On-Line Farm Store Carries More Than 3,000 Products
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If you've got livestock to take care of, check out www.wigginsinc.com for more than 3,000 animal care products, as well as a variety of other farm products. Wiggins offers everything from milking equipment (two teat and four) to the Uncle Moe Pig Holder.
The $195 Uncle Moe is used to restrain a pig for castration, with or without the blade and sutures the company also sells. Or you may have another idea for it.
"People are always finding new and innovative uses for the equipment we sell," says Joe Wiggins, company owner. "We sold a sheep shearer to a broom making company to trim its brooms and an elastorator pliers (designed to neuter male animals) to stretch plastic covers that go on hand tools."
The most unusual sale Wiggins recalls was a woman who bought an elastorator and rings for sealing bags of vegetables for the freezer.
The site isn't limited to ear tags, tail dockers and vet instruments. Gardeners can find pruners, loppers and shears, hose repair parts and nozzles. Textile spinners can find wheels, and anyone can find a weather vane.
Wiggins started the business while working his way through high school and college. By the time he finished his mechanical engineering degree, he already had a full time business in place supplying people with all kinds of unique items. Today, he sells via a website and a traditional catalog. The Internet has been a real boon to business.
"We get orders from every corner of the world, and about a third of our business is export," says Wiggins.
Regardless of where a customer comes from, it is what Wiggins offers that makes the difference. Looking for a manual cream separator? He has a 42-quart unit for $675. How about an egg candler or a rabbit hutch? They're in the catalog, too.
"We sell things to people with only one pig and to huge, commercial hog operations," says Wiggins. "Tons of people have told us they can't find these things locally, only at a show or on the Internet."
While he fell into his business by accident, it is no accident that it has grown as it has. Wiggins credits hard work, tenacity and ignorance that he needed a business plan or a line of credit. Although he admits to having had lots of problems, Wiggins says it is a formula that anyone can follow to build a business.
"I was too dumb to know that I did everything wrong," he says. "Because we started from nothing and we never really borrowed money, we just grew. This business takes hard work and lots of it, like any other business."
One area where the work has gotten harder is international sales. Since September 11th, it has become even more difficult to export certain products. Airlines won't handle anything for an unknown shipper, and Wiggins is careful about exporting products like vaccines.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Joe Wiggins, Wiggins & Associates, Inc., Graham, Oregon 97080 (ph 800 600-0716; fax 503 667-4701; website: wigginsinc.com).
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On-Line Farm Store Carries More Than 3,000 Products COMPUTERS Computers 28-1-7 If you've got livestock to take care of, check out www.wigginsinc.com for more than 3,000 animal care products, as well as a variety of other farm products. Wiggins offers everything from milking equipment (two teat and four) to the Uncle Moe Pig Holder.
The $195 Uncle Moe is used to restrain a pig for castration, with or without the blade and sutures the company also sells. Or you may have another idea for it.
"People are always finding new and innovative uses for the equipment we sell," says Joe Wiggins, company owner. "We sold a sheep shearer to a broom making company to trim its brooms and an elastorator pliers (designed to neuter male animals) to stretch plastic covers that go on hand tools."
The most unusual sale Wiggins recalls was a woman who bought an elastorator and rings for sealing bags of vegetables for the freezer.
The site isn't limited to ear tags, tail dockers and vet instruments. Gardeners can find pruners, loppers and shears, hose repair parts and nozzles. Textile spinners can find wheels, and anyone can find a weather vane.
Wiggins started the business while working his way through high school and college. By the time he finished his mechanical engineering degree, he already had a full time business in place supplying people with all kinds of unique items. Today, he sells via a website and a traditional catalog. The Internet has been a real boon to business.
"We get orders from every corner of the world, and about a third of our business is export," says Wiggins.
Regardless of where a customer comes from, it is what Wiggins offers that makes the difference. Looking for a manual cream separator? He has a 42-quart unit for $675. How about an egg candler or a rabbit hutch? They're in the catalog, too.
"We sell things to people with only one pig and to huge, commercial hog operations," says Wiggins. "Tons of people have told us they can't find these things locally, only at a show or on the Internet."
While he fell into his business by accident, it is no accident that it has grown as it has. Wiggins credits hard work, tenacity and ignorance that he needed a business plan or a line of credit. Although he admits to having had lots of problems, Wiggins says it is a formula that anyone can follow to build a business.
"I was too dumb to know that I did everything wrong," he says. "Because we started from nothing and we never really borrowed money, we just grew. This business takes hard work and lots of it, like any other business."
One area where the work has gotten harder is international sales. Since September 11th, it has become even more difficult to export certain products. Airlines won't handle anything for an unknown shipper, and Wiggins is careful about exporting products like vaccines.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Joe Wiggins, Wiggins & Associates, Inc., Graham, Oregon 97080 (ph 800 600-0716; fax 503 667-4701; website: wigginsinc.com).
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