REGINA – It took Brian Olson years of hard work to become an “overnight success.”
Twenty years after his big idea arrived at the big show, Olson is proud to offer proof that the judges were right.
He was farming near Tompkins, Sask., in the 1980s and had seen drought and declining market conditions derail the optimism that had surrounded agriculture in the previous decade.
He knew that the same problems that frustrated him also frustrated other producers.
He was also convinced that he had a solution for one of those problems and that if he could deliver on it, he might make some money and diversify his farm income.
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Olson’s hydraulic Power Pin, which won the Western Canadian Farm Progress Show’s new invention award in 1988, allowed farmers to safely attach farm implements to tractors’ drawbars without needing a second person to place the pin in the hitch.
But the award was just the beginning. Olson said at the time he felt he was only a few years away, at most, from seeing his good idea revolutionize drawbar connections across the farming world.
However, it took a decade of hard work, committed investors and undaunted persistence to succeed.
“Just because you have a great idea, it doesn’t mean that you will be successful. That’s only the start,” he said.
From the activity around his booth at the Farm Progress Show’s New Inventions area, Olson knew he had struck a chord with farmers.
However, to make the idea pay he would have to reach a lot of producers and the only way to do that would be to get the attention of the major tractor manufacturers.
“First, you go back to the shop and make the product better,” he said.
“You take all the feedback you get from other farmers and you put that into your design and then hope it can still be built cost competitively.”
Olson’s design dropped the power part of the pin system. A simpler system would do the same work using gravity. That design, the Drop Pin, not only solved the problem but was also cheaper, more reliable and easier to sell to the big equipment manufacturers.
The concept was simple. A hitch draw pin sits in a hammer strap above the drawbar. It rests on its large D-ring that in turn rests on a release dawg. At the back of the hammer strap, between the strap and drawbar, is a trigger that when hit by the implement hitch-eye trips the release and drops the pin into the hole. The D-ring slides down over the back of the hammer strap to act as a safety clasp.
A safety chain attached to both machines round out the road-transport safe hitching arrangement.
With the support of friends and family, Olson began a decade of trips to trade shows and visits to manufacturers.
“I remember being at a trade show in Ontario. My Visa wouldn’t work. I was out of money. I phoned home to let them know it looked like it was over. My brother and his wife found $25,000 to invest. And away I went again.”
The late Gussie Wickstrom, who made a name for himself as a pig spleen weather forecaster, was a neighbour, friend and investor who travelled with Olson to North American farm shows in the 1990s.
“Gussie would put up Power Pin posters over the urinals in the show (facilities’) bathrooms to get farmers’ attention,” Olson said.
“You didn’t see advertising there much at the time. It worked.”
Selling the Drop Pin at farm shows wasn’t sustainable despite producer acceptance. Olson was also fighting the markets as grain producers struggled to survive.
Hundreds of phone calls to major manufacturers and “at least 50 trips to see John Deere” generated only sparks of interest.
The money was running out and after nearly $800,000 of investments from his supporters and nine years on the road, it seemed like the good idea might not pay off after all.
But then the tide began to turn.
In 1997 the Drop Pin won a major farm equipment publication’s reader’s choice award for best product.
Deere made its first order that year, eventually including it on some tractor models.
Buhler Versatile, Caterpillar, Agco and Ford New Holland were next, followed by Claas, McCormick and Agco in Europe. The product has since become a standard in the industry.
Sales more than doubled between 1998 and 2004, reaching $2.8 million.
The company continued its rapid growth.
“Power Pin Inc. is the world’s largest supplier of tractor-implement drawbar hitching components,” Olson said, repeating the statement like a mantra.
However, he credits mantras as being an important part of his business model.
It was Power Pin’s mission statement that kept him focused during that first decade of marketing: to provide farmers with a standardized one-trip tractor implement drawbar connection that makes hooking up to farm implements convenient and easy.
Power Pin’s original mission hadn’t involved handling large amounts of steel. Instead, that work had been done by manufacturing customers and Canadian Tool and Die in Winnipeg, leaving Olson free to develop new products.
However, Olson’s company, which is based in Fort Qu’Appelle, Sask., and run with partner T.J. Bake, now handles a lot of production work as well as marketing and design.
And those first investors?
“Over the years we have paid out dividends pretty steadily. Last year we reached the amount of their original investments, $880,000. It was a pretty good investment after all,” he said.
This year Power Pin has created a wall of fame at the Western Canadian Farm Progress Show that honours other new inventions that have been showcased at the show during its 31 year history and that have gone on to enjoy success in business.
