Category Archives: Principles

Small Biz Davids vs. Goliath

Small Biz Davids vs. Goliath

Can’t compete with the big guys? Meet three small companies – a book publisher, a hotel chain, and a doughnut maker – that can.

By Jessica Shambora

From Fortune.com

BLURB VS. RODALE


The challenge: Will established authors embrace Blurb’s online platform over traditional book publishers like Rodale?

What they did: David Kirsch was pretty happy with his publisher, Rodale, which released his two bestselling fitness books. But for his next book he hooked up with Blurb, a self-publishing platform.

What gives? He liked the total creative control, not to mention that after a fee to Blurb, he gets to keep all the profits. Blurb’s social-marketing tools also help build buzz.

As for Blurb, it was launched in 2005 by Eileen Gittins, 56, who couldn’t find a publisher for her photo essay book. So far, so good: Last year Blurb, based in San Francisco, sold 1.2 million books and pulled in $45 million in revenue.


MONTAGE VS. RITZ-CARLTON


The challenge: Can an upstart luxury hotel company rival the Ritz-Carlton’s sterling reputation for hospitality?

What they did: Montage says its edge is offering patrons unique experiences. “There’s no cookie-cutter approach to designing and operating a Montage,” says founder Alan Fuerstman, 53, who has been in the hospitality business for some 30 years.

His guests are registered en route to their rooms. No crab on the room service menu? No worries — the Montage staff will get it for you. At the Laguna Beach resort, an on-staff marine biologist hosts tidal pool tours.

The strategy seems to be working: Sales are up 17% so far this year, and Fuerstman plans to open a third resort in Park City, Utah, next winter.


TOP POT DOUGHNUTS VS. KRISPY KREME


The challenge: With only six Seattle shops, how does this indie doughnut chain compete with Krispy Kreme’s 619-store empire?

What they did: Top Pot co-founders and brothers Mark, 45, and Mike Klebeck, 44, were already known for their old-school coffeehouses. Why not do the same for doughnuts?

They spent months perfecting recipes based on 1920s-style “hand-forged” doughnuts. (Seahawks rookie Golden Tate made news last month when he helped himself to a few maple bars after hours. His defense: They are “irresistible.”)

The shops feature Venetian plasterwork and cabinets the brothers built themselves. Such attention to detail caught the eye of Howard Schultz, founder and CEO of Starbucks, which now sells their creations. Top Pot makes a million doughnuts a week.

–David vs. Goliath update: There must be something about this column. Since we launched in March, two of the three companies we profiled have attracted interest from outsiders: Maverik Lacrosse was purchased for an undisclosed sum by the Kohlberg Sports Group, and Kroger Co. acquired a slew of outlets from the Little Clinic, a health care provider (also for an undisclosed price). Who’s next?

–David vs. Goliath update, part 2: Since this article went to press, Blurb alerted Fortune that they are collaborating on a project with Rodale.

How to Create an Overnight Success

How to Create an Overnight Success

Natalie Zaun just wanted to make a few extra bucks. What she got is a six-figure business that just keeps growing.

By Natalie Zaun

From Entrepreneur.com


While chasing kids around the kitchen in the fall of 2006, a friend and I decided we wanted to do more than pick up toys and change dirty diapers.

She sewed and, as a former junior high school English teacher, I was comfortable in front of others. So we thought we’d give the idea of selling custom purses at parties a try. After contacting a few friends to host parties, we quickly felt the excitement of giving women an opportunity to design their own purse. So with a little effort and research, PURSEnally Yours officially launched in January 2007, specializing in customer-designed purses.

Our intent was to make a little extra money, spend some time away from our lives as moms and perhaps even hire someone to work with us by the end of the year. It didn’t exactly happen that way. We hired another seamstress within two weeks, and we began to get quite busy just with the sales I was generating. In the first month, we had sewn 31 purses designed by our customers. By the end of the year, we had sewn thousands of them. Our sales topped six figures our first year in business.

During that first year, we hired six seamstresses and fabric cutters, and 13 direct-sales consultants. Because we need people who can sew well, we start them out sewing samples for us. Currently, we have a production team of 10 independent contractors and a waiting list just as long of women interested in working for us. I’ve been very cautious in hiring, consulting our attorney and our accountant to make sure these ladies fit the parameters of independent contractors.

A couple of blurbs in the local media, Fishers/Geist Magazine and at Geist.com, helped spread the word in the early days, but our customer base that first year grew largely by word of mouth through our customers and their handbags.

While the early success was certainly exciting, it was also overwhelming. About midway through the year, my partner needed to give up her portion of the company because of family conflicts. By the time we hit the last quarter of the year (aka, the busiest time), I was overseeing all aspects of the company, including production, which I knew nothing about. Fortunately, the seamstresses working directly with me were very excited about our success, and they were very helpful in navigating me into the next year.

