Market Challenges: Vicki Perdue and husband Jay Perdue show off their Pedal-Paddle, a bicycle that can travel on land and water. The Perdues have seen their share of challenges in marketing the Pedal-Paddle but are using the lessons they've learned to help market acoustical panels made at their other business, Perdue Acoustics.

Henry Bargas / henry.bargas@amarillo.com

In 2004, Perdue, owner of Pedal-Paddle Inc., won an Enterprize Challenge grant of $75,000 from the Amarillo Economic Development Corp. to help produce and market his amphibious bicycle, which can travel on land and water.

Later, Perdue began a cross-country trek touring America to show off his unique creation. He sold hundreds of Pedal-Paddles and sank thousands into his product but watched with dismay as sales waned.

"Pedal-Paddle competes with leisure time. That's what it really boils down to," he said. "I literally have dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars on that project with little return. Somewhere around half a million dollars at this point."

Perdue's mainstay business, Perdue Acoustics, makes fabric-wrapped acoustical panels and home theater products at his small, family-owned facility north of Amarillo.

The company has won contracts to provide acoustical designs for Universal Studies and even the CIA's training center.

Several years ago, Perdue came upon rock wool, a specialized fiber with inherent acoustical abilities, and incorporated it into acoustical panels made by Perdue Acoustics.

Last year, Inc. magazine touted the Amarillo inventor's business acumen in an article on smaller entrepreneurs who made it big.

In the wake of the Pedal-Paddle's marketing pitfalls, Perdue sent a package of his product ideas to Gerald Udell, a Southwest Missouri State University professor who evaluates inventions for marketing potential.

Perdue said he took five pages of marketing notes and recommendations on another project he's developing for Perdue Acoustics.

The Amarillo inventor said he's learned from his experiences with the Pedal-Paddle and has three new inventions that are being analyzed by Udell's institute.

Perdue has been named one of four finalists vying for $10,000 small-business grants from West Texas A&M University's Enterprise Network.

Perdue has developed a product dubbed "The Rectangle Finder," which he said will help craftsmen cut rectangular shapes to exact specifications. The device, made of eight flat pieces of aluminum, can be used in numerous types of applications, he said.

Don Taylor, executive director of West Texas A&M University's Enterprise Network, said FirstStep judges were impressed with Perdue's newest invention and made him a finalist.

Taylor said the product could be particularly applicable in residential construction and remodeling work.

"Our goal is to invest in products and entrepreneurs that can take an idea and turn it into a successful, marketable item. In looking at that product, we felt there were advantages that it would have over things that are currently on the market for solving the problems it was designed to do," he said.