HobbyScopes.com focuses on bright future after MCE loan

HobbyScopes.com wants to grow its business after receiving a $6,000 E-Loan from the Maricopa Center for Entrepreneurship (MCE) and the City of Maricopa.

HobbyScopes.com owner Todd Clark has lived in Maricopa five years. He moved here for work, but after just a year, his employer went out of business. He has been a sales manager for educational products and an academic tutor. As difficult as it was to lose the job he relocated from Chicago for, he seized the opportunity to build his dream.

Clark has a bachelor’s degree in biology, and a master’s degree in business. He is also an avid collector of coins. He said his hobbies have always required microscopes. For Clark, starting a business selling them was a logical decision.

“I used to work for large science companies,” Clark said. “I was always working with microscopes, and then I started putting them together. I decided I could make a living out it.”

When Clark made the decision to sell microscopes, he promised he would sell a product he was proud of. He didn’t want just any microscopes; he wanted the best.

“I’ve actually traveled to China to speak with the manufacturers,” Clark said. “It allowed me to tell them exactly what I want. What type of glass and what magnification. It makes the microscopes we sell a higher quality.”

Clark is even developing his own microscope. His design will feature digital displays and be “something the industry hasn’t seen before.”

HobbyScopes.com is only online. Clark would like to develop a manufacturing and storage facility in Maricopa as the business grows. This would allow the company to develop its own microscopes, and not have to rely on importing products.

“I want to keep everything made in America,” Clark said. “One day I’d like to open up a manufacturing facility here in Maricopa. I want to grow my business here and create jobs. Not just [minimum wage] jobs either, but jobs people can raise a family on.”

Clark would also like to see his business get the younger generation excited about science again. In an effort to help get local youth interested in science – especially during the summer months – he offers microscope kits for children. These kits come with coins and rocks for them to research and study. He hopes this will help change the negative trends this country has seen in science testing and participation.

MCE has two more loans pending in its E-Loan program, said Executive Director Dan Beach. A total of $123,000 was made available through a USDA Rural Development grant.

“The idea of the E-Loan is that you can’t get it until you’ve been turned down by somebody else,” Beach said.