After happily surviving the first year of owning a business–and succeeding–I was able to create a system that is still very effective and efficient today. The beauty about creating and owning your own business is that you can really design it however you wish. I have done just that.

PURSEnally Yours operates as a direct-sales company, which allows me to recruit ladies independently to sell purses through in-home parties or online. It also allows me to expand my reach. The company originally only had consultants in Indiana; now we have consultants throughout the country.

Initially, the biggest challenge in adding consultants was the cost of producing a sales kit. Each kit costs from $500 to $600–a lot to ask of women who wanted to join the team. So in the beginning, we didn’t charge consultants for the kits. Today the kits cost consultants $299 to $399, depending on whether we have specials at the time.

The design kit includes all of our current sizes and styles of purses and accessories, and consultants continue to receive new fabric swatches, fringes, etc., throughout the year. In addition, I work directly with each of them offering communication via e-mail or the phone to answer questions, provide support and give suggestions. We also offer incentives for consultants to get active quickly and earn cash back. Most of the women on our team are previous customers or have heard about the company through family and friends.

We also advertise for consultants via the web and encourage our sales team to spread the word. And we include a note in every customer’s purse mentioning our consulting opportunities. Turnover is high, so we’re always on the lookout for new consultants.

Members of our production team also work independently from their homes. They pick up orders from the office on a weekly basis, sew the purses and accessories at their discretion, and return them by the date requested. This has been a great opportunity for those ladies to turn their hobby into a full-time living.

PURSEnally Yours has been successful in growing without much risk. Because everyone works as an independent contractor, the “office” is still located in my basement. And because our products are custom designed, the company carries virtually no overhead. The office also doubles as my warehouse.

More than 80 varieties of fabrics are numbered and lined up on shelves. Each week, my production leader (head seamstress) sends me an e-mail with all the orders that have been collected, and I fill totes with fabric for our cutters to pick up and return by the weekend. They’ll cut the order per customer designs. Once they are returned, notions get added, and then they’re ready for the seamstresses to pick up.

The excitement of PURSEnally Yours continues to spread as more women are exposed to the fun, fashionable concept of designing their own purses. Currently, we are on track to have our best year yet. The recession did slow us down a bit, so I expect this year to be closer to what I was anticipating in the second or third year of business. We tend to do about 65 percent of our sales during the fourth quarter. But based on our gross sales and continued expansion of our consulting crew, we hope to reach $250,000 by the end of the year.

Think Outside the Bag
Here are some tips detailing what I’ve found helpful in developing my company:

  • Stay involved. I was so tired after the first full year of business that I passed along as much work as possible the next year. In doing so, however, I found myself frustrated because not everything was being done the way I thought it should be, such as communicating with salespeople and encouraging unique approaches to working with new consultants. I also noticed a decline in overall sales. Since it’s my company, nobody was going to care more than I did. I quickly became fully engaged again. I believe that in time I will have the opportunity to be comfortable and less involved, but it wasn’t meant to be in the second year of business.
  • Be proactive. I did not need to make a big financial investment when launching Pursenally Yours. This made it easy to get started, but challenging when trying to promote my business. I knew the concept was great, as the feedback from customers and consultants was phenomenal. So I did some research, created a press release and started contacting local and national print and broadcast media. I went to them instead of waiting for them to come to me. I get a response about 30 percent of the time, which often turns into free exposure for the company.
  • Change with the seasons. I see numerous designs from repeat customers throughout the year. This tells me that, as seasons change, so do purses. I make sure we continue to update our inventory by launching new fabrics every three months and a new product twice a year. Not only do ladies have the opportunity to design their own unique purses, but they can do it all year long. It’s just as exciting for us as it is for the customers to see the new selections available.
  • Give back. It’s easy once the company grows and you start earning money to want to keep as much as you can. It’s important, however, to make sure you take the time to give back. We have worked with numerous schools, churches and other nonprofit organizations to create FUNdraisers! It’s an opportunity to share the concept of the company with others, while they enjoy raising money for their favorite organization. Hosting a purse party to raise money can certainly be more creative and memorable than flipping through a catalog to place an order.

I was a junior high English teacher before I had children. I didn’t start PURSEnally Yours until both of my kids were born. I’m happy to report that I’ve been able to maintain my stay-at-home mom status while successfully growing and managing a nationwide business.


Natalie Zaun is the owner of PURSEnally Yours, specializing in custom purses, hip handbags and trendy totes. PURSEnally Yours operates in eight states and works with some 65 women who help sell, sew, cut and create the custom-designed products.

