CARLSBAD - Turns out there is something new under the sun this summer.

It's a patented circular beach towel, 6 feet in diameter, with plastic-ringed holes in the middle and near the edge to insert an umbrella. The "O Towel" is the brainchild of 45-year-old Laura Ogan, an attendance clerk at Carlsbad High School, mother of four and entrepreneur in training.

Four years ago, she and her husband, Don, were at the shore in Carlsbad watching beachgoers struggle to arrange their rectangular towels so they could be protected from the sun by their round umbrellas.

Don turned to her and asked why someone didn't invent a round towel with a hole in it for an umbrella, she recalled.

"He just tossed it off," Ogan said. "But I took it. I thought that's best thing I've heard. It's one of those stupidly simple paper-clip, Post-it notes ideas."

So Ogan set out to bring the O Towel to life. She picked up two partners - friend Sharon Stafford, a therapist, who provided inspiration, and another friend, Grace Walker, a former buyer with the Carlsbad golf apparel company Ashworth Inc., who supplied production know-how.

The trio scoured the country looking for manufacturers, but found there were no suppliers that could produce anything larger than a towel 5 feet in diameter, which they deemed was just too small. They finally found a supplier in Hong Kong.

Ogan then asked a lawyer friend to help her submit a patent. On Aug. 29, 2006, patent No. 7096526 arrived in the mail. While there are other round beach towels on the market, Ogan's earned its patent for the two umbrella holes.

She worked with San Diego-area volunteers from Service Corps of Retired Executives, a nonprofit organization that gives free advice to small business owners and that helped her obtain a $25,000 loan from the Small Business Association.

Most of that money went to buying sample towels and marketing.

Ogan said she realized the product could be successful, when two newspapers - one in Pittsburgh and one in Orange County - found the O Towel's Web site at www.theotowel.com and did stories about the new beach product. The towels sell for $40 each, including taxes and shipping, but the supply is limited.

If they can find additional investment capital, Ogan and her partners hope to begin selling the towels to stores such as Target and Bed Bath & Beyond which have expressed interest, she said.

"It's a hurdle we need to get past," Ogan said, saying she and her husband may take out a loan on their home to fund the expansion. "If you believe in something stay with it. That's what builds character."

When she's not working or caring for her children - Keilani, 17; Savanna, 14; Delainy, 10, and Landon, 7 - Ogan said she is working on the O Towel.

"I don't want to lose this idea," she said. "From an idea to something tangible was a wonderful journey."

A journey she said she hopes to repeat. She's already working on an idea for another new product.

- Contact Business Editor Ann Perry at (760) 740-5444 or aperry@nctimes.com.