It was April of 2001 and dot-coms were imploding like far-away stars in Deep Space 9. But not for Marc Resnik. He had a dream. Sort of.
“It wasn’t a dream, just an idea in my head,” said Resnik. “I literally woke up laughing with an unusual idea for a business.”
After “throwing” some ideas around with the family, Resnik said he went downstairs and registered the domain
ThrowThings.com for his Ravenna-based company.
The business model combines the concept of “throwing” with a number of loosely related departments. “Things To Throw” has toys and games, like baseball and such. The “Throw Your Voice” category features ventriloquist dummies (big sellers, apparently), puppets and marionettes. The most popular section, in terms of overall revenue, is the “Throw Your Name Around” category which offers customized promotional products. There’s also “Throw Backs,” “Throw A Party,” “ThrowThings Things” (this is not a typo) and, of course, “Throw Up.” You can even “Throw Your Money Away.” We’re not kidding. For $3.50 plus shipping and handling, the buyer gets a certificate verifying that he did, indeed, throw his money away.
Resnik says the five full-time staff company continues to evolve and grow and enjoyed consistent year-over-year growth until the economic downturn in 2008.
“With the downturn in the economy we took a hit but have been back on the growth track since then,” he said. “When things slowed down the company used the time to refocus, to become more efficient, and to complete some of the things on our ‘We really should do this but there just doesn’t seem to be time’ list.”
“Unlike most businesses, ours is relatively scalable in that we have the ability to increase business levels based on our [existing] staff. Because of this we are always looking for people that could be a strong addition but we are never pressured to bring someone in.”