being part of the usher team there, along with my two children, Charlotte and Kevin.

Being able to work for myself for the last 23 years has been a wonderful blessing, and I am grateful to all our loyal customers who have helped our business grow.

I am anonymous no longer!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables.