It was nearly 30 years ago that Don Krebs, a 22-year-old construction worker, found out that he’d never be able to walk again. Krebs had been injured in a water skiing race near San Diego that compressed his spinal column and paralyzed him from the chest down. The accident changed everything Krebs knew, but it also gave him a glimpse into a new world, one where a person limited physically is faced with countless challenges with everyday tasks. Krebs ended up taking the situation and turning it into a successful business: Access to Recreation Inc., a mail-order catalogue that acts as a one-stop-shop for people with physical limitations to find products to help keep them active. “We sell products that help people get back to sports that they used to do,” Krebs said. Today, his seasonal 67-page catalogues sells thousands of items, from ramps that enable a wheel chair user to bowl to electronic reels to help people with limited hand movement to fish. There are wheelchairs equipped with all-terrain tires that can traverse grassy fields and devices to lift paralyzed people into swimming pools. Krebs, who runs the business out of his home on a quiet Newbury Park cul-de-sac, said it’s the only catalogue of its type. “We bring it all together in one place,” he said That niche has made Access to Recreation a major selling vehicle for companies that make devices for physically challenged people. Vendors are clamoring to be featured in his pages. “At first I had to go find the products. Now the products are coming to find me,” he said. It’s also grabbed the attention of those that follow the business, said Cliff Crase, senior editor of Paraplegia News, a magazine for wheelchair users. “He is a good resource, very responsive and a fine business person to work with,” Crase said. Krebs admits that being disabled gives him credibility among his customers. “It’s kind of nice to buy from somebody else that has a disability who understands their needs,” he said. “It really adds to people’s lives.” Birth of a business Access to Recreation traces its roots, like many small businesses, to an idea and a business plan. The idea part was easy almost immediately after the accident, Krebs was struck by the void of devices available to disabled people. But Krebs later found that was only partly true. In reality, there were devices in fact hundreds of products from dozens of vendors just not in one place, which made it hard to find for those who needed them. At the same time, after the accident Krebs had returned to school, received his bachelor of arts in business and religion from California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, and was pursuing a master’s degree in business administration. One of his final projects was to craft a plan for a new business. He pitched Access to Recreation. His instructor was impressed. “My professor said, ‘You’d be a fool if you didn’t do it’,” Krebs recalled. Krebs ended up quitting the MBA program and by May 1987 began operating Access to Recreation out of his home. Things started slow. He contacted vendors and asked to become a distributor and eventually picked up more products and cobbled them together in a catalogue. It was hit and miss, but Krebs caught on. “It’s been trial and error and getting the word out,” he said. By the late 1990s, Krebs was bringing in around $500,000 a year while juggling the entire operation from laying out the catalogues to handling mailings and placing orders by himself. “It started off as just being me and I realized there’s no way I can do it by myself,” he said. Today, his wife and son are full-time employees while the Access to Recreation mailing list has grown to 90,000. Taking orders Usually, orders come through the phone, mail or Internet and Krebs sends the order to the manufacturer. The larger items are often shipped directly to the consumer, and the smaller one come to Krebs, who then sends them along. Most of his clients are disabled people, although some are medical professionals and therapists. One of his biggest clients lately has been the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which Krebs expects to provide more business as military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq continue. “With all the disabled people coming back from the war, we’ve gotten a lot of orders,” he said. The increased sales has put revenue for Access to Recreation well over $1 million last year and turned Krebs into a respected figure among disability rights advocates. In 1987, President Reagan appointed him to serve on the President’s Disability Advisory Council. Pruett Helm, a paraplegic from Montana who met Krebs 15 years ago and has been a customer ever since, praised Krebs for his business and commitment. “He identified a need in the market and he’s done an excellent job,” Helm said, adding later that Access to Recreation has bred many imitators, but none that have been able to capture what Krebs does. “There have been a few in the industry that have tried to copy or mimic what he’s done and they’re no longer in business,” he said. “He has a very loyal following.” Krebs, now 51, credits the success to an ambitious attitude that is unaffected by a disability. Case in point: he’s skied several times since the accident that paralyzed him. It was a metaphor for his life, Krebs said. “If I can do this, I can do anything,” he said. SPOTLIGHT Access to Recreation Year Founded: 1987 Employees in 1998: 1 Employees in 2006: 3 Revenues in 1998: $501,729 Revenue in 2006: $1.1 million Driving Force: To provide equipment and devices to help disabled people get physically active. Goal: To keep helping people.
