I read this book recently about inventors and the process of turning their inventions into marketable products. The author invented D-Fuzz-It, the original sweater pill shaver and SKYY vodka so he has a lot of street cred. One of the points he made in the book that I thought was interesting and just a bit amusing was that the inventor/entrepreneur should be prepared to perform jobs he might not have envisioned himself doing in pursuit of success.

Today I ironed. Several tablecloths and a sheet. I’m going to use them as backdrops for my glovals lighted sign booth at the gift show in Atlanta. I thought about not ironing them but my sister-in-law/booth consultant strongly advised against it. I also washed by dog’s tent and made a window out of my daughter’s fold-up soccer goal so I could use them at the show.

So going back to the author’s point about unenvisioned jobs, I’d say I’m well on my way to success.

When I was growing up, our family used to go camping a lot. We started with tents then graduated to truck campers and finally my favorite, a pop-up camper we could tow behind our El Camino. If you’ve ever been camping, you know most campgrounds get pretty dark at night, especially if you’re camping in the mountains or woods, which we often did. I really could have used my glovals portable lighted sign frame then. Many times, we would pull into a campground at dusk or at night, with all of our attention focused on just getting camp set up so we could crash for the night. Inevitably, I would wake up and have to go to the bathroom which meant a) finding the bathhouse and b) finding my way back. Needless to say, I spent many a night wandering around unfamiliar campgrounds, trying to find my beloved pop-up.

Now if I’d had my glovals portable lighted sign frame, I could have used it to light my way to the bathhouse – yes, it acts like flashlight when handheld OR perhaps a better strategy would have been to leave it at the campsite in flashing mode to light my way back. Sure, it may have annoyed other campers temporarily but would it have been more so than me wandering through their campsite trying to figure out if it was mine?

And while I’m on the subject, the glovals lighted sign frame would have also been great IN the tent since it’s bright enough to light up an entire tent (or small room or car). And you don’t have to plug it in so no extension cord to trip on. Did I mention the batteries last up to 25 hours?

Like the title says: glovals are great for camping. Especially when it gets dark.

I’ve received my goods. I’ve put out my OPEN sign (which, by the way, is one of my goods). I’m ready to sell. Like many inventor/entrepreneurs, I’ve quickly reached the proverbial “What next?”

I’m not entirely clueless. I know you can’t just publish a website and then expect the cyberworld to come knocking on your door with the “Welcome to the Neighborhood” basket. If you know what the letters “SEO” stand for, you know what I’m talking about. For those of you who don’t, “SEO” stands for Search Engine Optimization and, in a nutshell, it’s the key to getting your site listed on search pages, preferably at the top. The day I went active with my site – it seems like just yesterday (Oh yeah, it was) – I made myself available to the web crawlers and googlebots and their mysterious kin. They’ll comb my site for magic keywords like “lighted sign frame” and “dry erase signs” and report back to the gods on high at Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Right now, if you Google the word, “glovals,” you’ll get all kinds of listings for some obscure animated sci-fi movie from the ’80s. Clearly, that’s not me and it won’t help you find me. So I’m marking this day, counting the time until I reach Page 1, the Search Page promised land.

In the meantime, I’m going with the old-fashioned “tell your friends” and “word of mouth.” And what I’m telling you today is that it’s not too late to get your customizable, reusable patriotic dry erase sign to go in your glovals portable lighted sign frame (pictured above). Hey Googlebot – did you hear that?

The gestation period was elephantine – over 2 years. Labor was difficult with a couple of false labors and then a very long, drawn-out actual labor. But finally, my baby is here. I am now the proud father of a brand-new, healthy Portable Lighted Sign Frame… and a gaggle of sign frame accessories and even more decorative dry erase signs intended to go in it. My name is Jon Vandergriff and I am the inventor of glovals, a portable lighted signage system for work, home and play.

“What the heck are glovals?” you’re probably asking. For starters, it’s pronounced “glow-vuls,” as in an oval that glows. As you can see in the picture above, the sign frame has an oval shape and, well, when it gets dark out, it glows. On a related subject, if you check out my web site (www.glovals.com), you’ll see a little animated critter some have mistakenly identified as a beaver or groundhog. But that’s a glopher, as in a gopher that glows. Get it? If you ever have the privilege of meeting my glopher in person, and yes he/she?!! does exist, you’ll discover that the oval on his belly is an actual glovals sign frame that, well, glows. No telling what the sign inside it will say. My glopher changes his sign as often as he changes his/her mind. That’s because it’s easy. And kind of the whole point of the glovals signage system. Change your mind, change your sign. That’s one of my taglines, along with “glovals – they glow everywhere” and “Any sign. Anytime. Anywhere.” As you can see, I like coming up with taglines.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, “What’s a gloval?” The glovals system was designed to provide attractive and affordable, customizable and portable, lighted signage to small business owners and personal consumers whose off the rack sign options were heretofore limited to expensive neon or LED lightboxes, dusty “For Sale” signs in a back aisle of the hardware store or posterboard and some Magic Markers. And they all had their limitations. Either you couldn’t use the signs outside or you couldn’t change the message or you couldn’t use them again. Glovals can do all those things and a whole lot more. And do it again and again and again.

That’s because glovals were designed for Reusability. I used the capital “R” because I think this is maybe the most important aspect of the product line. Most temporary signage is used once and then thrown away. Glovals are designed to be re-used over and over, from year to year, from one event to another, in a limitless number of ways. In a window, on a boat, in your yard with a custom note. On the door of your little store, on a shelf or on the floor! Use it, use it and you will see, glovals glows even cordlessly!

Too much? Okay, I’ll stop there for now but obviously, I love my newborn. And I hope you will, too. Check it out at www.glovals.com. And let me know what you think. And if you can make your opinions rhyme, all the better.