Winter bringing you the blues? Sno Problem!
Maria Ly
Staff Writer
Reed Seifert walked into a room with 20 other classmates eager to start a business venture in the Integrated Business Experience (IBE) and College of Business, thus the creation of SnoProblem in the Fall of 2018.
Seifert, a junior pursuing a major in Business Management and minor in Accounting and Innovation and Entrepreneurship, had dreamed of starting a business since he was a child. “As a kid, that was my childhood goal. I always had a notebook growing up that my brother would tease me about that I always wrote business ideas and crazy schemes in, and it kind of grew up with me and lead me to fall into this degree that I’m pursuing now,” said Seifert.
He always had a passion for business and would do little things to make money as a kid. “I was a hustler. I sold t-shirts and lemonade stands were a regular. I used to do lawn care and go door to door and try to get people to have me mow their lawns for them,” said Seifert
This passion stuck with him as he sat in the room with his classmates, brainstorming ideas for a business that would be best for local Mankato residents, Minnesotans, and college-aged adults as well as teachers and faculty. Something they found they all related to was putting up with the harsh winter months.
The students wanted to create something that made winter more bearable and less gross, thus the creation of the first two products in the SnoProblem line. Their first ever product was their exterior windshield cover to keep snow and ice from building up on windshields during snowstorms.
Seifert said, “We actually had that idea because one of our group members had gotten into a car accident because he was trying to clear his windshield, he was late for class, and only got a little bit of it cleared, so when he started driving, that of course impaired his visibility and he ended up getting into an accident.”
The next product in their line is their credit card ice scraper, which they teamed up with local business to get discounts for students on the product.
Seifert, who is the CEO of the company, hopes to continue to grow the business along with other executives. “The birth of the company was through the IBE and the College of Business, but we kind of hope to continue to grow SnoProblem hopefully in the next year. Currently, United Way, the charity we donated to has the rights to a lot of the products we produced this year. We hope, into the next year, we continue to provide our products,” he said.
SnoProblem has upcoming products still in the works and hopes to continue their business venture, Seifert stated, “Currently our mission statement was to help provide safety and convenience during the winter months, in line with that, we have a couple of ideas, but they’re kind of in the workshop right now. Me and a handful of executives that consider themselves a part of SnoProblem kind of have high hopes of bringing the company back next winter.”
Seifert is glad to be a part of SnoProblem as it showed him what it takes to start a business. He says to all the people thinking of starting their own business, “Do it. Too many people will have these ideas, will get nervous, will have self-doubt, but the best entrepreneurs- yes there’s risk averse, but that’s only to a certain degree- they’re not scared to push themselves and share their ideas and really grow themselves as young professionals.”
Seifert hopes to continue in the world of business and making his childhood dreams come true.
“Believe me, I have that childhood notebook that I’m still adding to today and I have a lot of ideas that I hope someday I can bring to light,” said Seifert.
Header photo: Reed Seifert (center right) and the SnoProblem team donated $7,015 to the Mankato Area United Way in Fall 2018 via the College of Business’ Integrated Business Experience program. (Courtesy of Reed Seifert)