You could say Darren Butler has quite the entrepreneurial disposition. The Hicksville resident not only founded a church, but invented a doorstop that does not require screwing any holes into your wall or door. The device simply clamps on to the bottom of any sized door without requiring tools.
“I never envisioned myself as being an inventor,” explained Butler. “I became one by accident and out of frustration.”
After Butler and his wife purchased their home, they wanted to decorate and maintain it. “We have four children and at the time we wanted to minimize the damage that occurs from doors slamming into walls because as young children do; they have a tendency to aggressively open doors, and as a result the door knob created holes in our wall,” said Butler. “We purchased conventional doorstops so at the very least we could minimize that reality if not eliminate it all together.”
“The conventional doorstop presented another problem,” explained Butler. “After consistent use they tended to wear out and fall off. They were creating unsightly holes in our walls and our doors. They weren’t compatible with every door and wall, and the last one I purchased even fell off the door.”
Butler, who is the pastor of the International Good News Fellowship Church, says he was so frustrated that he asked God what do to about his problem.
“Being a spiritual person of deep faith, I told God ‘I am so tired of this’ and I heard him talk back to me. He told me to get a piece of paper and a pencil and draw. He is the one who gave me this idea for the adjustable doorstop,” says Butler.
Butler’s wife Patricia recalled the time when he told her about his idea. “I thought it was awesome and it could really fix the problems we were having,” she said. “My husband has always had things in the works. He is a very creative person.”
Being a young husband and father who had just purchased a new home and did not have the proper funds, Butler had to sit on the idea until he had enough money to get his apparatus out into the market.
“Bringing invention ideas to the market has changed radically from when I first received this idea 15 years ago to when I got it to the prototype stage that I have now,” said Butler. “The most significant change is how relatively inexpensive it has become to effectuate the process. When I first began it took quite a bit of money to go through the entire process. I had to get the concept and some kind of workable representation.”
Butler went through the formal process and hired attorneys to do a patent search to make sure his product was unique. When he got the okay back from them, he was able to get the ball rolling.
Today Butler works with a company called Invention Home, which markets his product to companies interested in possibly selling the doorstop. Invention Home describes the doorstop on their website as being able to be “attached securely to a door to protect walls from nicks and scratches effectively. It features an adjustable clamp that can adhere to doors of all sizes. The device transfers effortlessly from one door to another and saves money by eliminating the need to frequently replace a doorstop or repair a wall.”
“Everyone that gets exposed to the concept and idea is extremely excited about it,” said Butler. “I remember the first time I told my congregation about it. Seeing their excitement and enthusiasm alone was very encouraging and very rewarding. Many of them began to see a multitude of settings and atmospheres that the product could work for. They saw it way beyond what I envisioned.”
Butler is optimistic that the product he created will come to a local hardware store near you very soon. “I just need to reach out to as many people as possible so they are able to see the great possibilities this doorstop has,” he said. “Then it will really take off.”
For more information, call Invention Home at 1-866-844-6512.
