Name of entrepreneur: Brad Deal
What is she renowned for? – Sticks and Stones Gifts
Brad Deal is infact a father when he became successful entrepreneur; he had initiative that he saw something good and decided to go for it. He was also very clever in business and economics area as had economics degree, he was playing games with his little daughter teaching the alphabet when he though of idea, out of box so space in market, this lead to the multi-million dollar fortune. It was his family that lead him to think of his new idea, his walks with his daughter the fact she enjoyed nature and the architecture, and he with his daughter noticed find sticks/stones that resembled letters and began to take photos. He used the photos to teach his daughter slowly the pile of photos grew. However there still was no business until a Teacher of their daughter gave them a gift and they came up with idea of framing the photos to do form the teachers last name, she loved it, and the entrepreneur side of Brad kicked in. their website Sticks and Stones and gathered all the photos, framed them and placed them on their catalogue. They visited Oprah Winfrey ( host and entrepreneur) and got the unique gift delivered to eye of public, she personally was impressed and ordered one for Celebrity Actor Tom Cruise!!! The family business kicked off. Nowadays there are even ‘’sticks and stones’’ in the White House along with millions of houses, they are no millionaires and the business is forever growing. They have got 3 daughters and teach still the alphabet with sticks and stones.
Name of entrepreneur: Josephine Esther Mentzer (known as Estee Lauder)
What is she renowned for? - Cosmetic Company Estee Lauder.
Josephine was brought up in a large family which helped with getting to the network of people she needed that would help her end up being one of the most successful lady entrepreneurs known in America. Her father owned a store, so she learnt and grew up in an environment of business. She started by getting a job through her uncle who was a chemist (owned a company which sold lotions to beauty shops) selling creams. I think that she got to see how business world works as whole as how stores get their supplies (through uncle) and how they sell it to customers (through father). Also her uncle inspired her into her passion of cosmetics, to start with cream, she created her own Brand Estee Lauder and formulated her own creams. She met up with the manager of Sak’s Fifth avenue who she convinced to carry her new creams which actually sold out in 2 days I think what landed her this hit was that she was so persuasive and again like Hugh had a passion and strong belief for what she was selling. This breakthrough also increased her confidence and set out to sale every major department store in the United States, with her products. She succeeded in signing contracts with three 3 important contacts. However she than unsuccessfully tried to convince several advertising agencies to take her company on as a client. She had the initiative and decided to do her own campaign by offering free samples in the mail and free gifts with the purchase of one of her products. This was a fantastic marketing plan as nowadays many beauty and food companies use this technique. However her large hit was when she developed ‘’Estee Lauder’s Youth Dew’’ a combination of bath oil and perfume, building on this success she increased her target market to men making a line for them. Within 20 years her products were available in every major department store in more than 70 countries. She was clearly hardworking and never gave-up to get to this success infact she was hard worker till she had to stop her career at age of 86 as she unfortunately broke her hip. Estee Lauder, Inc. went public, and four years later it became the nation’s largest cosmetic company accounting for more than 50% of all retail beauty products sold across the USA. She became the only women to be on the 20 most influential business geniuses of the century, in 1988; Times Magazine. Unfortunately Estee Lauder died 6 years ago however leaving a more than successful business with revenues in excess of $6.4 Billion, and over 25000 employees. Today the Estee Lauder brand is available in over 118 countries.
