TRAVERSE CITY-- Don't tell anyone, but Rod Call really isn't much of a slacker.
Still, Call's business has been rated best "slacker-friendly" business of 2007 by StartupNation.com in conjunction with Msn.com.
Call, 33, runs Snoloha, selling clothing, travel mugs and a number of items bearing the company's name which is a combination of the word snow and the Hawaiian greeting "aloha."
"It's an escape from your daily grind," Call said, sitting in his office at home on Ninth Street wearing jeans, gardening shoes and a Snoloha hoodie.
As StartupNation says on its Web site, "his entire clothing line is slacker-centric."
Call got the idea for the business while driving to work in Petoskey, where he managed Boyne Country Sports. He'd just flown back to Michigan from a vacation in the Virgin Islands. Seeing the 45th Parallel sign in a snowstorm got him reflecting on his trip and the vacationland that is northern Lower Michigan.
"I was thinking I'd just been drinking a Corona waiting for the plane in Puerto Rico and the next thing I know it's cold and snowing in Detroit and it was only a matter of hours," Call said.
"I wanted to do something with that sign, but I didn't know what," he added.
He jotted the thought on the cover of a Rolling Stone magazine in the passenger seat, then spent the next several months brainstorming a name. He ran his main ideas by friends in retail and graphic design.
"I held the deck close to my chest," he said. "Not too many people knew about this."
Like the company name, the logo also combines hot and cold elements, showing a palm tree with leaves that form a snowflake. Other custom designs also combine the sun and snow.
He was partly inspired by singer Jimmy Buffett, whose music and live shows espouse the living-for-the-weekend lifestyle. He listens to Buffett's "Margaritaville" channel on Sirius satellite radio as he works.
"I'm definitely a Parrothead," he said, referring to the nickname for Buffett's hard-core fans. "It's sort of like your Margaritaville state of mind."
Call started the business in 2006 and said it's been doing well. In addition to Internet orders, he sells his wares at about 20 stores in Michigan and Montana. In the spring, retailers will begin carrying it in Florida, Maine, New York State and Washington, he said.
He provides each store with a piece of driftwood with the company's name colorfully painted on it for their displays. His goal is to be in 70 stores nationwide by the end of 2008.
He's also selling a Trop Rock design, of which he'll donate $1 from each shirt sale to the Paradise Charitable Foundation, which supports causes worldwide.
Yet while his product line and related Web site and blog pay homage to the laid-back lifestyle, he sometimes has to be reminded to take time off.
"A friend called me and asked me to go sailing with him," Call recalled. "I said I couldn't, but he said, 'Isn't that the reason you started your own business?'"
Call realizes that as Snoloha grows, it will continue to require more of his time -- until he gets big enough to have others manage it for him.
"I'm going to have to sacrifice some Snoloha time now in order to have more of it in the future," he said.
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