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Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)

By Paula Schleis, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

Jun. 17--Surrounded by some 3,000 inventors and entrepreneurs -- many of whom had poured years and personal bank accounts into their work -- Mimi Clements Puro felt a twinge of discomfort.

So as she stood waiting for judges from the television retailer QVC and The Oprah Winfrey Show to come her way, she decided she would talk only about her prototype, not her experience.

"I didn't want to diminish anyone else's efforts for all they've done," she said.

After all, it was just one month earlier, while surfing the Internet, that Puro saw that Oprah was searching for "The Next Big Idea."

Puro had been reading a book called The Secret, about using a "law of attraction" to make good things happen in your life. So when she saw Oprah's ad, she tested the technique and pictured herself presenting a product to a national audience and getting a hug from Oprah.

Then she saw the product: long strips of colorful fabric with seasonal or holiday designs that would snap onto and off the shutters on her outdoor windows.

Puro reached for her computer mouse and clicked open an application form.

I know it's fun and its frivolous, she wrote to contest organizers, but who doesn't like to get dressed up once in a while.

"In truth, I didn't have a clue how I was going to do it or what was involved," Puro said.

Now, 33 days later, Puro was in Chicago, far from her home in Aurora, chasing a dream with thousands of other inventors.

She and her boyfriend, Steve Hirsh, had made a prototype of a long flag and a portable wall with a shutter attached.

Continuing to practice the "law of attraction," she sized up one judge who was headed her way and decided she felt more chemistry with another judge, so she lugged her simulated house wall over to another line.

The judge raved about her idea, "but everybody there thought it went well for them, so I just didn't know," Puro said. Applicants were told it would be another month before eight people would learn they'd been selected to compete for an exclusive QVC contract on a live Oprah show.

Puro returned to Aurora, content that win or lose, she had taught her children a valuable lesson.

The divorced mother of two often plays a game with 14-year-old Brian and 12-year-old Carly called Anything's Possible.

"They would say something like, it's impossible to jump off the top of the house without breaking something. And I'd say, not if a trampoline is underneath you," Puro said. "You just change one little thing, and the impossible becomes possible."

Her 30-day journey from idea to prototype, from dining table in Aurora to professional retail experts in Chicago, was enough to prove her point.

Anything's possible, indeed. On April 27, she learned she was one of the eight finalists.

By the time Puro appeared on Oprah on May 3, she'd created half a dozen other shutter covers -- ghosts for Halloween, tulips for spring, gift wrapping for Christmas.

A woman who had invented a baking pan with removable signs won the top prize that day, but Puro unwittingly had already passed the point of no return.

By the time she got home, retailers had already left voice-mail messages for her.

Last week, she flew to Atlanta by invitation of Home Depot, which is negotiating to sell her shutter covers starting next spring.

QVC still wants to feature her product, probably by late summer or early fall.

An appointment with Wal-Mart is up next.

Puro and Hirsh co-own the company, called Original Shutter Covers. They expect to have at least 50 designs by the end of the year, including glow-in-the-dark skeletons for Halloween and nutcrackers for Christmas.

They've had to learn fast as they navigate their way around lawyers and accountants, graphic artists and retail buyers, learning an industry that neither of them had a clue about at the start of the year.

They made the decision to manufacture the panels in China so they can sell them for $15 to $20 a pair. Research showed that manufacturing them in the United States would make the retail price three times higher, Puro said.

"I'm learning as I go. I'm making mistakes, I'm sure, right and left," she said with a chuckle.

The learning curve has extended to her personal life as well.

"Do I tell the pretty story or the 'Oh, my God, I can't do this another minute!' story," Puro said, laughing.

She juggles her role with Original Shutter Covers -- which has yet to record a single sale -- with the full-time job that pays her bills. She's a nurse with a pharmaceutical company.

And those roles, not surprisingly, come second to her children.

"Every time I have to give up something of personal value to me, like a ballgame, I ask myself, 'Is it worth it?' " she said. Then she thinks of the freedom that extra money could give them, especially with college on the horizon.

"Some concessions are to be expected, but it's a struggle every day worrying that I might miss something. They're only going to be in this house for so long," she said.

Then again, how many entrepreneurs have found success so easily? She's spent less than $6,000 of her own money on a promising future that was nothing more than a wild idea four months ago.

Puro remembers watching a news report about dozens of people standing in a line for lottery tickets.

"I remember thinking, 'Why are they all chasing this lottery?' " she said. "I'll bet the lottery lives within each of us. We just have to figure out, 'What is my lottery?' "

Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.

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