ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

Investors should carefully consider the following risk factors and all other information contained in this Annual Report. There is a great deal of risk involved in our business, and any of the following risks could affect our business, its financial condition, its potential profits or could result in you losing your entire investment. There is a great deal of risk involved in the business of the company, and any of the following risks could affect our business, its financial condition, its potential profits or, and could result in you losing your entire investment if our business became insolvent. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties, including those not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial, also may result in decreased revenues, increased expenses or other events which could result in a decline in our financial condition and the price of our common shares.

Risks Related to Our Business

We could experience a decrease in the demand for our products resulting in lower sales volumes.

In the past we have at times experienced decreasing products sales with certain customers. The reasons for this can be generally attributed to: increased competition; general economic conditions; demand for products; and consumer interest rates. If economic conditions deteriorate or if consumer preferences change, we could experience a significant decrease in profitability.

If our top customers were lost, we could experience lower sales volumes.

For the fiscal year ended August 31, 2024 our top ten customers represented 88% of our total sales, and our single largest customer was responsible for 36% of our total sales. We would experience a significant decrease in sales and profitability and would have to cut back our operations, if these customers were lost and could not be replaced. Our top ten customers are located in North America and are primarily in the retail home improvement and pet industries.

We are dependent upon third-party manufacturers and suppliers for substantially all our of products

We do not have any manufacturing capabilities and rely on a limited number of contract manufacturers located outside the United States for the majority of our products. Our reliance on contract manufacturers involves certain risks, including:

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Production disruptions or delays at the factory as a result of political instability, labor unrest, mechanical issues, natural disasters, or pandemic outbreaks;

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Capacity constraints;

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Inability to control the quality of the finished products;

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Inability to control manufacturing and delivery schedules;

If our products are delayed or cannot be supplied in a timely manner, we risk losing revenue and customers. Developing alternate sources of supply for our products that meet our requirements may be time-consuming, difficult, and costly, and we may not be able to source our products on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all, which will have a negative effect on our revenue and financial condition.

We face significant competition, which could reduce the demand for our products.

Our revenue depends in part on maintaining and growing the sales of our current products in both existing and new markets, but also by improving existing products and developing new products. There is substantial competition among companies in each of our market sectors, and a number of companies market products that compete directly with our products. Current and potential customers may consider these products from our competitors to be superior to or less expensive than our products. Some of these competitors may also have greater financial, manufacturing, and sales and market resources than us. If we are unable to effectively compete with these other products and companies, we would likely lose market share which would result in a decrease in revenue and profitability.

We could experience delays in the delivery of our products to our customers causing us to lose business.

We purchase our products from other vendors and a delay in shipment from these vendors to us could cause significant delays in our delivery to our customers. Such disruptions may include adjustments to ocean shipping schedules, labor strikes or other job-related actions by workers within the supply chain, geopolitical unrest, longshoreman or rail strikes, geopolitical unrest, or government actions. This could result in a decrease in sales orders to us and we would experience a loss in profitability.

Governmental actions, such as tariffs, and/or foreign policy actions could adversely and unexpectedly impact our business.

Since the bulk of our products are supplied from other countries, political actions by either our trading country or our own domestic policy could impact both availability and cost of our products. Currently, we see this in regard to tariffs being levied on foreign sourced products entering into the United States, including from China. The continuing tariffs by the United States on certain Chinese goods include some of our products that we purchase from suppliers in China. The possibility of new tariffs being levied on manufactured goods imported into the United States from other countries in addition to China also currently exists. We cannot control the duration or depth of such actions which may increase our product costs which would in turn reduce our margins and potentially decrease the competitiveness of our products. However, we cannot control the duration or depth of such actions which may increase our product costs which would in turn reduce our margins and potentially decrease the competitiveness of our products. These actions could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.

Inflation could adversely affect our business

Inflation has many impacts on our business, including increasing our direct costs for raw materials, manufacturing, shipping and logistics, labor, and energy. Our ability to pass on these higher costs to our customers is limited. When we are able to increase our selling prices, it may be delayed several months after we first incur the higher costs and we may not be able to fully recoup the difference. In addition, high rates of inflation can reduce consumer’s discretionary spending and reduce demand for our products. These actions could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.

Outdoor product sales are highly seasonal and subject to adverse weather.

Our fencing and outdoor products are primarily bought by consumers during the spring and summer. The majority of our revenues and income from these products occur during our 3^rd and 4^th quarters of our fiscal year. Demand for these products is highly affected by the weather. Adverse weather, including abnormally wet conditions or unseasonably hot or cold temperatures, can negatively affect demand for our products and cause our customers to delay, or reduce, their orders. This would have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition. These actions could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.

Competitors may infringe on our intellectual property which would negatively affect our business and financial condition

We rely on our intellectual property rights, including patents, patent applications, and trademarks, to provide us with competitive advantages and protect us from theft of our intellectual property. We believe that our patents are valid, enforceable, and valuable. If third parties infringe on our intellectual property, we may be forced to pursue litigation which would consume significant amounts of our management and financial resources. There is no guarantee that we will have the financial resources necessary to engage in litigation, or that any litigation we do pursue will result in a favorable outcome. Such infringements or unfavorable outcomes of litigation would have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.

Our products may have issues that could lead to product liability claims

The products we manufacture and distribute exposes us to potential product liability risks. Although we seek to insure against such risks, there can be no assurance that such insurance coverage will be sufficient to cover any claims or adverse legal judgements, and our costs to defend any litigation could be significant. A successful product liability claim in excess of our insurance coverage could have a material negative effect on our business and financial condition. In addition, it could significantly increase our costs of this insurance on commercially reasonable terms or make it unavailable to us altogether.

