Tim Aten

Naples Daily News

Business is a hobby for Naples "mom-preneur" Shelly Stayer.

Since Stayer launched her latest invention — an indoor electric grill designed exclusively for Johnsonville sausages — the mother of three is being called a "mom-preneur," a role she embraces.

"I like the term 'mom-preneur' because really the grill is a product of a mom seeing a problem and inventing something to solve the problem," Stayer said. "So, I'm flattered by people calling me a 'mom-preneur.' I think it's great."

Jon Wagner, one of Stayer's children, inherited her entrepreneurial drive. He is the co-owner of Two Trucks LLC, which operates the Butcher's Son food truck in Naples.

"He definitely has the entrepreneur DNA, because I mean the easy thing to do, if you think of it, would have been just to come work for mom and dad, right? Instead, he takes the really hard work route 15 hours a day, 130 degrees on board those trucks, and standing 15 hours a day, so I give him all the credit in the world."

Although Stayer's time-saving invention makes grilling fresh, uncooked Johnsonville bratwurst and Italian sausages more convenient and foolproof, she realizes she's stepping into the ring with heavyweight George Foreman. But Foreman's grill is not ideal for preparing cylindrical sausages, a method she has perfected.

"If you put a Johnsonville brat on a George Foreman, it's flat, so you stand there and you turn and you turn and you turn. You might as well be outside (using an outdoor grill)," said Stayer, who debuted and demonstrated her own grill Wednesday at her Johnsonville Sausage Marketplace store in North Naples. "Then, in order to see if it's done, you cut it in half. Well, all the juices and the spices we put in there — that made us famous — come out."

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The main selling point of Stayer's new Sizzling Sausage Grill is that its enclosed design encases and cooks sausages evenly in 10 to 15 minutes as a built-in temperature probe prevents overcooking or undercooking.

A removable tray collects the grease and the grill's removable cooking plates can be put in the dishwasher for easy cleanup. When not in use, the grill even stands vertically to take up less counter space.

"The Sizzling Sausage Grill was my idea about ten years ago. We could see the decrease in people grilling," said Stayer, who, as a member of the Johnsonville Sausage Co. dynasty, not only launched Johnsonville Sausage Marketplace two years ago in Naples, but co-owns Grace & Shelly's Cupcakes stores here.

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Innovation for time-starved moms

Shelly Stayer told her husband, Ralph Stayer, who retired a year ago as CEO of Wisconsin-based Johnsonville Sausage, that she wanted to create a product that helped today's working moms, facing an ever-shrinking day fraught with soccer and cheerleading schedules and other time commitments.

"I said to Ralph, 'We have to create something that doesn't take so long to grill Johnsonville brats or Italians. I have to come up with something,'" she said.

Of course, Stayer came up with the idea to create a grill for indoor, convenient grilling. "That's how it started," she said.

The conception was the easy part, though. Manufacturing the special grills has taken about five years, she said.

"It's not easy to get a small appliance manufactured," Stayer said. "The whole process is difficult: the design, the engineering, the patent. There's a patent on the grill for the time sensor that dings when done. Marketing. Who's going to make it? Traveling around the world to see who's going to make it. Who's going to produce it? That took about five years, and for that I had help from members at Johnsonville. We have food scientists, food engineers, but the overall concept nobody had. We started from scratch."

Turns out that Stayer isn't really competing against George Foreman. In fact, the George Foreman Grill folks produced her television infomercial, which started airing in late April during the wee hours of the night.

"They came here to Naples. We filmed it in the store," Stayer said. "Like people say, surround yourself with the best. So, we know that George Foreman was successful. We know that most Americans bought that grill, so I hired those people. They are part of my marketing team. They convinced me to start with an infomercial instead of retail stores."

The only retail store selling the grill is Johnsonville Sausage Marketplace in North Naples. Otherwise, the grill is available to order online or by calling an 800 number.

Stayer had 10,000 of the grills manufactured so far. The first shipment of 100 just arrived Wednesday at the Johnsonville Sausage Marketplace store. Now, marketing begins.

So, business is never finished for the "mom-preneur."

"I don't see myself ever retiring. Like, I say, I'm cursed with being an entrepreneur and that means that my mind is always spinning about business. I drive my husband nuts. People say to me, "Oh, do you ever shut it off?' and I say no. I mean, I'm at a restaurant, I pull out a cocktail napkin and I start redoing Applebee's menu to include our sausage, or I'm going to go back in the kitchen after the server takes our order to tell them about our andouille. So, I really can't ever shut it down. It is my hobby. And people say, "Well, no, we mean what's your hobby?' and I say, 'Well, business is my hobby. That's my hobby — business.' "

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