Bright idea puts an end to scratched pots

[attach]2252[/attach]She has no background creating products, no work history in the kitchenware industry — but that hasn’t stopped midtown resident Wendy Orbach from creating an entirely new kitchen product that’s just been picked up by a major retailer.

Creator of the Protect A Pan, a one-size-fits all stretchy pot and pan cover that allows pots and pans to be stacked without scratching one another, Orbach has recently signed on her invention with Bed, Bath & Beyond stores in Canada and the United States. The product is also available [url=http://www.protectapan.com]online[/url] and at local retailers.

The creation has been a good five years in the making, ever since Orbach bought a cookware set and found herself using paper towels to protect the pans from scratching when she stacked them in her cupboard.

She was throwing out a lot of paper towels, she says, so she started looking in specialty stores for something she could use for the purpose.

“Guess what? There was nothing.”

After developing the product for a year-and-a-half, Orbach found a Canadian distributor, and once she found an American distributor, the Bed Bath & Beyond deal came quickly.

“Retailers are always looking for the next new product,” she says.

Even so, convincing people to buy something that had never existed before was a tough sell at first.

Some retailers were initially fearful that their pot and pan sales would go down, if people bought a product that would extend the life of their cookware, Orbach says.

But actually the opposite happened: people invested in new cookware, perhaps knowing that they now had something that would literally protect their investment.

“It’s not another salad spinner,” she says. “I not only created a product — I created a category.”

As for suddenly becoming an inventor, Orbach says anyone can do what she’s done. It just takes belief in yourself and what you’ve created, she says, with lots and lots of persistence thrown in.

“I think it’s about deciding to jump off the cliff.”

It’s helped that she’s never been one to be afraid of trying something new.

With a career background in everything from TV to welfare social work, Orbach has also been the owner of a smoking cessation laser therapy clinic as well as a private investigator specializing in insurance fraud.

Being a P.I. on and off over the years — including when she was developing her product — has also been beneficial.

“I’m a good investigator,” she says, adding that she’s always known what questions to ask.

But Orbach admits she couldn’t have gotten where she is without networking and sharing ideas with other inventors, something she did before she even started developing the product when she joined the Inventor’s Alliance (now the [url=http://www.innovationinitiative.org/]Innovation Initiative Co-Operative[/url]).

The group met once a month in North York, and Orbach says it gave her a chance to hear expert speakers and share ideas with other innovators.

If you’re developing a product it’s vital to connect with other inventors, she adds, especially if you’re not working in the industry you’ve created a product for — because you won’t have the connections and you won’t know where to start.

“You can really learn from others’ mistakes.”

That group helped her see that her product was viable, she says. She eventually came to a point where she was able to share what she learned with others and help them develop their products.

Currently working from her home office around the Yonge and Eglinton area, Orbach is slowly building a full-time business. It’s all about what you put into it, she says.

Her husband helps out, as does her son – in fact he was the one who came up with the marketing slogan, “Stack’em Don’t Scratch’em.”

Orbach says she’s pleased with how her son has become aware of the invention process.

“You throw a rock into the water and it makes ripples,” she says.

“The message you send is, ‘It’s doable’.”