The company was unique at the time, had a clear point of differentiation, had a loyal customer following and was very profitable.  With all of the moving parts behind the scenes, there were always opportunities to fix problems and get better.  Within a very short period of time I had my hands in everything from new store selections to store operations to marketing to strategy and capital raising.  Everywhere I turned there were opportunities for new businesses and I took advantage.  Out of all of the ideas I capitalized on, I want to focus on one in particular that turned into a substantial annual profit generator, Food Gifts.

I noticed that every year from late October through mid January our stores became overwhelmed with orders for gift baskets made up of food products.  As we were in the Washington DC market place, associations, companies, lobbyists, used to call us up and order 100 gift baskets at $50 per to be delivered on capitol hill.  It caused a problem in the stores because of the busy time of year and the lack of focus on this business.  It became an afterthought that had potential to not only build profit, but expand the brand.  I mad up a business plan to centralize it in a space in our warehouse, create a catalog of consistent baskets and market it to grow it larger and take advantage of other holidays.  It worked well and we made far more profit on higher sales than we had in the past.  It actually became an entirely new division with its own P&L and manager.  But my entrepreneurial genius was about to really shine through with a trip to the mall.

While I was in the mall I noticed that one of the largest jewelers had closed leaving a great location empty in one of the busiest malls in the country. Since this was early October, I didn’t think anyone would take the space before the holiday.  I found the mall manager and asked about the space.  What he told me in his next sentence enabled me to think way outside the box.  He told me that he was upset about the space being empty because he got a bonus based upon occupancy through the end of the year and 100% occupancy for him would mean a strong bonus since it was difficult to achieve.  I asked him if he would be willing to lease the space from Nov 1 through Jan 15.  He would get his 100% occupancy goal and I would get to test a new concept inexpensively.  I negotiated terms solely based upon success and very little upfront cash on our side.  He agreed in principal and I told him I would be back with the president shortly.  Monday morning I was in our corporate office with the CFO and President selling the concept of putting up a temporary store selling food gifts, gift baskets and housewares for the holidays.  Not only could we get additional sales but we were planning on a new store in that area, so it would expose us to the customers in that market.  It was easy to sell as it made so much sense and thus our popup holiday mall stores were born.  Suddenly that one store turned into several every holiday season and generated significant incremental profits for the company and the gift division.  It worked so well that other retailers copied the concept, but they just couldn’t execute it like we did.

Sometimes, you might just find that creating a new business inside of an existing one may be a better alternative to a straight startup.  Intra-preneurship at its finest I guess.

This article is a must read for all entreprene­urs.
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Most people fear the insecurity of being an entreprene­ur and when they get a taste of it, they go back to what they know. Most people fear the prospect of failure that comes along with the territory. Today, the unemployed would rather spend time finding a new secure job than roll the dice and take a risk bringing an idea to life.

It is a very difficult choice to make, especially later in life.
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1 – Promote the Lifestyle elements of your brand – This is especially useful for apparel, accessory and cosmetic brands. We are using it very successful­ly with Raw Essentials – 115° Keeps Your Skin Alive

2 – Treat it like your personal focus group – Look at the pinners who are following your brand and what other brands they are following. See how many put your brand in the products they love.

3 – New Customers -You can ask fans to pin pictures of themselves with their favorite product of yours and tag you, and then you can easily repin those photos onto a VIP board–it’l­l give a shoutout to these fans and show potential customers that your current users really like using your product.

4 – Contests and Sweepstake­s – “Pin It To Win It” campaign asked users to create a Pin It To Win It inboard for your brand and pin 5 to 10 images of your products. Once their board is complete, they email the URL to your company for a chance to win something of value.

5 – Keep your team connected to the consumer – Pinterest certainly gives marketers a clear eye into the minds of the consumer. Make sure your people are watching what is happening on Pinteres all the time.
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1 – Go to every other day mail delivery and eliminate Saturday delivery. Let’s face it, who is waiting for the mail these days? Most of my bills come via email and the ones that do not won’t matter if I get them a few days later.

2 – By going to an every other day delivery will eliminate a significan­t amount of labor that will greatly reduce costs.

3 – Raise the price of third class mail. Again, most of this business is moving to the web via email. The companies that truly find third class mail valuable still will accept the increase. The others will drop out, thus reducing the costs of handling.

4 – Eliminate overnight, 2 day, and any thing that is not first or third class mail. UPS and Fedex own this business. The USPS cannot compete or execute it very well. Get out of it!

