Good games partner skill, fun and luck; the successful player combines these three elements to emerge the victor. In the game of entrepreneurship, three graduates of the Lansing Micro-Enterprise Fund are proving that business success is attainable by merging strong skills and contagious enthusiasm with a generous serving of fate, luck and good karma. Sylvia Alexander, Bob Cavin and Germaine Redding, the three partners of Test of Time Enterprises, are working hard, but they’re also having a great time and are filled with excitement about the future of their young company.

In 2004, Cavin and Redding met while taking classes through Lansing Micro-Enterprise Fund. Redding, owner and manager of rental properties in the Lansing area, was going through the program in order to upgrade his skills and hoped to eventually expand his business. Cavin had owned a florist business at one time but had not been a business owner for several years and was exploring his options. He and his then business partner (no longer involved in this project) had an idea for developing, marketing and selling a board game and were looking to the Micro-Enterprise Fund for guidance and direction. When Cavin and Redding met, something clicked, and they began working together on a new venture which eventually became Test of Time Enterprises.

Together, they began to formulate a business plan and embarked on information gathering and market research. They found valuable sources of advice and expertise in Bo Garcia, regional director of the Lansing Community College Small Business and Technical Development Center; Denise Peek of the Lansing Micro-Enterprise Fund; Elizabeth Kudwa, business reference librarian at the Capital Area District Library; and Tom Colonnese, president of KTM Industries, who served as their mentor.

Along the way, a chance encounter with Sylvia Alexander, a fellow church member, led to her involvement in the company. Besides bringing her keen interest in history and education to the project, she worked to help raise funding for the fledgling operation. She eventually went through the classes at the Micro-Enterprise Fund as well.

Cavin and Redding originally envisioned a game focusing on African-American history which combined fun with learning and could be marketed both to schools and for home use. Eventually, their research led them to the conclusion that the game, which they ultimately christened The Whole Story, should be more inclusive, and, with Alexander’s input, they began to reconstruct it as a game focused on American history and the people, places and events that have shaped the United States.

As part of their research, in August of 2005 they attended TGIF (Toys and Games Inventors Forum), hosted by the toys and games industry. With a last-minute check handed off by Alexander, Cavin and Redding took off—literally. Driving day and night, they made it to the event in Florida at 3 a.m. on the day the conference began, with just enough time to check into their room and unpack before it all started at 8 a.m. Fueled by “adrenaline, motivation and excitement,” according to Redding, the two set about garnering as much information and as many contacts as they could. They attended roundtables with industry executives and buyers as well as inventors like themselves. CEOs and other representatives from companies like Mattel, Hasbro and Universal Toys were in attendance. Cavin said, “One of the things we were able to do is meet one-on-one for a kind of ‘speed-dating’ interaction with quite a few representatives of different toy companies. They talked with us about making the game more inclusive and about marketing to both schools and retail. We feel like we got some good advice that helped us move forward.”

Redding added, “We met Jay Byrd, a buyer from Fred’s Inc., a company that sells toys and games. He seemed really interested in our ideas and gave us lots of good advice. His wife is a teacher, and she was at the conference with him. She helped us with ideas for working with the educational marketplace.

“On top of everything else,” Redding continued, “a production team from the Jay Leno show approached us about filming both of us to appear on a Leno show feature called ‘Pitch to America.’”

In a further example of sheer good luck, one of the sponsors of the conference was Rehtmeyer, Inc., a company out of Illinois that develops, licenses and manufactures toys and games. Cavin and Redding linked up with their representatives at the conference and came away with both a tentative buyer (Fred’s Inc.) and a possible manufacturer (Rehtmeyer Inc.) before they even had a prototype!

Back in Lansing, the three partners set about refurbishing the game based on all the input and advice they had received. In yet another example of fate working for them, Tom Colonnese was able to link them up with Megan Kaufman, the wife of KTM’s CFO, who had the experience they needed to help them retool the rules, revamp the questions and refine the concept behind The Whole Story. They visited the Rehtmeyer facility in Illinois and worked with graphic designers there to give the game the look they wanted. In January of 2006, they signed a formal contract with Rehtmeyer to manufacture the game.

February of that year saw Redding and Covin “on the road again.” This time it was travel to an International Toy Fair in New York City. Unfortunately for New York City itself and many potential attendees, a huge snowstorm crippled the city and kept airplanes grounded. Once again, luck was with Test of Time. The two partners had decided to get to the conference early and were on the ground in NYC when the storm hit. Further compounding their good fortune, on a snowy trek through Times Square, they ran into Jay Byrd and his wife, who arranged a series of meetings with them to further discuss their plans. By the time they left NYC, still without a prototype, they had negotiated a deal with Jay Byrd and Fred’s Inc. New to the business, Covin, Redding and Alexander only found out later that this arrangement was one of those never-happens events that, because of the right set of circumstances, did happen!

Alexander said, “Along the way, we established contact with Teachers Discovery of Auburn Hills, and they became interested in buying the games for use in the classroom.

“It’s been important for us all along not just to develop a game and be successful at it. We want to do something good for children. This game can make learning fun and exciting. It can help them with coping skills, working together, learning how to be gracious in victory or defeat. Children have so much curiosity and enthusiasm about learning new things. If we can ignite that when they are young, it will last them throughout their whole lives.”

Essentially, the game involves amassing points by correctly answering multiple choice questions about American history in the areas of sports, literature, great leaders, entertainment, inventors and historic events. Designed for two to four players or teams of players, aged 12 and up, the game includes a colorful board and 300 questions contained in a card pack.

Here are a few sample questions. Can you answer?*

• What did Edwin Armstrong invent? (Color TV; Computer; FM Radio)
• What year did Muhammad Ali win an Olympic gold medal for boxing? (1950; 1960; 1970)
• Who called himself “The Originator; The Emancipator” of rock and roll? (Fats Domino; Jimi Hendrix; Little Richard)

The final contracts with Fred’s Inc. were signed in May and production of the game began in June 2006; it was in the stores in November. Besides retail outlets, several school systems have asked to buy the game for classrooms, and other sales possibilities are in the planning stages. Sales and requests have been good enough that they feel the need to speed up the production schedule and manufacture more than their original estimates.

In addition, Alexander said, “We are working right now on adapting the game for younger students. The board could be the same; we just need to develop another set of questions. We can do the same thing for other adaptations: African-American, Hispanic, women’s history. We’re also working on a geography game and a vocabulary game, based on the same premise.”

The group has spoken to classes at Micro-Enterprise Fund, been interviewed on radio programs and will be featured at a February 21 program at the Capital Area District Library.

Skill? Yes, the three of them definitely have that. Luck? Check. It’s been on their side every step of the way. Fun? Taking all the late nights, uncertainties and stresses of a new business in stride, Sylvia Alexander, Bob Covin and Germaine Redding are definitely having the time of their lives! Expect to hear more from this dynamic trio in the future.

* The answers are: FM Radio; 1960; Little Richard. How did you do?

Author: Jane Wittington
Photography: Terri Shaver