Harry Potter and Personal Branding

Harry Potter and Personal Branding

By Nick Nanton and J.W. Dicks

From Fast Company

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened at Universal Studios Orlando June 18 and the studio is reporting rising attendance and guest spending. This is of particular significance since Universal’s theme park attendance had been hurt by the global recession and travel slowdown. The opening of the new attraction had been a long awaited event for Universal and Harry Potter fans, so the news of positive performance brings a welcome sigh of relief for the hefty $250 million bet Universal placed when they went after the Harry Potter attraction and scooped it out from under Disney who resides only a few miles away.

While all looks great with Harry Potter and the investment Universal made, the naysayers have been wondering out loud if Harry Potter will indeed have legs for years to come, after the last movie is out. After all, J.K. Rowling has said she will write no more Potter books and she certainly has enough money (Forbes estimates her net worth at more than $1 billion) to make that statement believable.

First, it will be a very long time before all of the Harry Potter fans even have an opportunity to go to the attraction. By then, many of the readers will have had more of their children come of reading age and turned into Harry Potter fans. And at some point, the books will pass down to the next generation. Additionally, just because J.K. Rowling doesn’t want to write any more books, doesn’t mean she won’t license different forms of Harry Potteradventures, from cartoons to video games. All of this brand continuity is up to Universal, who has both the burden and the opportunity, to make the Harry Potter brand stay fresh and make its product line continue to flow.

The lesson in all of this for us is to remember that we too must be vigilant with our own brands and work to keep them fresh with new ideas and expanding products that not only grow in number, but also lead into new business verticals and opportunities. Like Universal, most of us have invested lots of time and money to build our brand and in doing so have secured a bit of intellectual property that we have that is unique. While our brand may not have the value of Harry Potter, it doesn’t have to for it to be an opportunity to create more jobs, economic growth contributions, and a nice nest egg for ourselves and families. That’s a bit of “Wizarding” magic in and of itself.

JW Dicks (@jwdicks) & Nick Nanton (@nicknanton) are best-selling authors that consult for small- and medium-sized businesses on how to build their business through Personality Driven Marketing, Personal Brand Positioning, Guaranteed Media, and Mining Hidden Business Assets. They offer free articles, white papers, and case studies at their Web site. Jack and Nick have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Newsweek, FastCompany.com, and many more media outlets.

Why Morning People Rule the World

Why Morning People Rule the World

Morning people are more proactive – and therefore more successful in their professional lives — according to new research.

By Courtney Rubin

From Inc.com

To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, the morning people are different from you and me – or so says new research.

Early birds are more proactive than evening people – and so they do well in business, says Christoph Randler, a biology professor at the University of Education in Heidelberg, Germany.

“When it comes to business success, morning people hold the important cards,” Randler told the Harvard Business Review of his research, some of which originally appeared in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. “[T]hey tend to get better grades in school, which gets them into better colleges, which then leads to better job opportunities. Morning people also anticipate problems and try to minimize them. They’re proactive.” (Not that evening people are life’s losers: They’re smarter and more creative, and have a better sense of humor, other studies have shown.)

Who is a morning person, by definition? Randler says it is someone who gets up at roughly the same time on weekdays as on weekends. He surveyed 367 college students (an age group not exactly famous for early rising) when they were most energetic and willing to change a situation. The morning people were more likely to agree with statements such as “I feel in charge of making things happen” and “I spend time identifying long-range goals for myself.” (In the sample, the “evening people tended to sleep two hours later on weekends.)

Can you change type? “Somewhat,” says Randler, pointing to a study where half of schoolchildren were able to shift permanently their wake-up time by an hour. Still, it can be tough, partly because half of your chronotype, as it’s called, is determined by genetics. And just changing the hour you wake up may not change your inherent “morning-ness” or “evening-ness” In other words, getting up earlier will not automatically make you proactive.

Chronotypes also evolve over a person’s life cycle: Teenagers are evening types; between the ages of 30 and 50, people are evenly split between morning and evening types; and people become morning types as they pass through their fifties.

Randler says the challenge for businesses is to “bring out the best from their night owls.” He points to universities, which often do this successfully. (Randler is a morning person who gets up at 5 a.m. and works, whereas he has a colleague who arrives at work at 11:30 a.m. and stays until 7 or 8 p.m.)

But if morning people are ruling the world – winning the promotions and the top decision-making jobs – will night people ever get any concessions?

Says Randler: “Morning people are very capable of understanding the value of chronotype diversity. Remember, we’re conscientious. This understanding probably originated far back in history, when groups comprising morning people, evening people, and various chronotypes in between would have been better able to watch for danger at all hours. Evening types may no longer serve as our midnight lookouts, but their intelligence, creativity, humor, and extroversion are huge potential benefits to the organization.”

Becoming an Entrepreneurial Expat

Becoming an Entrepreneurial Expat

Thinking of launching a business abroad? Here’s what you need to know.

By Michelle Goodman

From Entrepreneur.com

After working in Mexico City as a manufacturer’s representative for two years, Elizabeth Helsley thought about returning to her hometown of San Diego to start her own company. Then she ran the numbers and discovered that bootstrapping her business in Mexico would drastically reduce her overhead. She decided to stay.

“The cost of living here is so much cheaper,” says Helsley, who launched Global Luxe, a firm that helps manufacturers enter the Mexican market, this spring. “I just moved into a really nice place with three bedrooms, and I’m paying less than $800. In San Diego, the same place would be $2,000 a month.”

But she’s not just saving on room and board. Her operating costs are also significantly lower.

“Here, I can hire an accountant for $20 a month,” Helsley says. Also cheaper: legal services, printing costs, trade show fees and, most significantly, corporate taxes. (According to KPMG’s latest “Competitive Alternatives” report, Mexico’s business taxes are 40 percent lower than those in the United States.)

For Helsley, the financial boon wasn’t the only detail that tipped the scale in Mexico’s favor. She already spoke the language, had a large network of professional contacts and had no trouble obtaining a long-term visa.

Of course, not all regions roll out the red carpet for U.S. entrepreneurs. Depending on the location, you could face difficulties getting a long-term visa, cutting through regulatory red tape and keeping as much of yourrevenue as you’d like.

Emigration 101
Among your top concerns should be whether you can legally emigrate to the country you’re considering.

“Most of the industrialized, more advanced countries tend not to just let people come and open up shop,” says Christopher Uzpen, a partner in the international tax group of law firm Withers Bergman LLP.

In other words, unless you’ve first established residency by living or working in your country of choice, nabbing a long-term visa can be easier said than done.

Cory Kidd, founder and CEO of Intuitive Automata, a health-care robotics startup based in Hong Kong, knows this firsthand.

Although getting his initial employment visa after setting up his company’s legal structure in 2008 was a snap, renewing it each year has required jumping through hoops.

“Hong Kong Immigration appears to be used to granting visas for employees of large, well-established companies but not for startups,” Kidd says–this despite the fact that his company employs 11 people, received a $250,000 interest-free loan from the local government, belongs to a local business incubation program and has raised a small round of angel investments.

Get the Lay of the (Foreign) Land
China, India, Brazil, Russia and some parts of Africa are among the more difficult startup locations for Americans, says Larry Harding, founder and president of High Street Partners, an international business services firm. And with the exception of the UK, he adds, doing business in the European Union can be pricey. (On the flip side, Harding calls starting a business in Hong Kong, Singapore or Japan “relatively straightforward.”)

Even if a region does welcome foreign entrepreneurs, the local infrastructure may not live up to U.S. standards, especially in developing nations.

“Here, we take it for granted that if our business is broken into, we can call the police,” says Bruce Bachenheimer, clinical professor of management and program director of Pace University’s entrepreneurship program. “But in other countries, the rule of law may not be what we expect.”

Likewise, Bachenheimer adds, in some locales, the roads, electricity, phoneservice, internet service, shipping companies and court system may be sorely lacking.

For Danny Wong, a partner with Blank Label, a Shanghai-based custom dress shirt company, doing business in China means accepting that the local government restricts internet access to many blogs and social media sites.

“We’re okay with that,” says Wong, who originally hails from Boston. “But ifyour business is heavily reliant on interactions on blogs, Twitter and Facebook, then China is not an ideal location for you.”

Play Location Scout
Obviously, doing the necessary recon before you relocate is a must. Embassies and trade missions in the United States are fine places to start. So are the chambers of commerce and U.S. embassies in your target location, many of which you can mine for introductions to other business expats, as well as referrals to local attorneys, accountants, business advisors and banks.

But international entrepreneurs say nothing beats visiting your target location and immersing yourself in the culturebefore taking the permanent leap.

“I came here three or four times before starting the company,” says Kidd, who began visiting Hong Kong five years ago. “The first was a vacation. The second was to start considering it as a startup location. I stayed in an apartment instead of a hotel to get a better sense of what it would be like to live here. The last visit or two was networking for setting up the company.”

Learning the local tongue can only help open those professional doors, says Helsley, who’s fluent in Spanish.

“You really have a deeper understanding of the culture if you learn the language,” she says. “You can pick up on things that you might not pick up on otherwise.” For example, she says, “In Mexico, a lot of times when people say ‘yes’ they really mean ‘no.'”

Adopt Local Business Practices
Along with the required permits, registrations and business licenses, you need to suss out the local labor laws and employment practices ahead of time.

“In some places, the labor is relatively cheap, but the churn factor is 100 percent,” Harding says.

For insider info, he suggests asking other business expats questions like: How challenging is it to hire local people? Where’s a good place to find them? What are the employment costs? What’s the turnover like?

“It’s a matter of figuring out all the details and nuances–simple things like the structure of an employment agreement, how to recruit candidates, how to motivate and incentivize employees,” Kidd says.

Cultural attitudes and regulations surrounding work-life balance are another consideration, Harding says. Working 80 hours a week to launch a startup might seem completely natural to you. But in quality-of-life-conscious France, he says, expecting that much overtime from employees won’t fly.

Follow the Financial Trail
The low overhead that enticed you to launch your business overseas won’t do you much good if you sacrifice your savings to unfavorable exchange rates, repatriation rules and tax regulations. For this reason, say entrepreneurial expats, enlisting the services of a local tax professional is critical.

“You want to have any taxes you pay in a foreign country reduce the taxes you pay in the United States whenever possible,” Uzpen says. What’s more, he adds, you want to keep your tax bill in mind when choosing a legal structure for your business, as the structure you select likely will affect the amount you owe.

“Ultimately, you don’t want taxes to drive how you do business,” Uzpen cautions. “But as an American, you’ve got two jurisdictions to worry about, which a lot of entrepreneurs from other countries don’t have.”


Michelle Goodman is a freelance writer and author of My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire.

Turning a Part-time Passion Into a Full-Time Enterprise

Turning a Part-time Passion Into a Full-Time Enterprise

A part-time business gives you the opportunity to develop your business model and learn from your mistakes. As your business grows you reach a pivotal moment: Do you maintain the status quo or push the envelope and go full time?

By Susan Solovic

From FastCompany.com


Twin brothers, Randy and Jeff Vines, grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis, but fell in love with the history, culture, diversity, and even the quirkiness of the city of St. Louis at a very young age. On Saturdays, while most teenage suburbanites were hanging around shopping malls, the Vines brothers would hop on a city buss and spend the day producing a local access television show on city life. “The people in the city are just a notch above. They have swagger you just don’t see everywhere,” explains Randy Vines.

While away at college, the brothers wanted to display their civic pride and show-off the uniqueness of their beloved city, but the only apparel available was the typical tourist attire. Back in St. Louis with traditional jobs, the Vines brothers continued to long for edgy, trendy apparel depicting the colorfulness of St. Louis City. So they decided to create their own.

“When we would wear own designs we’d be asked by strangers on the street where did you get that shirt,” remembers Jeff Vines. “So we did a small run and then signed up to have a booth at some downtown festivals and we always would sell-out quickly. We learned real quick what people wanted.”

That was the beginning of STL-Style. Mostly selling out of boxes from the back of their car, the Vines’ t-shirt creations became a big hit garnering extensive press coverage, including an article in The New York Times. Soon people were ordering from around the world and it was difficult to keep up with demand. While continuing to work their “day jobs”, the two committed nights and weekends to their burgeoning business. “There weren’t enough hours in the day. We had to hire our friends to help out part time and it became a matter of whether we are going to keep treading water and doing what we are doing or are we going to take this to the next level and get serious about it,” Jeff says. It’s a pivotal point many part-time business owners face.

After nine years of part-time operations, the Vines twins decided to turn their part-time passion into a full-time enterprise. Randy and Jeff Vines waited until the business basically directed their decision for them–STL-Style had gone as far as it could go as a part-time endeavor. A part-time business gives you the opportunity to develop your business model and learn from your mistakes. You have a history and a customer base from which to grow which enhances your chances for success. As Randy notes, “I think more and more the culture in America is about doing less conventional approaches to earning a living. More than ever there is this excitement about entrepreneurialism and people are figuring out a way to turn their passion into dollar signs.”

How I Did It: Leslie Blodgett of Bare Escentuals

How I Did It: Leslie Blodgett of Bare Escentuals

A cosmetics queen and her loyal fans.

As told to Liz Welch

From Inc.com

When Leslie Blodgett became CEO of Bare Escentuals in 1994 — the company was then a tiny maker of bath and body products — she saw a huge opportunity selling healthy mineral-based makeup. But she didn’t quite realize how many women she could reach until she made a pitch on late-night TV. The company’s rapid growth led to a 2006 IPO, followed by the sale of the company this year for $1.7 billion to Shiseido, the Japanese beauty giant. Today, Bare Escentuals, based in San Francisco, has 130 boutiques in the U.S. and one in the U.K., and employs 2,200.

I’ve been working since I was 10. My parents got divorced when I was 9, and my mother raised me, my brother, and my sister on a teacher’s salary. She was tough. I probably would have been very lazy if she weren’t always on my ass.

My first real job was at McDonald’s. There was a girl there who taught me how to apply double shades of eye shadow, which I still do today. I always loved makeup, even though my mother didn’t approve. She was into the women’s-lib movement. She never remarried, loved her independence, and always told me to have my own career. Whenever I went out with a guy, I’d always pay for myself. I didn’t want men to think that they had anything on me.

I spent my first two years at Oswego State partying. My mom read about a new program in cosmetics marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, but I needed experience to even apply. My first interview was at the Christian Dior counter at Gimbels, on 86th Street, but I wasn’t their type. Bloomingdale’s wouldn’t hire me, either, so I waited outside the buying-office door every day until they gave me a commission job selling hair sticks. I made 21 percent of all sales and ate a lot of popcorn and ramen noodles.

