In my book I talk about how Ty Warner took a fad of Beanie Babies and managed it into mania which made him a billionaire. Glassybaby has done something along these lines, although with votive cups, an item with far less reach than a child's doll.
Beanie Babies is a case study in how a small business can make someone a billionaire. It is extremely rare, but there it is.
The case was unique in that it maintained small business elements while the owner become a billionaire. I think the ten points in this wikipedia outline are comprehensive, but I think point ten is wrong. These people never took any risk, they just already knew, or tested to make sure.
Risk: Every previous strategy that Warner developed was a risk, and he succeeded in going against the norm
Ty tried to shut it down from boredom in 1999, was obliged by demand to keep it going in 2000, and finally quit. The manufacturer who made the dolls is still in business, selling the dolls directly. Why not? Who cares?
I criticized Glassybaby IPR efforts here, and I received a sales pitch from Kosta Boda from Amazon.com which reminded me of GlassyBaby, and I have two reflections on small business.
1. Business & Charity. Never conflate your business with charitable giving. It is a form of emotional blackmail, and has no long term benefit. It is an instance of self-aggrandizement. Sure, donate from your business if tax rules and impulse require, but make it a case of the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. The best example of how to do this is demonstrated by Arthur Court, where his long-time support of the Nature Conservancy is a throw-away line, and only after you dig deep in the website.
2. The money you are giving away is far better spent on the business. Instead of business petering off as one makes more of the same beanybaby (or votive) of yet another color, the money should be put into R&D of new designs and building a nationwide market, to compete with Kosta Boda. The business should be about the business, not charity.
Of course business is about the owner and what will be will be. But as I have argued elsewhere on this blog, the employees should be thinking in terms of not that they are employees, but the owner is a client for whom they are selling services. And their services are not exclusive.
Back in the late 1960s the Schoenfeld family began importing neckties. From there they hit the dress blue jean craze, grew to 300 million in sales and crashed into receivership, and all their top people started their own businesses, Shah Safari, Union Bay, Fresh Squeeze, Generra, International News, and so on. Unemployment is voluntary. Every employee at every company should be lookong to serve the company he is working at, even the one he plans to start.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
Beanie Babies is a case study in how a small business can make someone a billionaire. It is extremely rare, but there it is.
The case was unique in that it maintained small business elements while the owner become a billionaire. I think the ten points in this wikipedia outline are comprehensive, but I think point ten is wrong. These people never took any risk, they just already knew, or tested to make sure.
Risk: Every previous strategy that Warner developed was a risk, and he succeeded in going against the norm
Ty tried to shut it down from boredom in 1999, was obliged by demand to keep it going in 2000, and finally quit. The manufacturer who made the dolls is still in business, selling the dolls directly. Why not? Who cares?
I criticized Glassybaby IPR efforts here, and I received a sales pitch from Kosta Boda from Amazon.com which reminded me of GlassyBaby, and I have two reflections on small business.
1. Business & Charity. Never conflate your business with charitable giving. It is a form of emotional blackmail, and has no long term benefit. It is an instance of self-aggrandizement. Sure, donate from your business if tax rules and impulse require, but make it a case of the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. The best example of how to do this is demonstrated by Arthur Court, where his long-time support of the Nature Conservancy is a throw-away line, and only after you dig deep in the website.
2. The money you are giving away is far better spent on the business. Instead of business petering off as one makes more of the same beanybaby (or votive) of yet another color, the money should be put into R&D of new designs and building a nationwide market, to compete with Kosta Boda. The business should be about the business, not charity.
Of course business is about the owner and what will be will be. But as I have argued elsewhere on this blog, the employees should be thinking in terms of not that they are employees, but the owner is a client for whom they are selling services. And their services are not exclusive.
Back in the late 1960s the Schoenfeld family began importing neckties. From there they hit the dress blue jean craze, grew to 300 million in sales and crashed into receivership, and all their top people started their own businesses, Shah Safari, Union Bay, Fresh Squeeze, Generra, International News, and so on. Unemployment is voluntary. Every employee at every company should be lookong to serve the company he is working at, even the one he plans to start.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
0 comments:
Post a Comment