A hands-on business
Sunday, May 7, 2006

By TERESA M. MCALEAVY
STAFF WRITER

Francine Glick had heard all about necessity being the mother of invention.

She just didn't expect to live it.

But after working in software product management for Bell Labs, and later in mergers and acquisitions at Barclays, it seemed reasonable to Glick that she should be able to come up with a way to keep her girls' hands clean between trips to and from soccer or volleyball games.

Glick didn't want to use an alcohol-based sanitizer because her daughters, Joelle and Natalie, complained that those products left their hands feeling dry or gooey. So she and an equally frustrated mother toiled over Glick's kitchen sink in Livingston until they began to come up with a solution.

"I couldn't find the right product, so being a Type-A personality, I decided to come up with my own,'' says Glick, who established Water Journey, Ltd. in 1997 after figuring others would also want the product.

Since its inception, the company has focused on perfecting and marketing Hands2GO, a water-based, fragrance- and alcohol-free, antibacterial hand sanitizer that moisturizes the skin.

"I thought, 'There's got to be something better than what already exists,' '' says Glick, whose patented, foaming formula includes aloe vera, lavender and chamomile extracts, as well as an antibacterial agent known as benzalkonium chloride.

"It took about one year to create it, working with a chemist,'' recalls Glick, who spent about $30,000 in start-up capital to launch the business. Part of that, she says, includes having independent, FDA-approved labs test the product. Results, she says, show that it kills 99.9 percent of germs, including e-coli and staph.

Glick, whose friend bowed out of the business fairly early on because of time constraints, today owns the Internet and retail sales operation that employs three full-time and one part-time worker. She says she logged revenues for 2005 at between $450,000 and $500,000, making it the first year the company saw a profit.

Hands2GO is manufactured in Virginia and is available at waterjourney.com, CVS.com, and Bed Bath & Beyond and Harmon Discount drug stores.

Betty Kreeger of San Mateo, Calif., buys from the Web because she's "chemically sensitive'' and gets ill from fragrances and most chemicals.

"I'm always looking for non-fragrance products,'' Kreeger says. "I like this because it cleans my hands and doesn't get me sick.''

Hands2GO ranges in price from about $3 for a small bottle to $200 for 4 gallons that fill wall dispensers for various larger-scale uses.

The Coalition for Foodsafe Schools in Rhode Island, for example, began using Hands2GO this school year as part of its wellness initiative.

"We're trying to do hand sanitizing before the children eat to decrease illness,'' says Nora Thurber, who is helping head up the initiative at Mary Fogarty Elementary School in Providence. "It has really been terrific, and when I had a problem with a broken dispenser, I got a new one right away. I really like the service.''

Thurber also says she likes the price.

"I e-mailed Francine and said 'We're a poor school, would you accept $100 for a case of four dispensers?' '' Thurber says, "And she was more than nice about it.''

Glick decided also to donate supplies of Hands2GO to Hurricane Katrina survivors and relief workers.

In addition to selling it via the Internet and at some retail stores, she also does some private label licensing deals, where Hands2GO is packaged under the name of another business, such as a hotel.

"I do that very selectively, mostly outside of the United States, because I want to really focus on developing the brand,'' Glick says.

It didn't hurt the brand when Hands2GO wound up in this year's Oscar goody bags after Glick teamed with a diaper bag maker who made the cut for the annual tradition of giving celebrities exclusive gifts with the hope of getting exposure in the marketplace.

And Glick also says she scored big as one of a handful of winners of a December contest co-sponsored by OPEN, the American Express unit geared toward small businesses, and the non-profit group Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence. After pitching her business plan for growth, Glick won a year's worth of mentoring and consulting services, and access to loans aimed at helping her top $1 million in sales.

"Having this incredible network of very successful women to tap into has helped me take a step back and think on the business instead of in the business,'' Glick says.

Winning the contest also gave Glick the chance to pitch Hands2GO to QVC because the television shopping giant recently teamed with the sponsor's efforts to promote women-owned businesses.

"I'm waiting to hear back,'' says Glick.

In the meantime, she's working on launching new natural personal care products, with a target of debuting three annually over the next few years.

"We don't want to rush because we're passionate about really wanting to fulfill our customer's needs,'' Glick says. "That doesn't happen overnight.''

E-mail: mcaleavy@northjersey.com