We could lose our credit agreement and could result in our not being able to pay our creditors.

We have a line of credit with Northrim where short-term operating capital will be provided by purchasing our accounts receivable invoices for up to $6,000,000, or as a loan against our inventory for up to $4,000,000, with the maximum amount we can draw under the line of $6,000,000. The maximum draw amount is currently available, and the line will expire on June 30, 2025. If we lost access to credit, or the borrowing costs exceed the likely benefits of our use of such capital, it could negatively affect our ability to acquire inventory to fulfil our customers’ orders and pay our obligations on a timely basis.

Our information technology systems are susceptible to certain risks, including cyber security breaches, which could adversely impact our operations and financial condition.

Our operations involve information technology systems that process, transmit and store information about our suppliers, customers, employees, and financial information. These systems face threats including telecommunication failures, natural disasters, and cyber security threats, including computer viruses, unauthorized access to our systems, and other security issues. While we have taken aggressive steps to implement security measures to protect our systems and initiated an ongoing training program to address many of the primary causes of cyber threat with all our employees, such threats change and morph almost daily. There is no guarantee our actions will secure our information systems against all threats and vulnerabilities. The compromise or failure of our information systems could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to detect fraud or report our financial results accurately, which could harm our business and we could be subject to regulatory scrutiny.

We have completed a management assessment of internal controls as prescribed by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which we were required to do in connection with our audit of our financial statements for the year ended August 31, 2024. Based on this process we did not identify any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies. Although we believe our internal controls are operating effectively, we cannot guarantee that in the future we will not identify any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in connection with this ongoing process. Although we believe our internal controls are operating effectively, we cannot guarantee that in the future we will not identify any material weaknesses in connection with this ongoing process.

A contagious disease outbreak, such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic emergency, could have an adverse effect on our operations and financial condition

Our business could be negatively affected by an outbreak of an infectious disease due to the consequences of the actions taken by companies and governments to contain and control such an outbreak. These consequences include:

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The inability of our third-party manufacturers to manufacture or deliver products to us in a timely manner, if it all.

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Isolation requirements may prevent our employees from being able to report to work or being required to work from home or other off-site location which may prevent us from accomplishing certain functions, including receiving products from our suppliers and fulfilling orders for our customers, which may result in an inability to meet our obligations.

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Our new product launches may be delayed or require unexpected changes to be made to our new or existing products.

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The effect of the outbreak on the economy may be severe, including an economic downturn and decrease in employment levels which could result in a decrease in consumer demand for our products.

The financial impact of such an outbreak are outside our control and are not reasonable to estimate but may be significant. The costs associated with any outbreak may have an adverse impact on our operations and financial condition and not be fully recoverable or adequately covered by insurance.

Risks Related to Our Common Shares

We may decide to acquire assets or enter into business combinations, which could be paid for, either wholly or partially with our common shares and if we decide to do this our current shareholders would experience dilution in their percentage of ownership.

Our Articles of Incorporation give our Board of Directors the right to enter into any contract without the approval of our shareholders. Therefore, our management could decide to make an investment (buy shares, loan money, etc.) without shareholder approval. If we acquire an asset or enter into a business combination, this could include exchanging a large amount of our common shares, which could dilute the ownership interest of present shareholders. If we acquire an asset or enter into a business combination, this could include exchanging a large amount of our common stock, which could dilute the ownership interest of present stockholders.

Future stock distributions could be structured in such a way as to be 1) diluting to our current shareholders or 2) could cause a change in control to new investors.

If we raise additional funds by selling more of our stock, the new shares may have rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of the rights of our existing shares. If common shares are issued in return for additional funds, the price per share could be lower than that paid by our current stockholders. If common stock is issued in return for additional funds, the price per share could be lower than that paid by our current stockholders. The result of this would be a lessening of each present stockholder’s relative percentage interest in our company.

The Company’s common shares currently trade within the NASDAQ Capital Market in the United States. The average daily trading volume of our common stock was approximately 4,700 shares on NASDAQ for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2024. With this limited trading volume, investors could find it difficult to purchase or sell our common stock or experience significant volatility in the price of our common stock. The average daily trading volume of our common stock was approximately 5,000 shares on NASDAQ for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023. With this limited trading volume, investors could find it difficult to purchase or sell our common stock.

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

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ITEM 1C. CYBERSECURITY

Risk Management and Strategy

We currently manage our cybersecurity risk through our IT consultants in a variety of practices that are applicable to all users of our information technology and information assets, including our officers, directors, employees, vendors and contractors. Our cyber risk management programs are designed to identify, assess, manage, mitigate, and respond to cybersecurity threats.

We utilize a combination of technology and active monitoring that are integrated within our enterprise risk management network system to promote security awareness and prevent security incidents that are consistent with recognized standards and practices for information technology and cyber security. Our process for addressing risk aligns with industry standards as outlined in the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and NIST Risk Management Framework. The performance and effectiveness of our cybersecurity program are also tested on a regular schedule by outside consulting third-party experts.

We have not experienced any material cybersecurity incidents or identified any material cybersecurity threats that have affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect us, our business strategy, results of operations or financial condition.

Our Chief Financial Officer is responsible for assessing and managing our cyber risk management program and informs senior management regarding the prevention, detection, mitigation, and remediation of cybersecurity incidents.

Governance

The Audit Committee of the Board of Directors is responsible for overseeing risks related to cybersecurity.

Our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer are responsible for assessing and managing risks and incidents relating to cybersecurity threats. They report any material findings and recommendations, if any, to the Audit Committee and the Board of Directors.