Online glass supplier takes prize in Chamber of Commerce's business plan competition

Struggling to find a supplier for a certain type of glass, Mike and Becky Monaghan launched their own online business to meet the need.

Now the Quincy couple hope to see Woodstove-FireplaceGlass.com continue to grow -- thanks to winning the Quincy Area Chamber of Commerce 2013 Business Plan Competition.

The Monaghans took home $10,000 in prize money, awarded Saturday during the Entrepreneurial Expo at Quincy Mall, along with a certificate for three credit hours of education at John Wood Community College.

Mike Monaghan said the competition offered a big boost to the business, launched in 2010, as a sideline to the family glass business, now known as Glass One and operated by his son.

"We'll be able to reinvest in the business and help speed up the process as far as development," Monaghan said. "Hopefully within the next year we'll be hiring employees to help cut and ship the glass."

The money from the chamber will be used to market the business, which sells replacement glass for woodstoves and fireplaces, to wholesalers and to expand its online presence.

The ceramic glass able to withstand high temperatures is expensive, selling for $1,000 for a 4-by-6-foot sheet, and customers often need only a small piece, which makes wholesalers reluctant to stock the product.

"We started very slow," Monaghan said. "I bought three sheets, sold them online, then I bought five sheets, bought seven sheets. Now I'm buying cases of 40."

The Monaghans cut, box and ship orders the same day or the next day, working out of rented space in the back shop of Glass One.

The business sells to customers across the country, and by this time next year, Monaghan hopes to expand sales into Canada.

"In five years, I think we'll probably have four employees and sales around $500,000," he said. "The sales goal this year is $100,000, and so far we're on track."

The Business Plan Competition is in its second year is designed to foster new business initiatives and business expansions in Adams County.

Twelve entrepreneurs submitted plans for the competition in June and received constructive feedback from experienced local judges in the preliminary round. Four finalists made oral presentations to the final judges -- Quincy natives Judson Green, a retired Disney executive who served for a decade as the president and chief executive office of digital mapmaker NAVTEQ; Jack Klues, chairman of Publicis Groups Media; and James Stewart, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and columnist for the New York Times.

The most intimidating part of the competition, Monaghan said, was the videoconference with the final judges.

"They know a lot more than I do," he said. "It's kind of like showing Mom your homework and having it graded."

The whole competition was helpful to his business.

"It made me focus and develop a plan and analyze it," he said. "Even if I didn't win, it was a great process to go through."

Chamber Executive Director Amy Looten said the competition raises awareness of the importance of "locally grown businesses" in the Quincy community and how they affect the stability of the local economy.

"The other thing it does is it encourages somebody who has a great idea to go for it, to take that idea and put numbers on paper and just see if it could be a viable business.