By then, I’d been accepted to FIT. I took on part-time jobs, including one at the Ultima II counter at Macy’s. That’s where I learned about makeup application — and that the makeup counter is a terrible place. The saleswomen were angry and mean. Then I met Keith. He was the first guy who insisted on paying for dinner. We got married very quickly. I think I was looking for a guy who could take care of me emotionally.

I got a job at Max Factor in product development and discovered I had a really good eye for color. I moved quickly from assistant to manager. The company was sold to Revlon, which was then bought by Procter & Gamble. I was surrounded by younger M.B.A.’s who were making more than me and had attitudes. I resented that. As a result, I didn’t hire M.B.A.’s for years — I wanted passionate people coming up through the industry. I’ve since learned that you need balance.

Keith worked in film production, and we agreed that whoever was making more money would keep working when we started a family. Our son, Trent, was 3 months old when I took a job with Neutrogena. Keith has been a stay-at-home dad ever since. He does everything around the house. I don’t even know how to turn on the dishwasher.

In 1994, John Hansen, part of an investor group that owned Bare Escentuals, called me. I’d never heard of the company, which made the first mineral-based makeup line and had six stores in Northern California. Back then, everyone used liquid foundation, which seeped into your pores and gave you zits. A powder foundation that was good for your skin made great sense, but the shades Bare Escentuals had created weren’t working. They were gross. I knew complexions and how to match skin tones — and I saw a huge opportunity. John hired me, and I became CEO within a few months.

I relaunched the line as bareMinerals, with six eye shadows, six blushes, five foundations, and brushes. There were seven of us in the office just winging it.

By the fourth quarter of 1996, I thought we weren’t going to make it. I spent many sleepless nights worrying. There was not much on TV at 2 a.m., so I found myself watching a smiling woman on QVC selling jewelry and thinking, I could do that. I bought a white suit and a $29 fake 5-carat diamond ring and decided to give it my best shot.

I went on air August 30, 1997 — the day Princess Diana died. I said things like, “Do you want to make your skin break out even more? Then don’t try my product. But if you’re interested in something pure that you can actually sleep in, then let’s talk.” That day, we sold $45,000 worth of product. My heart was pounding when I walked off the set. I started screaming, “You rock!” to the host, Lisa Robertson, who’s now my best friend.

Women liked the product but had questions. I went online daily to respond but couldn’t keep up. And then I noticed other women were answering for me. That inspired me to start hosting events at our boutiques. I invited people to come share ideas and tips. I started naming new products after loyal fans.

I was scheduled every six weeks on QVC but realized I needed more time to talk about the application process. Infomercials seemed a great way to do that. Suddenly, we had the ability to get our message out daily if we wanted to.

The infomercials were a success, but people couldn’t find the product. So I focused on distribution. Sephora was an especially hard sell. I sent a white limo to Sephora’s headquarters, which is right down the street, and brought the buyers to our boutique. It worked. A few years later, Nordstrom called.

Big bashes get a lot of notice. So we had a cruise for customers to the Bahamas and then one to Mexico. It was like a giant slumber party: We dressed up and danced and had fun. Then, I took a bus tour of our boutiques and we hosted events. I’d talk about our products as well as my thighs. And my Spanx.

In the mid-2000s, we started growing too fast and couldn’t keep up with demand, so there were a lot of lost sales. We hired Myles McCormick as our chief financial officer in 2004: He’s an M.B.A., and so I’ve learned to love M.B.A.’s. He’s now the CEO, and I’ve become executive chairman. Myles has always done the hard math and business analysis. I make decisions from the gut.

I’ve received thousands of letters. One woman wrote: “Dearest Leslie, I’ve always been overweight. I’ve never felt pretty. I lived without cosmetics for 15 years. In 2008, my younger sister convinced me to try bareMinerals. I did — and then I cried. Finally, at 49 years old, I was pretty.” She’s one of my angels now, part of my volunteer ambassador program. We send these women samples, and they talk about the product to friends, strangers, and colleagues.

Why am I here? Because women want to feel pretty. If I have a bad day, I read these letters before I go to sleep at night. They remind me of what we do. It’s powerful. I don’t want to be a business. I want to be a community.

For a full archive of How I Did It features, visit www.inc.com/hidi.

7+1 Tips for Working Moms

7+1 Tips for Working Moms

by Erika Kalmar, Career Wellness Coach

From SelfGrowth.com

Tip #1 – Accept the imperfect!

Many Moms (especially after the first child) want to do everything perfect. They want to do a perfect job at work, with the child, at home and with their husband. They just want to be perfect everywhere and with everyone. But what happens is that once they take some extra time to do some household works, they take away time from the kid, right? So they start feeling guilty. They immediately start feeling… imperfect.

