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Entrepreneurial Collage
Entrepreneurs are as varied and unique as their business ideas. They come in all shapes, sizes, ages, and colors. Consider the following collage of entrepreneurs:
Ten-year-old Brandon Bozek started his business, Bloominâ Express, when he noticed that the flowers customers bought from the local supermarket wilted after just a day or two. Brandon's fresh-flower subscription service rings up sales of $150 per month, and most of the $75 in profit goes into savings. He telephones his order to a local flower market every Tuesday morning. On Thursday, with the help of his âsteering wheel consultants (his parents), Brandon delivers the floral orders to his customers.
Gerald Levinson's radio was stolen from his car three times despite the car alarm and stereo lock he used. Therefore, Levinson found a better way: He designed a stolen fake radio that fits over the radio to make it look as if it has already been stolen. The unit is very convincing complete with loose wires and cracked plastic.
Mary Anne Jackson, a former executive at Beatrice Foods, went out on her own to start the first prepackaged food company aiming its products at kids. Her company, My Own Meals, generates more than $5 million in sales. All I had when I started was an idea for a product and a prayer, she says.
Michael Williams saw an opportunity in an unexploited ethnic niche, a black comedy club. With $1, 000 of his savings, Williams rented a hall and placed an ad in a magazine for black stand-up comedians. Eight local comics performed. The show was a hit and the Comedy Act Theater was born. Today, the club grosses $600, 000 annually, and Williams has opened a second club with plans to open twenty-four more.
If you are around kids, chances are that you have heard about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtles creators, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were struggling artists swapping drawings in their living room in 1983. Eastman sketched a masked upright turtle armed with an oriental weapon. It was a spontaneous thing. I did it to make Peter laugh, Eastman says. Within minutes, the two had created one of the most recognizable sets of heroes in kid-dom. Eastman and Laird launched their own comic book publishing company, and their first black-and-white comics sold rapidly. Soon after, the artist signed a licensing agreement with Playmate Toys for a variety of children's products. The reptilian heroes Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo were once the hottest non-electronic toys on the market since Cabbage Patch dolls. Their action toys, movies, cartoons, comic books, and other products generate between %5 million and $15 million in revenues for the two creators. I'm now a businessman instead of an artist observed Eastman. Cowabunga!
Sources: Adapted From âKids in Business,â Changing Times, March 1990, pp.96-97; Terri Thompson, âHow Tykes Can Be Tycoons,â US News & World Report, February 19, 1990, pp. 68-69; âFooling the Fools,â Entrepreneur, December 1989, p. 118; Christine Forbes and Erika Kotite, âEntrepreneurs Across America,â Entrepreneur, June 1990 p 96; Wayne Lionel Aponte âHave You Heard the One About the Comedy Club,â Wall Street Journal, October 31, 1990, p. B2; Christopher Geehern, âCowabunga Dude,â Entrepreneur, March 1991, pp. 76-81.
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