
Sinner Enterprises
Science Hill, KY
Owner: Steve Sinner
Center: EKU SBDC
www.sinnerenterprises.com
Steve Sinner was not born an inventor. When he was fourteen years old, in 1969, living in Modesto, CA, a neighbor invented a sod-cutting machine. The inventor sold his invention for one million dollars. Needless to say, young Steve was impressed.
With visions of a million dollar payoff, he began looking at everything from a new perspective. First, he drew illustrations for a door lock, the “Dead Bolt.” Lacking experience, adult guidance and support of the idea, and money, the ‘Dead Bolt’ went to market with another inventor’s name on the patent.
As a young adult, Steve continued to create new products from his ideas but over the years he saw his work being exploited by other inventors or companies because of his inexperience and lack of resources to protect his patents and intellectual property. As he matured, he began to educate himself about how to develop, prototype and market his inventions. He recruited a support team made up of investors, family members and a partner, William Nichols, to develop Sinner Enterprises, Inc. Sinner Enterprises, Inc. (sinnerenterprises@yahoo.com) works with individual investors to introduce new products to markets.
A recent product of Sinner Enterprises is the patent on “Plug Snug-it”, a product that secures an electric cord to the electric outlet. A licensing agreement changed the name to “Secure a Cord.” It is now featured in national catalogues, sold in many stores and displayed on the peg boards of electrical departments.
The latest products have patents pending and are ready to go to market. They are two related games called, the “Shuffle Dice” ™ and the “Shuffle Dice Word Game.” The third game is the “Untouchable Puzzle ™.” All three are being displayed in Lexington at Central Kentucky’s 3rd Annual Inventors Conference. He has also been selected to participate in a live television program prior to the exhibition.
Steve dreams of taking these three products to the Toy Fair 2008, in New York City, to showcase them in the largest show of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. More than 20,000 buyers and industry professional from 90 countries will be there to look for toys for the $22 billion market. Sixty-one percent of the exhibitors launched new products in 2006 and Steve is going after a share of the market. He intends to pursue a licensing agreement with one of the major toy manufacturers.
Steve and his wife, Christine, live in Science Hill. They have three adult children, all living out of the area.
Steve has found a vital source of information and counseling assistance at the Small Business Development Center of Eastern Kentucky University and the Small Business Administration. With the help of John Preston, Marlene Morgan of EKUSBDC and Arch McAlister with the SBA, Steve is seeing his dream materialize. After thirty years of work and study, Steve feels he has finally found ‘a path that leads to success and holds true for inventions the world over!’