A local entrepreneur may be coming to the small screen on a popular Canadian television program. Swift Current's Corla Rokochy will be heading to Toronto in early May to go before a panel of Canadian business moguls on the popular CBC Television program Dragons' Den with her product that she calls Idiot Socks.
"They're like the old-fashioned idiot mittens that we used to wear that go through your coat. With our family, there's seven of us, so every week I have to do 98 socks and sort 98 socks, so we always have a mountain of socks and a sock basket and no one can ever find two socks to go to school and the bus is coming. So I came up with the idea that if you put them on a string that you would never have to sort them again," explained the mother of five children ranging in ages from 18 months up to 14 years.
The Idiot Socks feature a string that runs up through the pant legs and are aimed at the pre-school market, from newborns to the age of five.
"I'm sort of developing it as a novelty idea, so if you're a new mom and you're not getting much sleep and you go to a shower and someone gives you an assortment of Idiot Socks. It's for the frazzled mother who's having trouble keeping it together, so at least you can keep your socks together. I'm working on the other side of it for adult novelty products that if it's a 60th or 70th birthday or 50th or 40th, sort of as a gag to give them these socks. 'Now that you're getting older, if you're losing your mind at least you won't lose your socks.'"
The premise of Dragons' Den is that entrepreneurs appear before the Dragons to pitch their company or product and look for an investment from the Dragons. Should the Dragons choose to make an offer they must bid at least the requested monetary amount but the percentage of the company or profits often becomes the major point of contention in the negotiations.
Rokochy already pitched the idea to the show in Saskatoon last month, one of approximately 4,000 auditions across the country, a list that has now been trimmed to 280 that will appear before the Dragons in Toronto.
Auditions for the new season of Dragons' Den began at the University of Saskatchewan and Rokochy was the very first aspiring entrepreneur in the county to pitch her idea where she asked for $10,000 for 10 percent of her business, a number that could change as her business plan remains a work in progress.
In reality she is pitching her idea, not a business with established sales as the Dragons so often look for.
Having five kids, I've been pregnant for 45 months and I breast fed for 60 months, I have spent a ton of time in my life with kids - Corla Rokochy
Putting a patent on the product is unlikely but she has registered idiotsocks.ca and trademarking is a possibility.
Her Idiot Socks are product of her years of experience as a mother. She has also spent the past 13 years as a photographer, she operates Lasting Impressions by Corla, which has been in new storefront in downtown Swift Current since September of 2009.
"Having five kids, I've been pregnant for 45 months and I breast fed for 60 months, I have spent a ton of time in my life with kids, so I have other products too that I think would be helpful to moms and that's what it's all about. My whole business for 13 years, I've dealt so much with moms through photography and I get to hear their stories and things they're struggling with so that is kind of where I am coming up with my ideas from."
The exposure from appearing on Dragons' Den alone can be enough to launch a business for some entrepreneurs.
"The web site for Dragon's Den has a shop, so even if you don't get a deal they still sell your product for you. Something like that would be national exposure for a new product that you would never be able to get," she explained.
She is hoping that a creative sales pitch will win over the Dragons.
"I think what we're going to do is there's five dragons and we have five kids so we're going to dress them up as the five dragons. My oldest is 13 so the kids get into it, and they start giving ideas, and Levi said Jim (Treliving) owns Boston Pizza. Why don't we try to get a Boston Pizza name tag? Because we have three boys and two girls, on the show there's only one girl, so we decided that we'll make Ellie 'Kevin (O'Leary)' because she gets mad if she doesn't get her own way (she's only 18 months), and she has the least amount of hair. So hopefully they'll get a kick out of that. So we're going to dress them all up as the dragons and my daughter Olivia is going to be Arlene (Dickinson) so she wants to put white streaks in her hair."
In the end she hopes it will just be one more unique experience for her family of seven.
"It's kind of a fun adventure and I just want to show my kids that if you have an idea that you can do something with it. So many people say 'oh, I have such a great idea' and never do anything about it."
"I'm hoping it will be something that in 10 years we are all sitting around at Christmas and we'll say 'remember that trip we took to Toronto, and wasn't that fun?'"
I know you will knock their socks off! (pun intended)