Treasure in a bottle

Tyler Delay recently learned he is one of the top-selling vendors at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria.

Tyler sells his product, “A Message in a Bottle,” wholesale to the Columbia River Maritime and the Oregon Maritime museums’ gift shops, as well as to a handful of other souvenir and gift shops along the north Oregon coast.

Tyler, 14, attends Hilda Lahti Elementary/Middle School in Knappa. He started his business four years ago when he joined the Young Entrepreneurs Club/Biz Kidz program sponsored by 4-H and the Astoria Sunday Market.

His product is a small plastic bottle with a scroll of paper inside that can be sent by mail to a friend or loved one. “I thought it would be good to come up with an idea that would go with the theme of Astoria and sell to tourists,” Tyler said.

He has incorporated a pirate theme into his display. When he sold at the markets, he would lay some of the bottles in a plastic treasure chest filled with strings of shiny beads.

He has sold his product at the cruise ship markets, the Astoria Sunday Market and directly to retailers.

His mother, Lindsay Delay, said she’s seen Tyler grow in his abilities over the past four years. “He learned the more you talk, the more money you make,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds,” she said.

“Since I started out, I was really shy,” said Tyler.

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But it didn’t take him long to realize that the other kids at the market were more successful at encouraging customers to buy. “I eventually learned that if I wanted to sell the product and make good money, I’d have to talk to people,” he said.

His most memorable sale was to a cruise ship passenger who wrote a marriage proposal on the scroll, slipped a toy ring into the bottle and mailed it home, where it would be waiting for his girlfriend when the cruise was over. Later,Silicone Mold Making Rubber, Tyler received an email telling him that she replied yes.

Overcoming shyness has spilled over into the rest of Tyler’s life, said his mother. He is doing better in school, at sports and with friends.

“He’s going to be so successful, now that he’s learned to use the mouth he inherited from his mother,” Lindsay said.

And Tyler has also learned how to manufacture his product more efficiently.

In the beginning,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, he would singe the edges of the paper scroll. It took considerable time and care to ensure he did it right. “He learned you burn through supplies quickly if you make mistakes,” Lindsay said.

During the tourist season, Tyler and Lindsay were spending hours each week processing the scrolls.

Now, he prints two scrolls on an 8.5 x 11-inch sheet of paper, makes one cut down the middle, rolls the scrolls and secures them with a rubber band – which brings us to his next challenge: The size of the rubber band matters, a lot.

Tyler learned that if he didn’t use a smaller rubber band, his scrolls would ease open a bit inside the bottle, making them nearly impossible to remove.

Putting labels on the bottles also proved to be a frustrating endeavor early on. It was difficult to get the label on the bottles straight. And if a label was crooked, there was no way to reposition it on the bottle.Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET,

So he began lining the label up with a seam on the plastic bottle. Now, his bottles look uniform and professional in their tiered display.

Tyler said now he can put together an order of 36 bottles in less than an hour. Each bottle retails for about $6.

“He’s a pro now,” Lindsay said. “He just puts his iPod on,” flips a new bottle out of the box and gets to work. “It’s such a relief to me to be hands-off now,” she said.

With the profits from his business and the animals he raises for auction, Tyler has been able to pay all of his 4-H expenses and to sponsor a friend who wanted to participate in the 4-H animal auctions. He bought his friend a market hog and market steer, and enough feed to get started.

He also has been able to buy plane tickets for several trips to Sacramento, Calif., to visit his cousin, Taylor,Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, who he considers like a brother.

“He’s been pretty self-sufficient,” said Lindsay, “which is helping, because Mom and Dad are feeling the pinch like everyone else.”

Tyler’s goal for this year is to broaden the market for his product. “Just the main thing is to get online selling and get into more gift shops,” he said.

“He would love to grow this thing to a million dollars,” Lindsay said. “Mom has to keep it wrangled in … He needs to have a kid life, too.”