BAM! - Be A Missionary
Tie Tac
Ties
Shirts
BAM sweeping across globe
Melinda Williams, Staff Writer
DAVIS County Clipper
26.OCT.06
FARMINGTON — When 14 year-old Taylor Perkins came home from church in May with the bright idea for a business to help pay for his LDS mission, his mother Erin placated her boy with a nod and a smile. "Taylor is always thinking up different ideas for businesses and inventions so we didn't pay too much attention to him initially," Erin said. As the day progressed and Taylor continued talking about his business idea, Erin began to pay closer attention.
Then, after some research, BAM! the Mueller Park ninth grader was a businessman. "BAM means 'Be A Missionary'," Taylor said. "We talked about being a missionary in church and my teacher put down the word BAM, and it really hit me." "I knew I could use that idea like the CTR ring, but that BAM could be utilized for all religions because it's about being a missionary," he added. "It can be a missionary for your religion or just being a missionary for goodness, whatever you want."
The next day, the Perkinses got on the phone with different church-oriented stores and were immediately met with positive responses. "We were surprised because Deseret Book, the BYU bookstore, Mr. Mac and some others were right on it," Erin said. "They all said they didn’t have that yet and were very interested in the concept."
That evening Taylor and his father Mitchell designed the BAM logo while Erin helped Taylor do the necessary trademark work. "It's been fun because my family has been involved," Taylor said.
With the trademark in place and major corporations clamoring for BAM products, Taylor began slapping BAM on items like ties, tie-tacks, wristbands, bumper stickers and T-shirts. And with www.beamissionary.net up and running, sales have been coming in from as far away as New Zealand and Spain. "It's sort of funny because it's something I came up with and people in other countries are liking it," Taylor said.
The impact of BAM struck Erin when she was out running recently near the Bountiful LDS Temple with her mother. "A guy was running toward us, and as he went by I noticed he was wearing a BAM T-shirt," Erin said. "That’s when it hit me that Taylor had really struck a cord with people."
The family spent part of the Summer at the LDS book store convention where BAM was signed as the theme to an Arizona state religious pageant. "The woman who signed us was saying the pageant had to be of a non-denominational theme," Erin said. "With BAM meaning Be A Missionary, it could stand for any type of organization, so it worked for her." The woman ordered 500 shirts.
"We recently signed with a distributor," Taylor said. "It's the only way to really move the products, even though it takes a little longer initially." Taylor, when not taking the business world by storm, is a typical ninth grader. "I made the junior high basketball team and play on a competition team," Taylor said. Noting the opportunity to market his company, the team's name is BAM!
Look out world, Taylor Perkins is on a mission.