An incomplete Tale

This may be a little boring to some and perhaps enlightening to others. Cheryl and I became septuagenarians in 2017 and I imagine that to many, that means we’re old but trust me, when you get to seventy, you don’t feel old, perhaps a little weaker in body but hopefully not the brain. They do say that old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill.

The seed for Amjo Corp began in 1977 when I bought my first personal computer and developed an ongoing interest and hobby with computers and the like. I was thirty years old and gainfully employed in sales and marketing in high power microwave and electronics. It was about twenty years later in 1997, I was in a senior sales management position with a firm in Chicago, traveling the world and wearing myself out. The IT manager asked if I would like to try and make an intranet (internal) website for my department. With some fear and trepidation, I gave it a try and within a few days, our group had its own website inside the company.

I took the idea a little further and created a family website called www.cane.com and that led to the start of Amjo. Amjo, by the way, got its name from the names of our two daughters Amy and Jody.

1998: The next happening was caused by a customer of mine that was manufacturing facial sunlamps and he asked if could create a website for him to sell his sunlamps and www.healthytan.com was born.

1998: We received phone calls from customers who wanted sunlamps for the treatment of psoriasis and seasonal affective disorder. Those ‘opportunities’ led to www.homephototherapy.com and www.sadlight.com before the year’s end.

1999: Remember Y2K? We began selling many Y2K products such as wind-up-radios and wind-up-flashlights. We did very well for a few months and as predicted, Y2K was a bust and sales dropped in 2000 and we killed that business. The man who invented the radio that got us started with WINDEMUP sales was Trevor Bayliis. He passed away in 2018 (See Bayliss OBIT)

2000: Early in 2000, we thought we would try and leverage the family name ‘CANE’ and introduce canes, walking sticks and other mobility products. It turns out that most customers needing canes and mobility products are on Medicare and expect these products to be covered under their insurance. We looked into becoming a Medicare approved supplier and determined that the 43 page application booklet, the audits etc. would be too much for Amjo. We killed the mobility business.

2000: We started selling the Curatron PEMF system at www.curatron.com. This turned out to be one of our best successes. Year over year, our PEMF sales increased and they now represent the lion’s share of our business. We have added three other PEMF related websites at www.pemfsite.com, www.flashpemft.com and www.realpemf.com all supporting Curatron sales.

2004: Catching Smokers. We teamed up with a firm called Voice Products to sell specialized sensors and annunciators to detect people smoking in schools and the workplace.

I should finish this one day when I have a little more time.