About Safety Technology — and Why I Started This
Safety Technology has been providing self-defense products for our dealers since 1986.
In 1986 I had $28 in my checking account and a wife who flew alone across the country three weeks out of every month. She was a flight attendant for Eastern Airlines.
I wasn’t looking to start a business. I was looking for something to keep Nancy safe.
I found an ad for stun guns in a magazine, ordered one, received it and found it fascinating. I immediately called the company to ask if I could buy wholesale.
They said yes.
Fortunately, they didn’t require me to buy too many.
But now how was I to get the word out that I had these for sale.
I decided to go national and place an ad in USA today. The price for a four-line classified ad was $1400. I didn’t have $1400.
A few weeks later, an unsolicited Discover card with a $1,500 limit showed up in my mailbox.
I placed my ad. Nancy was our shipping department — and I mean that literally. She was digging boxes out of dumpsters because we couldn’t afford to buy them.
We were also making money.
Below are excerpts of my wife Nancy and me talking about starting Safety Technology. Filmed at a Customer Appreciation Event and is about 8 minutes long.
That was the beginning of Safety Technology. Nearly 40 years later, we’re one of the largest drop ship wholesalers of non-lethal self-defense products in the country — stun guns, pepper spray, hidden cameras, personal alarms, and more. We serve a network of thousands of authorized dealers and have a team dedicated to helping those dealers succeed.
What Safety Technology Actually Does
We’re a true wholesaler. That means no fees to do business with us, no minimum orders, and no drop ship fee. When your customer places an order, you forward it to us, we ship it from our warehouse directly to your customer with your name on the label, and charge you only the wholesale price. Your customer never knows we exist.
We ship UPS and USPS, usually the same day we receive the order. We provide tracking on every shipment. We have a 24-hour online ordering portal so you can place orders on your schedule, not ours. And if you don’t have a business yet — if you’re just getting started — you can still become an authorized dealer for a one-time $35 setup fee or by ordering our Gun Show Package. There are no ongoing fees once you’re in.
The average margin across our catalog runs around 40%. You can verify that yourself once you have access to wholesale prices — which happens as soon as your dealer application is processed, usually the same day you submit it.
What It’s Like to Work With Us
I’m an Air Force veteran — Saigon, 1969 to 1970. I came home, found my way into this business, and built it the way I think any honest business should be built: you answer the phone, you do what you say you’re going to do, and you treat the people who trust you with their livelihood like they matter.
That’s not a marketing line. Dealers who’ve called this office have reached me directly. I’ve shipped products overnight at no charge to dealers dealing with personal situations. I’ve answered emails on weekends. I run a membership coaching program for dealers who want help building their businesses. None of that is in the contract — it’s just how we operate.
One of our dealers put it this way: “What ended up making you my company was my very first phone call. I had no idea what I was doing and I immediately got Michael Gravette, the president of the company, on the phone.” That’s not an accident. That’s the business.
Who This Works For
Authorized dealers sell through every channel you can think of — ecommerce websites, Amazon, eBay, gun shows, flea markets, trade shows, home parties. There are no channel restrictions. If you want to build a website and run it full time, we can help you do that — we build and host dealer sites. If you want to sell at weekend shows and keep it small, that works too. If you want to start with a handful of products and see what happens, there’s no minimum order stopping you.
What doesn’t work is people looking for a passive income shortcut. This is a real business. It takes real effort. The dealers who do well here are the ones who treat it like one.
Ready to See the Wholesale Prices?
Fill out the authorized dealer application. There’s no cost and no obligation — submitting the form gets you access to our full wholesale price list, product descriptions, and images. From there, you decide if it makes sense for you.
If you have questions first, call us. I’m still here.
— Michael Gravette, Founder
Safety Technology, est. 1986
