Owner Frazier Pruett talks about his family business, Top Quads LLC, which was established in the North Bend Business Development Center in December of last year. World Photo by Alex Powers

Top Quad, a quad safety flag manufacturing and distributing company that opened last December, has yet to duplicate Greg Celoni’s success.

But the Business Development Center has been a help.

Frazier Pruett said his company has yet to make a profit. Pruett and his wife, Connie, and 24-year-old son, Daniel, are wondering whether they should have started a business with the poor state of the economy.

The Pruetts don’t have a sales force, but since March, they’ve been making connections and sales are going up.

“We’ve been very well received by local shops,” Frazier Pruett said. “Recently we’ve extended to Portland. We’re going to extend our business to Washington, Northern California.”

Going in he knew the work would be seasonal. He’s finding his customers are not stocking a lot of his product. It’s a market in which shop owners buy right before they’re going to use it. That’s a challenge, since he has to buy his materials in bulk. But he thinks the excess supplies will carry him into next year.

“People are still coming,” he said. “They’re not splurging, but they’re buying necessities.”

The Pruetts developed their products mostly based on customers’ suggestions. The long black rods hold red flags — some cut to look like flames.

“It’s very durable material,” Pruett said. “We offer a lifetime warranty on the flag material, itself.”

Pruett takes pride in his flags. All the machine work is done by local businesses and they have a quick-disconnect feature.

The Pruetts got into the business because they’re ATV riders. They say they couldn’t have started their business without the Business Development Center. Their rent is $410 a month for 1,350 square feet, compared to $1,500 or more elsewhere in the community.

“This has been a tremendous blessing for us,” Pruett said. “It really enabled our business.”

“Without the business center, I don’t know where we would be,” Daniel Pruett said.