New Port Richey couple make custom bobbleheads lucrative

NEW PORT RICHEY — Working from home has its challenges. Jeff and Christine Wolsky know them well.

How to stay connected with employees. How to carve out family time. How to handle Don King and Ellen DeGeneres once they come out of the oven.

So maybe the Wolskys face a few unusual challenges.

Since 2006, their company, HD Design Center LLC, has sold well over a million customized, handmade bobblehead dolls produced in China. The Wolskys own one factory in China and have agreements to use three more.

Back at their Pasco County home, the Wolskys, parents of three children ages 14, 11 and 6, handle customer calls and broker bulk orders. They stay in touch with their China-based management team and nearly 500 employees through e-mail and Internet voice and video calls and by a willingness to adapt to a 12-hour time difference by holding meetings at 10 p.m.

"We manage an international business from our home and we also manage our family," said Jeff Wolsky. "So far we think we've done pretty good with that."

One of a handful of made-to-order bobblehead companies, HD Design says it stands out because individuals can order just one customized doll — starting at around $75 — whereas other companies require bulk orders.

The company has made dolls of everybody from office workers to grandparents to college mascots to celebrities to political figures. Among its larger clients, HD Design counts U.S. News & World Report, which commissioned thousands of political bobbleheads, including ones of Barack Obama and John McCain, that it sells on its Web site.

The Wolskys are quick to point out that they are not artists, that they don't have the talent it takes to make a piece of material look like a big-headed miniature human.

At their Chinese factory, trained artists and sculptors study photographs e-mailed by customers. They sculpt clay molds of the heads, which are then baked and filled with polyresin. Then the heads and bodies are painted, attached and baked again.

Some of the workers specialize in faces, others in fur, for instance. Indeed, the floor is set up in specialty stations.

"Molding the face is a talent," said Jeff Wolsky. "When they graduate from that, they become the eye and nose guy."

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So how did the Wolskys get into the bobblehead business?

First, they knew they wanted to be their own bosses, and second, they knew they wanted to sell through the Internet. No storefront for them. With the Web, he said, "you can serve the world."

Next step, what do you sell? After some research, they figured they could make money in the wedding industry. In 2004, they began selling cake toppers, wedding favors and guest books.

Then they tried to figure out how they could distinguish themselves from other wedding accessory retailers. So they began offering customized bride and groom clay figurines, made to resemble the actual bride and groom.

They found a factory in China to produce their orders. Financially, they say, it made the most sense: Paying higher rent and American wages would put their products out of reach of many.

The Wolskys would not say how much the workers are paid but said they are paid on commission. Employees also get free rent if they want to live in the dorms the company provides.

"Some people say, 'Why aren't you supporting America?' " said Jeff Wolsky. "But the truth is, you wouldn't pay us."

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The figurines became one of their most popular pieces, and HD Design began branching into themes other than weddings, including sports and work.

But the couple kept getting the same question from customers about the figurines: Do they bobble?

"I remember people saying 'Do you do bobbleheads?' " said Christine. "I remember saying, 'No, but I think we're going to.' "

So in late 2006, they started offering bobblehead dolls over their Web site. Because the customized bobblehead operation was so unique, the couple decided to buy their own 50,000-square-factory, where most of their orders are made.

Though the couple rarely travels to China, the Wolskys say they have excellent managers — "our eyes and ears," says Jeff Wolsky — who keep them apprised of everything going on.

The Wolskys declined to provide sales figures but said that in one recent month they produced about 50,000 bulk pieces and 2,000 individual figures.

"Like any other business, you listen to the people," said Jeff, "and that's the success."

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Bobbleheads of ordinary people are the company's signature operation.

Among their most notable pieces are a 2-foot-tall bobblehead of a boy celebrating his bar mitzvah. A Colorado car salesman who gives away little versions of himself to his customers. A woman whose head bobbles on the body of a Shar-Pei dog.

But the celebrities are fans, too.

Back when they first started, they were going through customers' Internet orders when Jeff came across one familiar-looking photograph that one man submitted of himself.

"Hey," he said, "this guy looks like Ted Danson."

Christine Wolsky took a look.

"I said, 'It is Ted Danson.' "

They got to meet the members of rock band Twin Method, which ordered bobblehead versions of themselves.

And, of course, there was boxing promoter Don King, who ordered thousands of little bobblehead Don Kings to be sold at matches.

"We're the only ones who've made a Don King head," said Jeff Wolsky. They even got an e-mail from King's people.

It said Mr. King was impressed.

Jodie Tillman can be reached at jtillman@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6247.