When The Pandemic Slammed Her Business, This Inventor Refused To Give Up—And Launched A Hot New Product Line

Inventor Raquel Graham has a knack for finding inspiration for new products in her daily life.

When her two children refused to wear bulky scarves during Chicago’s cold winters, she created NEKZ neck wraps, a product that sold out on Home Shopping Network (HSN) within 16 minutes after she launched it in 2016. 

Her other inventions include Headlightz, a line of rechargeable ski caps and headbands with built-in LED lamps to illuminate dark jogging paths. The product, a solution to a frustration she encountered as an evening runner, also turned out to be a hit. Graham’s company, Roq Innovation, grew to $1.9 million in annual revenue by 2019. 

Graham didn’t start out as an inventor. She began her career as an analyst for J.P. Morgan Chase before starting her own marketing company, ROQ Marketing Group, which she ran from 1992 to 2009. At that point, she became vice president and head of marketing for Ebony magazine while also earning an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. During the first month of school, Graham found out she was pregnant and gave birth to her second child prematurely.

Deciding that she wanted a more flexible career so she could balance work and family, Graham went into business for herself.

Roq Innovation, based in Chicago, was in the middle of launching a new product—a rechargeable water bottle that comes with earbuds—on HSN when COVID-19 hit. 

The crisis had a dramatic effect on her business, slowing the new product launch. Her factory in China closed, and a big trade show she was planned to attend got canceled abruptly. “I thought my business was done,” she recalls. 

Then Graham noticed an opportunity to help with the crisis. With many people looking for re-usable cloth masks and many schools requiring them, the demand was very high. Why not use her skills as an inventor to create her own masks? 

“Shutting down was never an option for me,” she says. 

There was one problem. She didn’t have any experience in the mask business. She threw herself into research. 

“I knew I was going to keep moving until I figured it out,” she says. “You can’t let fear paralyze you.”

Checking frequently to see if her overseas factory had reopened, Graham worked on designing her masks. She came up with 16 patterns— among them black and white checkers, pretty botanicals and a print of the Bill of Rights. Each mask allows for the insertion of a filter. 

When her factory finally did reopen, Graham began manufacturing the designs, under the brand name Facemaskz. That was about four months ago.

Although her team normally expands to 9-12 temporary warehouse workers during the busy holiday seasons, Graham had closed her warehouse during the worst of the crisis as a health precaution. She opted to pack and ship the masks herself, with the help of her children. 

Meanwhile, Graham worked on building up her digital presence. She’d always meant to do it but never had the time. With consumers spending more time than ever online, Graham realized it was the perfect moment to invest in her social media marketing. She hired an agency in Los Angeles to help her reach customers through Facebook and Instagram. “You have to have a strategy to be found,” she says. 

Graham’s nimble approach has not only helped the business survive but also to grow. “The third month, sales went crazy,” she says. The business is generating about $40,000 a month in revenue from the masks, she says.

Now she’s at work on her next product line—waterproof masks infused with anti-microbial silver. 

She expects sales to hit $2.1 million for 2020, despite the slow period when the pandemic struck.  “When I look at the fact I can do this and not even need an office, that’s crazy,” she says.