We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michele McCrea. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michele below.

Hi Michele, thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

If you’re a parent, you know your whole life changes from the first time you hold that little bundle in your arms – all you want to do is love and protect them. But, as soon as they learn to move on their own, they start to make that pretty hard to do.

My husband and I thought we were super prepared and bought ALL the childproofing things when we started our family. But, we didn’t anticipate that our son would find and remove the floor vent covers when he learned to crawl, and we certainly didn’t realise how unsafe it was for him to be around the vent with the cover removed, until he started doing this.

When the vent covers get pulled off not only is it extremely unsafe with exposed screws, sharp sheet metal, and the risk of a trip and fall or a foot/leg getting stuck in the vent, but there is also potential for large objects to get lodged in the ducts which can damage the whole entire hvac system. Plus, it’s really annoying to be always pulling a vent cover out of a stubborn baby’s hands.

So, when my second baby started playing with the vent covers in our house, we looked everywhere for a childproof option for the vent covers, but there was no such product on the market. That’s when I decided something had to be done. I dreamed up my own child proof vent cover design with very specific features that were nothing like any vent covers on the market currently.

I called my invention GuardaVent, and what makes it so great is that it secures to the floor with two screws on the inside of the vent so there is no damage to the finished flooring, then there is a hinged lid so it can open for easy installation, and when the lid is closed, two small tabs lock it in place so small fingers can’t pry them open. They can be installed quickly and easily, and I even provide the screws. I may be biased, but GuardaVents look great in any type of floor, and you don’t need to remove it after kids outgrow the childproofing phase.

I started GuardaVent with no prior product design, business experience, sales experience or product development skills, but I did have a whole lot of determination. In North America alone there are over 3 million babies born each year, and over 84 million single family homes that have hvac systems with vent covers – so I know there is a market for this product and my current sales on karymi.com and on amazon.ca prove that.

With 2 kids of my own I know that we can’t be there every second hovering to make sure our kids don’t get hurt, but it only takes a split-second for an accident or injury to. With so many childproofing products we have to help with that, I felt that vent covers needed to be included. I believe GuardaVent gives parents peace of mind when it comes to the vent covers – and I am proud to say that I invented them!

Michele, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi, I’m Michele – a mom of two from Northern Alberta, Canada.

The Karymi Company name (pronounced carry-me) comes from a mesh of my families names; Kari, Kasey, Ryder & Michele. Kari is my husband, and Ryder and Kasey are my adorable kids!

Our unique childproof vent covers are different from any vent covers you will find in hardware stores. GuardaVent is made from high quality ABS plastic, so it is very sturdy, and it’s something you can feel good about when you see it in your home. We chose to use options in our manufacturing and distribution that align with what we are all about: supporting local and ensuring the best quality! We think it’s worth it, and we hope our customers do too.

Karymi Company Ltd. is proudly owned and operated in Grande Prairie, AB, Canada and our vent covers are manufactured in Ontario.

Most of our packaging materials are made from earth friendly recycled or recyclable products, because I believe in taking care of the planet and passing that sentiment onto my kids.

When you purchase a childproof GuardaVent cover you are supporting a Canadian, woman owned businesses, you are making an eco-friendly purchase, you will keep kids and pets out of harms way, and you will keep objects out of your vents that could be damaging to the homes HVAC system. It’s really a win-win-win-win!

What I believe in as a person, I make sure my business operates the same way:

Community – We will always be straightforward, honest and real with our customers. Parenting is not always easy – and I want parents to feel safe and accepted in our community. If you are a parent who sees the value in childproofing the vents with a GuardaVent vent cover, we are so happy to help you!

Sustainability – We use minimal packaging and material that is recycled or recyclable whenever possible. We believe strongly in treating the Earth with respect so that it will still be beautiful for our children. We also use Shopify’s Planet App to give a portion of all our sales to offsetting carbon emissions! GuardaVent childproof vent covers ship all over North America so we felt it was important to offset the emissions that those deliveries cause.

A Safe Home Can Still Be Beautiful – We designed our childproof vent covers to look like any other plastic vent cover you can buy, and they come in two different colours to match your flooring and home finishes so your home stays beautiful, clean and most importantly, safe! They don’t need to be removed when kids outgrow the curiosity stage either, they can stay in the floor and cover your vents safely forever!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn as someone starting a business is that starting a business is not a get rich quick scheme.

Initially, I thought inventing a new product and getting it to market would be easy, and I would start making money from sales right away. But the truth was that it would take 2 years to get from my first drawing of my idea, to having a product in hand. I also had a very hard time finding someone to make the molds for my plastic product, and lost a bit of money by falling prey to scammers claiming to help inventors like me. During that time I also taught myself how to build a brand, build a website, and post on social media. To this day I still have not perfected anything, and I regret not buidling a solid email list and proper funnels on my website. It’s all still a work in progress!

Everything in this process takes a lot of time to research, and a lot of money is needed to invest and get you started – so you have to be careful where you spend both your time and your money, and you ahve to really have the mindset that you will be successful to keep moving yourself forward.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

I knew from the beginning that GuardaVent would be made from plastic. After a bit of googling, I learned that plastic prodcuts are made from molds that are injected with plastic. After reaching out to a few companies, I learned that I would need to produce a CAD drawing so that mold makers could have the specs and measurements to build the mold, and that I would need to also get some prototype made first so that I could test the prodcut to make sure it actually worked.

I happen to know someone who gets CAD drawings done for their business, so I asked if I could use their contact for mine – and luckily they were able to do it for me with a few back and forths to get it just right. Finding a vendor to make the molds was the hardest part. On first reaching to some manufacturers in the US, it was quite a shock to me how much the mold would cost. Then someone suggested to try overseas because it costed a lot less, and I did get a quote that was very reasonable, but ultimately I decided not to go through with it because the thought of having my orders shipped overseas during covid made me very nervous. I couldn’t afford to deal with shipping delays or lost items. After some more googline, I learned that Ontario Canada is the leading manufacturing province in Canada, and I reached out to a plastic manufacturing company there. They were (and still are) amazing to deal with and they even offered to source out building the mold overseas so the costs could be lower, and then have it shipped to their facility for them to make the product. It was a big win for me, and I still use them today!

The biggest thing I learned about manufacturing was that the cost isn’t everything. Where your manufacturing company is located, and how easy they are to work with is also important. I felt that paying a little bit more for the molds and the product, which also meant charging a bit more to the customer, would pay off in the end because I could say it’s made in Canada, and I wouldn’t have the stress of waiting for weeks at a time and risk shipping delays for new stock to arrive.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://karymi.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guardavent_by_karymi/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GuardaVentbyKarymi