We know first hand the worries and fears people with special needs children have, we are both Mothers to disabled children. We have asked ourselves "What if" so many times over the years. What if something happened to us and our boys were faced with a situation they were unable to cope with. How would first responders know what to do to calm them? How long would it take before a family member could come and get them out of that frightening situation? We needed to do something that would ease our minds. Help other parents like us, in fact help anyone that had a disability or disease.
K2 Medical Alerts,LLC is unique in that there is no other product on the market that is exactly like ours. We wanted to design something that was easy for our customers to put in place, at the same time something that would be easy for first responders to recognize.
We are working on a brochure and video, that with the help of law enforcement we will be sharing across the state of Iowa and across the country. These two items will explain the product and its purpose and show them where and what to look for. The wonderful thing about our kit is the fact that the first thing law enforcement does is look at your license plate. A.S.A.P. is boldly displayed vertically down the side of the frame so as they read your plate, their eyes end up at A.S.A.P. They don't have to figure anything out, they just need to know that A.S.A.P. is a program that simply put, will alert them to potential special conditions of a passenger or driver in the vehicle, and where they need to look for that information, if on the road or at your home.
Our product is a simple kit called "A.S.A.P." Alert for Special Assistance Program. It consists of a specially designed license plate frame that the customer will attach to the rear of their vehicle. The frame identifies the program and alerts first responders that a special medical need may be present in the vehicle.
Inside the front windshield attached to the bottom corner drivers side will be a specially designed decal that will identify the program as well for first responders that approach the scene from the front.
Both the frame and the decal inform first responders that there is information on an occupant of that vehicle inside. That information is inside the glove box. How? Our kit includes an identification card that the customer completes themselves so they never have to share their private information with us. They complete the card, attach a recent photo to the back and laminate it with sleeves we provide.
Our kit also includes an adhesive backed pouch that the customer attaches to the inner door of the glove box. The customer places their completed id card in that pouch.
Our customers have peace of mind and first responders have the information they need.
In addition to that our kit includes a vertical decal for the front door of your home. When first responders respond to a call for help at your home they immediately will notice the decal and know that directly inside that same door is an identification card completed exactly like the customer has done for their vehicle. This id card is also placed inside an adhesive backed pouch that is attached to the inside of that door.
We will make money by selling our kit for $25 to each customer. Our initial mode of sales will be online and with assistance from contacts within our community we will later be able to sell retail. We also plan to participate in local special needs events where we can also sell our product. Within the Autism community alone we have contacts across the country who are ready to help promote our product once we are ready to go to market. We also have the support of our local Fire Department and local Sheriff's Department who will be assisting us in spreading this nationally to other Sheriff's Departments.
We have shared basic information about our business and product to State Police Organizations across the country who have responded by sharing their contact information with us. A dozen states so far would like our launch materials when we are ready to go to market.
In speaking with various law enforcement officials across Iowa and the country we are told that there is nothing similar to what we are offering and we are being urged to pursue this.
Often times police are met with situations regarding people with disabilities and other medical conditions, they don't know what exactly to do in many cases. Also people with serious medical conditions are being mistreated because their condition may mimic drugs or alcohol, for example someone that is in diabetic shock or someone with epilepsy having a seizure have been force-ably arrested and even tasered because they may present in such a way that law enforcement can easily misinterpret their behavior as being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. We want to stop that from happening.
We designed A.S.A.P. with our teenage sons in mind and quickly realized that not only would be helping children like ours, but we could have an impact on so many people with an array of health problems that may not be obvious to first responders. Our goal is to give people a tool to assist first responders in helping them better, and to diminish some risk and liability for law enforcement.
Our market size is enormous
*3.5 Million Americans suffer from Autism
* 29 Million Americans have Diabetes
*500,000 Americans with Cerebral Palsy
*3 Million Americans have Epilepsy
*5.7 Million Americans with Bi Polar Disorder
*27 Million Americans have Heart Disease
*1.1 Million Americans have AIDS/HIV
*1 Million Americans are Hearing Impaired or Deaf
*30,000 Americans have Hemophilia
*5 Million Americans have Alzheimer's
*30 Million Americans suffer from rare diseases
(there are 7000 rare diseases that affect less than 200,000 per disease)
This is only a partial list of our market size
There are nearly 200 Million Americans living with a serious medical condition or disability.