Let’s face the facts, the USPS is going the way of the land line phone. We need to manage the decline with the least amount of impact on the costs. Losing $12-14 billion is unacceptab­le for this country right now.
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I enjoyed B School immensely and I was a very good student. My undergraduate degree was in Hospitality Management, basically learning the skills necessary to run restaurants and hotels, but surface information.  Not really diving in deep.  Plus, who really pays attention in undergrad?  Isn’t it really al about the beer?

Finance and strategic planning were really my strong areas and I actually loved building spreadsheet forecast models.  Most people dreaded it, but I looked forward to it.  I still do and it is a skill that has come in handy producing business plans for the various businesses I have been involved in.  Strategy really goes hand in hand with being an entrepreneur.  You need to be able to see the gap in the market you are going after and figure out a way to approach it.

I was going to school full-time and living off the funds from the sale of Fabulous Foods assets for the first year.  I took a few classes over the summer to make my schedule a little easier the following year and focus on getting a job.  One day I got a call from the president of a small retail food chain in the DC market who had heard about me from a mutual friend. They had just opened their 3rd store and they needed to add knowledgeable food people to help run the business. We had a long conversation about what I wanted to do after B-School and he was very supportive and accommodating to my schedule.  Basically I could perform project work for them while I was in school and make my own hours as long as the job got done.  Perfect!  We formed an agreement and not only was I in school full-time, but working full-time as well.  It was a great little company and I fit in well.  Within weeks it felt as if I was there since the beginning.

The company was a specialty food retailer selling gourmet foods, both perishable and non perishable.  So my knowledge of food, restaurants and retail all served me well.  Within a very short period of time I began working directly with the president on specific systems to manage costs and processes as the company had aspirations to raise capital and expand.  Ultimately, I began working on the private placement memorandum to raise funds and the financial model to include with it.  This was a very big deal as I was privy to all of the financial data of the company.  I guess they must have trusted me and liked me.  Because I had been instrumental in the entire process, I had to accompany the President and CFO on the prospective meetings with potential investors.  This was truly a revelation for me.  I was learning how the private equity world worked in real-time.  Fascinating stuff for a B- School student.  So while my classmates were stressing over finding a job after graduation, I didn’t even bother looking because I was so tied up in this business. That may or may not have been the right move, but for the moment I was happy.

The Customer Is Not Always Right…..­BUT….The­y Are Always The Customer! So do whatever is necessary to make them happy and keep them satisfied.

There are always going to be issues with customer satisfacti­on; orders will be late or missed; unhappines­s with products or services; product reliabilit­y, etc. The goal is always to minimize the stress on the customer. Have them walk away telling everyone they know that it was a hassle free experience to have their problem resolved. That is more valuable advertisin­g than a Super Bowl Ad.
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The numbers stated above are somewhat misleading­. It makes it seem as if the industry as a whole is growing. Most of the labor statistics cited above are normal for the industry. Many of the jobs will be replacemen­t jobs or just normal franchise growth. The sales numbers above a primarily growing from inflation. Wholesale food pricing is expected to grow 4% this coming year after an already high 8%. Beverage costs will rise as well, along with supplies and operating costs. WHat this means is higher pricing on menus which will lead to sales growth from higher pricing. The true test of whether the industry is growing or not will be customer growth. My estimate is that customer “trips” to restaurant­s will be flat or slightly behind last year.
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Women have some great ideas for businesses and should take the leap to starting their own business. They will be more successful then they realize.
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What I learned: A good business person will spend most of their time working ON their business versus working IN their business. You can only grow your business profitably when you can step back and see the larger picture of where your business needs to be positioned now and in the future. What is your strategy for growth and where do you want to lead the business to? Working harder instead of smarter leads to burnout and failure.

I was disillusioned with what I had created. Yes, I was my own boss but I had built something that was unmanageable on its own and required me or someone with my skill set to run it. Mentally I was burned out from it and I truly needed a break. If I was going to be successful, I needed to focus on my weak areas and get the knowledge I needed to be a better businessman. So I decided to sell the business and go back to graduate school for marketing and finance.

Of course the business was not easy to sell. I had to sell it off in pieces; the store was one piece, the catering another and the wholesale business yet another. You can tell you have created something complicated when you try to sell it and no one understands what it is they would be buying.

It took me about 6 months to sell everything. The good news was I had no debt on the business so the proceeds were all mine. I had enrolled in the University of Maryland