Solution: accept the imperfect. You can never be 100% perfect. Every day is a new day, there are unexpected things occurring, you can never make your 100% perfect. Just accept this and throw away the guilt you are feeling. Accept yourself the way you are and for what you are. Do you feel more enlightened now?

Tip #2 – Release your beliefs that don’t serve you!

Often, you are the one who is standing in your way. Hmmm??? Yes, you heard it right. We women tend to nurture so many beliefs according to which we live our lives that actually prove to be more obstacles than helping hands. “I have to take care of this”. “I can’t ask my husband to do this”. “Only I can arrange this.” Are you sure? Do you HAVE to take care of that? CANNOT you ask your husband? Only YOU can arrange that, no one else? If you challenge these beliefs the way just I did, you can sometimes easily see that you were nurturing completely false (maybe even ridiculous) beliefs. So once these beliefs are challenged and released, a solution seems to be appearing that you might have never thought of: maybe you don’t need to do that at all, maybe your husband is also capable of arranging it, or someone else…

Tip #3 – Start noticing the positives!

Our brain is programmed in such a way that we tend to notice things that are negative: a task is not done, the floor is dirty, the lunch is spoilt and then on top of that even the kid is tiring today, my husband is moaning over his work and then you switch on the TV and you only see disasters in the news. Sounds familiar? Sometimes days might pass by thinking there is nothing worthy happening. Or not? Then how about these ones: do you have a warm bed? How does your morning coffee / tea taste? What feeling does it give you to see your kids waking up and cuddling you? How was your shower or bath today? Do you feel grateful that you have something to eat? Isn’t it tasty that juicy apple you are eating? And did you notice, even the sun is shining today? Everything is so vivid green outside? And the twitter of the birds?

You see, the positives are there, you just need to notice them. If you feel you are getting into the whirl of negatives, sit down and make a list of all nice things you experienced today. If nothing comes to your mind, just sit there and look around you, the words will come. You might want to do this exercise every evening before going to bed. It not only puts you into a positive mood but it will also help to get you a good sleep.

Tip #4 – The magic pill is you!

We women often read articles or books in the hope of finding the magic pill. I want to have a more relaxed, more balanced life, so I just need to find the “balanced life for working Moms” pill, take it and everything will be sorted out. Have you found this pill yet? Bad news: you will NOT. Why? Because you are searching for it at the wrong place! Look inside, not outside. There is no general recipe, you have to find what works for you and what gives YOU joy, happiness and fulfilment. So ponder over a few questions, re-connect to yourself: Who are you? What comes naturally for you (either by seeing from your own experience or by feedback from others)? What energizes you? What are your dreams? What is what you would like to achieve?

Once you answered these questions, you found your magic pill.

Tip #5 – It’s your truth, it’s your response!

Do you know that there is no truth on Earth? There are only perceptions. Perception is the angle through which you are viewing something. We all view situations, people and things via our own glasses of perceptions. That is the reason why two people might react so differently in the same situation. Even two kids, just notice if they fall: one will stand up and continue to reach his target, whereas the other will remain seated and will cry and dwell on his hurt leg until gets enough comfort from Mom. If there would be one truth, they would both react the same way. Now, if you can choose the perception, it means you can also choose your response to a situation. Let’s say you are in the car, on your way to the school to pick up your kid but you got into a terrible traffic jam. Nothing is moving forward. You feel warmer and warmer, you can hardly breathe, you are even rambling, blaming the cause of the traffic jam, you are just thinking of the lost time and the consequences of getting late. Sounds familiar? One question: in what way will getting upset help you getting out of the traffic jam? Probably in no way. Because your response to the situation of getting upset, will not change the situation. It will change only you, because you will be upset. So is it worth at the end of the day? How about choosing another attitude? Being patient? Switching on the radio and listening to good music? Calling up a friend you haven’t talked to for long, while waiting? Using the time to plan things you need to do that week? Or just seeing your kids’ lovely smile in front of you?

Bottomline is, that there is no situation that forces you to be like this or like that. You choose that. So why not choose an empowering attitude? The decision is yours.

Tip #6 – Priority is … YOU!

I want you to do an exercise here. What would happen in your family if you would be depressed, had no energy and no joy in anything? How would that impact each member of your family? And how would that impact your larger family? And your friends? And your working environment? Probably you answered that it would have a negative impact, it would be more difficult for them to cope, to re-energize you, to sort out problems and situations etc. You see how mood is contagious? And just imagine now the other extreme: that you are in top shape, brightening like a star, funny, dynamic. what would be the impact of this to your family? You see, everything is you. Whether you are feeling well or less well in your skin, it will have an impact on your family. Therefore it is your responsibility to give yourself a special treatment and care for you. Find time for things that contribute to your wellness – could be a warm bath or getting a massage or going for a shopping tour. Don’t feel guilty about it, this is not egoism! And remember, if you feel great, your family will as well.

