For this months Secret recipe, I interviewed Paul Dubois from Safety Made. I have worked with Paul for many years on various kit projects, some for emergencies like fires or earthquakes, some for festive trade show giveaways like Hangover Kits. Since the kits can all have custom contents, it was optimal to create PPE kits during the Pandemic. - Nancy Hoffman

Paul Dubois of Safety Made spent his career in the Advertising Specialty industry and has functioned in almost every role on the supplier side from production to CEO and now founder and owner of supplier company, Safety Made. He grew up in New Hampshire and attended Saint Michael's College in VT, earning a B.S. in Business Administration.

How did you get started in this industry?

I actually started in the industry when I was a sophomore in high school doing assembly work for a supplier company. I worked summers and grew with the company. Started doing assembly, moved into screen printing, then after college I ended up taking on a sales role.

What’s the coolest project you ever worked on and why?

We are a kit company which allows for tremendous creativity, so I have had a lot of cool projects over the years. I would actually say that this year has brought out hyper-creativity in the industry and I have seen some great projects come through our door. Most memorable projects of 2020 have been government (city and county) projects where the distributors have used our inventory, printing and assembly capabilities to create products to help slow the spread of COVID-19. We recently did a large order using tote bags from another supplier, which we stuffed with PPE and expedited them for the county to distribute to all residents. These projects make me feel like we are helping to make a difference as an anchor product in this battle.

How have you ever turned a disaster project into a success?

Personally I have been in the industry for a while (about 20 years now) but it took until 2017 for me to go out on my own and create Safety Made as a supplier company in the industry. Starting out I faced monumental, uphill battles which at the time felt like I had created a disaster. With everything on the line, along with having a newborn baby, I was at times filled with regret. Looking back now, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Starting and growing a business has been the most challenging and rewarding experience I could have ever imagined. In an industry full of small/medium entrepreneurs, I think a lot of us have shared these challenges.

What’s the secret recipe for having a prosperous business these days?

I believe that the foundation begins with knowledge and empowerment of customer-facing employees. By creating a family-business culture and enabling your employees to be part of the big picture as well as hyper-knowledgeable about your product line, you build confidence in your customer service that builds trust. When you look at the supplier/distributor relationship, we suppliers need to realize that we are the product but the distributors are the brand. Customer support needs to understand the line and capabilities and be able to accurately provide that information to distributor partners. When the distributors receive confident and honest information in a timely manner, they can go on to create successful sales and will be more likely to come back in the future.

What would you change about our industry?

From the supplier side, I feel that there are too many platforms for distributors to use to find information and there is a lack of confidence in the information that is out there. Every year we spend countless hours updating information on the multiple search platforms, and more importantly we and our distributor partners waste immeasurable amounts of time verifying the pricing and information that is on those platforms.

I think multiple search platforms is beneficial to maintain fair competition in the industry, but it would be great to create a “universal template” that pricing, availability and descriptions could be entered into and it would trickle-down to the various platforms. Also, if all suppliers honored the pricing and information on all of the platforms, it would give our distributors confidence that they do not need to check pricing on potential sales, which would save us all time.

How do you spend your free time?

You’re funny!! I have 2 young kids (8 month old girl and 3 year old boy) that make sure I don’t have any free time. I have always been a runner and was a Division 1 cross-country skier in college. I also started triathlons and long-distance road biking which I still do when I can. Having young kids has certainly changed my definition of free time from doing things with friends or exercising, to squeezing in 15 minutes of cleaning when there happens to be overlapping naps. I know all the parents out there remember these days so check back with me in a couple years and maybe I will have a more interesting answer when I actually start leaving the house again! I will say that the pandemic has made sure that I spend a lot of time outdoors with the kids, since there isn’t much else we can do.

Best thing you have read or watched during the pandemic?

I enjoyed ‘Away’ and was disappointed they aren’t doing another season. Seems like Mars might become a reality in our lifetime and I thought this was a believable fiction of how the early manned missions might go.