If he had known then what he knows now, Jeremiah Bohannon would have stayed in the commercial real estate business. Yes, even in this economy.

Fortunately, though, a little naivete, a little luck and a novel idea have taken him a long way in the golf business.

Bohannon is the owner of Frogger, a 4-year-old company in Emerald Hills south of San Francisco Bay that is growing at a record pace, thanks to two golf gadgets he has introduced over the past two years.

The Brush Pro Plus is a 2-in-1 tool featuring a club and shoe cleaner with a retractable cord so golfers can attach it to their golf bags for easy access.

The Amphibian Towel is the only mass-marketed towel with a simultaneous wet and dry side.

Each was named "Best New Product" at the PGA Merchandise Show, the world's largest gathering of industry professionals, in the past two years.

Thanks to that kind of exposure, things are looking good for Frogger, which increased its revenues by 358 percent from 2007 to 2008. And this year is no different, as Bohannon expects his company to quadruple sales over last year.

But it hasn't been easy. Bohannon, 35, has been playing a high-stakes game of risk since he launched the company in 2005. He didn't take a salary for the first three years and relied on his wife to support the family. He used his home equity to help finance the business and "begged all over the board for loans to bootstrap this thing."

But armed with two products he believed in, Bohannon persevered and has built a profitable business that finally appears to be on solid footing. He was one of the lucky ones.

"It is so tough for a company to make it," he said. "The odds are so stacked against you. If I knew everything when I started this that I know now, I would have said, 'No way.' "

Bohannon said plenty of good gadget ideas are out there, but most never make it simply because they don't have the money for proper marketing.

Marketing is key in the gadgets game. Jeff Levy, the accessory buyer for Golf Mart, said it's one of the first things his company considers when ideas are presented.

"There are a lot of people who come up with training aids that might be a good idea, but they have no funds to do an infomercial," Levy said. "Without that, they don't have a chance."

Levy said while many golfers look at clubs as an investment, training aids are more of an impulse item, making proper promotion critical in making the sale.

"If a customer walks into a store and looks at a training aid but doesn't know anything about it coming in, chances are that (sale) isn't going anywhere," Levy said.

An alternative for gadget makers who don't have big marketing budgets are consumer golf shows, such as the San Diego Golf Fest held each spring at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Owner Shelly Hall said the show attracts about 5,000 visitors.

Vendor booths range from $700 to $1,100, making them a viable option for merchandisers.

"Some vendors come in that are just underfunded and they're selling online or out of the back of their car," Hall said. "Our show is very attractive from a marketing standpoint, because where else are you going to get in front of 5,000 people in a three-day period?"

But consumer shows will take a gadget-maker only so far.

Bohannon estimated that anyone trying to start a business such as Frogger probably would require about $1 million if they're going to have any chance at success.

"If anybody had told me that it took that kind of money to get a brush out to market, I would have told them they were crazy," he said.

Television exposure has been a big payoff for Bohannon ---- Frogger has two infomercials running on The Golf Channel ---- but it's also a major investment.

Not only does it cost money to produce the infomercial and pay for the media placement, companies have to commit to a minimum number of units to be sold through a fulfillment center. That's where the big risk comes in.

"Only about 10 percent of infomercials actually work, so it's a very risky proposition," he said. "You really need to have a set of cojones to go that route."

So what happens to a product that makes sense, is innovative and solves problems, but doesn't have much money behind it?

"It's going to stay in his garage," Bohannon said.