Not only does our market size include those Americans, it also includes their caregivers that greatly increases the possible customers.
Our dream is to see our kit being used across the country, and being the source of added support for people living with special medical needs, and being of assistance to law enforcement and first responders.
In the future we intend to offer other products, those ideas are always generating between us.
Our initial goal for the near future is to get our product out on the market, we have a goal of selling 250 kits our first month and increasing that number by a conservative 10% each month after that. We are working with area business people who are going to help us market our product to the I 80 Truck Stop, a fabulous place to market this in the beginning because anyone traveling will be inclined to buy it if they suffer from medical problems or have a traveling companion that does. Because our kit is simple to put in place, a traveler can do so in the parking lot in a short amount of time, and have some added protection no matter where they are from or where they are going. We have marketing help in Iowa so that is going to be of great assistance to us and getting our information across the state quickly.
Informing law enforcement has been our initial goal. Once we are ready to launch our product, our local Sheriff's Department is going to get the video and brochure out to all 99 county Sheriff Departments in Iowa as well as the National Sheriffs Association who can share it in their respective areas.
This continues to be an amazing team effort and we are looking forward to our continued work with everyone involved. Nationally the same things will be happening. We have gained the assistance from future customers in Oregon, Illinois, Iowa, New York, and Arkansas. These people are affiliated with national autism organizations and are excited to help us share it with the Autism Community far and wide. Because we are part of the autism community, they will be our initial target audience. We have also reached out to the Epilepsy Foundation who want the materials when we are able to send them.
We also organize the Muscatine Special Needs Easter Egg Hunt, and have countless people we help every year through that event that we are excited to share our new business with. We have the support of area organizations that work with the disabled population in Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois who also have come on board to help us get this out to the public and are going to be working with us to reach out to the media. One of our biggest colleagues has asked us to let him know when he needs to start helping in the media department.
When we began this venture, we knew this was going to be a huge endeavor, and the people that are helping us bring it to life have been and continue to be extremely knowledgeable and helpful.
Our ultimate goal is to have our program be the ONE system that is used, recognized, and respected across the state of Iowa and the country, so no matter where you travel, A.S.A.P. can be of use to both our customers and first responders.

We are applying because we are not candidates for business loans. We have successfully raised some money that has allowed us to buy our initial lot of frames as well as mailers, adhesive pouches and laminating sleeves. We need to purchase the finalized decals for both the home and the vehicle.
We have had the support of our local SCORE Chapter since we first came to them with this in May of 2014. They have been an amazing asset to us from the moment we walked in the door, and presented our project. We have met with them every week since then. Their expertise in so many different areas of business has been one of our greatest gifts. We came to them with a vision and they have been by our side ever since. They have attended meetings with law enforcement officials with us, and introduced us to some very helpful business contacts along the way. We are so thrilled that we have been supported and our vision and product has excited so many. We can't wait to get started!!
We have been blessed with amazing support and generosity so far. We have come this far with no capital, just drive and ambition and need capital to bring it to life.
What will we use the money for?

* Buying materials to make our kits, our decals need to be redone as they are not the quality we seek, and our identification cards need to be modified. We want our product to be high quality, and long lasting. We want our customers to be satisfied. We will be customers too, we want to be proud of what we present to the public.
* Marketing, we need to purchase and create professional brochures to display and send to national agencies, we will continue to reach out nationally to share our product. We intend it to be a nationwide program. We want to participate in conventions as vendors and will need to have the money to do so, and have a supply of our product when we do.
* A new computer for our office. Currently we have one computer that is literally at the end of its life. With our business for now being primarily internet based we definitely need a reliable adequate computer.
* Currently our office space has been donated, that is only temporary so we will need to look for a larger space that has adequate room for us to work in.
*Lastly we'd like to win Dream Big Grow Here, and be able to Thank everyone for all they have done for us,and taught us along the way.