Orange County Register

Bob Siemon says he knows what folks need right now: Hope.

Bob Siemon

You ought to listen because Siemon, founder and CEO of Bob Siemon Designs in Santa Ana has a remarkable track record in spotting new trends before they become fads.

His 39-year-old company is one of the the world’s largest manufacturers of Christian jewelry and gifts for the $6 billion religious products market.

Among his successes:

• His WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) jewelry line was in the top six Chrisian products on the market in 1998, and the companion WWJD book debuted at number 2 on the Christian Booksellers Association best seller list that year. It eventually sold more than 500,000 copies.
• His Shield of Faith pendants and lapel pins focused on militaray members and their families at the beginning of the Iraq War sold 50,000 pieces in their first two weeks on the market in 2003
• He sold hundreds of thousands of items in his products tied to Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” movie and the two “Narnia” movies.

Tuesday April 7, Siemon Designs will introduce the book, “HOPE: Comfort and Encouragement From The

HOPE book cover

Bible” and related medallions for each of the chapters on Change, Strength, Integrity, Perseverance and Hope. Click here for more information.

“So many people today seem hopeless,” Siemon said. “They lose their job, a family member loses a home, their 30-year marriage ends. People need hope and comfort.”

Siemon Designs isn’t immune from the current economic problems. A third of the company’s 5,000 retail customers in 2000 have gone out of business. At the peak of WWJD popularity, Siemon Designs was running three shifts a day and employed 400. Now it has 75.

“We’re viable and profitable with a backlog of work double what it was last year, but we have had to make difficult decisions,” Siemon said.

He enlisted best-selling authors Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz to create the HOPE book. The suggested retail price will be $7.99.

Siemon sells it to retailers at 40% discount and then gives an extra 10% off (80 cents per book) for the stores “to deliver hope in small ways in their communities.”

Other entrepreneur stories….

• World’s Great Workplaces list honors O.C. company
• Government money is salvation for contractor
• Business is ‘fantastic,’ this O.C. executive says
• Would these special services make you spend money?
• Old scam reappears in O.C.
• O.C. eye surgery firm raises $22 million
• Business bank grows based on relationships
• One O.C. company foresees 80% growth in ‘09
• O.C. manufacturer finds sharing limits layoffs

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.