Tip #7 – Focus!

Working Moms often feel in a trap: they must do 100% while at work, and 100% while at home. We talked about it earlier that it is impossible to perform perfectly well, but other than that, we want to maximize our efficiency. How? What happens if you are worried too much about your children or household tasks while sitting at work? Or if you spend some of your work time daydreaming? And vice versa – what happens if you keep thinking of your unfinished tasks instead of providing quality time to your kids? You see, this will not lead to an optimal balance. So try to focus on your activity of here and now (or there and then) to make sure you can accomplish the work you have on time. So work at work and be a Mom at home!

+1 Tip – Find a family friendly work!

Often we have real difficulties in getting our work and family responsibilities under the same hat. So if the above tips do not help, have a serious thought whether you are at the right work or right company. Because let’s be honest, there are companies and jobs where it is not seen with enthusiasm if you leave at 5 to pick up the kid or if you turn down a task because you cannot work extra hours. So that is the time to think it over: Do you like your job? And here don’t think with nostalgia on the times you accepted this offer, your priorities might have changed since then. Do you still like your job? If yes, is this the best company you could work for, under current circumstances? If no, start the job search now. Look at information in the press or from friends of where you can find a family friendly company. What if there is none in your area? Is there something you can do in that case? Like making yourself independent and doing what you do naturally well? This might be quite a change to your current career but why not if it works for you beautifully? And don’t look down at professions just because they are freelance, if you are now in a managerial position. You will see, being a freelancer or independent, has also its challenges. There as well you have to be good technically plus to be a good manager, administrator, accountant, salesperson and so on.

So are you working in the best possible environment?

Author’s Bio

Erika Kalmar is a career coach, developer of the Career Wellness CoachingTM concept, founder of the Terpsichori Coaching company and member of the International Coach Federation.

Having spent the last 10 years in recruitment, she realised the importance of career wellness as opposed to career success and applies this in her approach with clients. She is working with those 70% of people who want to bring in more balance and fulfilment in their career lives, by offering f*ree career tools, articles, career support community and coaching.

Is Your Great Idea a Real Business?

Is Your Great Idea A Real Business?

Twelve questions to help you separate the merely clever from the ideas that stand a true chance of succeeding.

By Christopher Steiner

From Forbes Magazine Online


Entrepreneurs constantly comb their brains and the world around them for new ideas. The trick often lies in figuring out whether a great idea actually has the potential to be a great business.

For instance, putting cup holders into cars was a great idea 30 years ago, but not one that made for a great business on its own.

“Ideas are free and often plentiful,” says Jay Azriel, professor at the JD Brown Center for Entrepreneurship at York College of Pennsylvania. “Business opportunities, on the other hand, come from ideas that have been more thoroughly thought out and researched.”

Twelve Questions To Test If It’s A Real Business

To sift out true business opportunities from the sand of merely bright ideas, would-be entrepreneurs can ask a series of questions. A primary one: Does this fill a void? A clever idea is nothing more than a science project if no one actually needs the resultant product. “You have to determine that there’s something actually missing to a specific market–something you’re going to supply,” says Tom Lane, founder of Propertyroom.com, an auction site for recovered and seized items sitting in back rooms of police departments.

And even if an idea appears to fill a void, it may simply not be something the market is ready for. When possible, always ask this of your idea: Does it pass a live-fire test? Many ideas lend themselves to an easy litmus test to determine if they’d be needed or popular. A newfangled baked good, for instance, could be tested at a farmer’s market before being pitched to retailers. If the sweet concoction doesn’t sell at all to the market crowd, the product may need to be re-examined before getting pushed in bigger ponds.

If a breakthrough or an idea comes in a technology-intensive business, entrepreneurs must be wary of how fast technology can change. The simple question that must be asked here: Does the idea have a shelf life? “While no one has a crystal ball, the proactive entrepreneur will be on top of potential issues and opportunities with clear plans for the future and monitoring devices to watch for leading indicators of change,” says Jim Porter, a professor at Widener University’s School of Business Administration.

If the idea does have shelf life, the next natural question is simple: How high is the barrier to entry? The best ideas have high barriers to entry, says Kanchana Raman, CEO of Avion systems, a telecommunications company. If an idea is good but not patentable, bigger competition could overrun you overnight.

If a business idea is naturally protected by a high barrier to entry, here’s the next important question: Is the idea scalable? The best business ideas incorporate plans that can be replicated and easily taught so they don’t require the founder to be the business all on his or her own, says Susan Wilson Solovic, CEO of SBTV.com, a St. Louis-based online network focusing on small business. “If you are the business all alone, then you really haven’t started a business, you’ve just created a job for yourself.”