Being an entrepreneur can be pretty stressful but also very rewarding. The freedom to do as you see fit to make your business grow can make the ensuing success all the more satisfying. Be sure to plan ahead and learn as much as you can about operating a business. Remember, luck often is the result of hard work meeting opportunity.
A main purpose of marketing is to attract customers and keep them as loyal clients. In a competitive environment, sending a message to people that will entice them to purchase your product or service is crucial to success. Whether it be digital or print or online marketing, the key is to grab and hold the attention of the potential customer.
How did these major companies get their start? How they started and where they began is always an inspirational story. There are many bands that started in garages and there are many famous companies as well that also had the same humble beginnings before reaching enormous success.
AMAZON
Jeff Bezos had a successful career at the Wall Street firm D. E. Shaw & Co. but in 1994 he was drawn to the rapid growth of the internet (2,300% annually). His desire to take advantage of this, what he called his 'regret minimization framework', caused him to leave the company and travel to Seattle in search of internet success.
After making a list of products he could focus on, he chose books as the costs weren't high and reading was pretty well a universal past-time. He also named his new company 'Amazon' because the name sounded exotic and it started with an 'A'. Also, it was a name that people would easily remember and that was important in establishing a brand that would stand out among future competitors.
After traveling to Seattle, Bezos set up Amazon in his garage at his house in Bellevue, Washington with several employees. To get away from the garage for meetings, they gathered together at a nearby Barnes & Noble (in almost a fitting bit of irony). In two months, sales reached $20,000 a week and sales happened in 50 states and 45 countries. In 2016, Amazon had 340,000+ employees, $135 billion in revenue and Jeff Bezos' own personal worth is now over $130 billion, making him the world's richest man.
APPLE
Apple began in the childhood house of Steve Jobs, located on Crist Drive in Los Altos, California back in April 1976. Jobs founded the company with Steve Wozniak and it consisted of Jobs and Wozniak building computers by hand in the garage. They sold 50 units in the first month and Apple was incorporated the next year on January 3, 1977.
Although primitive by today's standards, the first Apple computer built in a garage proved to be the foundation of a company that may soon to be the first one to be worth $1 trillion.
GOOGLE
Larry Page and Sergey Brin were PhD students at Stanford University in 1996 when they started Google as a research product. They rented a garage in a house on Santa Margarita Avenue, close to the campus, and started to build their company that would become the second largest in the world. The house was owned by Susan Wojcicki who needed the rental income and is now the CEO of YouTube.
Page and Brin wanted to build a web site that would collect and store information from around the world where it could then be accessed by anyone within reach of a computer. It took a lot of hard work but the end result was a revolutionary system that make Google the namesake for seeking information online. How many times have you said "I'll just Google it"!
HARLEY-DAVIDSON Henry Melk isn't a very well-known name among motorcyclists but it was his garage in Milwaukee that was the starting point for the internationally-renowned Harley-Davidson company. In 1901, William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson used his garage to work on their plans to make a engine that would power a pedal-bicycle, literally a motorbike. The two boyhood friends spent two years working on their dream project but found that their first creation wasn't powerful enough to go up hills without using the pedals. Rather than give up, they used the lessons learned to make a bigger engine that formed the basis of a true motorcycle rather than a motorized bicycle.
Their hard work paid off when their motorcycle made its racing debut in September 1904 at the Milwaukee State Fair Park. They came in 4th and this heralded the beginning of Harley-Davidson's ascension to the pinnacle of the motorcycle universe. MATTEL Like Harley-Davidson, Mattel is named after the company's two founders Harold "Matt" Matson and Elliot Handler. The duo started out making picture frames in 1945 and soon made dollhouses and dollhouse furniture from the material that was left over. Surprisingly, they found that the dollhouses were selling much better than the picture frames and then decided to focus on the more popular product.
Fate intervened when Matson sold his share of the company to his partner due to poor health. Handler's wife Ruth took over Matson's duties and created the Barbie doll in 1959 (named after her daughter Barbara). Mattel soon became a giant among toy maufacturerS with a variety of best-selling brands including Matchbox, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, American Girl and the eternally famous Barbie and Ken.
WALT DISNEY "I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse." This quote by Walt Disney is one of the more famous quotes in business and the mouse started a company that has grown into an international entertainment giant that had $55 Billion revenue in 2017 and includes Marvel Studios and the Star Wars franchise among its many properties.
Walt Disney was born in Chicago but eventually bought a train ticket moved to California in 1923 to be with his brother and uncle. He was a talented artist but still had many pitfalls in his career before his relocation to the west coast. Once settled in north Hollywood, he formed his first studio in a garage owned by his uncle. Working with his brother Roy and paying his uncle $1 per week for rent, Walt Disney created a studio in the garage and the next year found success with a film series based on Alice In Wonderland that combined live action and animation. In 1928, Disney created Mickey Mouse (originally named Mortimer) and the company was soon well on its way to fame and fortune.
Success is the result of hard work, commitment and dedication where the origin in many cases has been a simple garage. If you ever have a million-dollar idea and the only space you have to work on it is your garage, then let the previous stories be an example that humble origins are no barrier to fulfilling your dreams.
The iconic phrase was first uttered by the late Sean Connery in the 1962 film Dr. No, where he portrayed a character introduced 9 years earlier in the novel Casino Royale. Author Ian Fleming based the novel on his own wartime experiences in Naval Intelligence during the Second World War and got the name James Bond from the author of the book 'Birds of the West Indies'.
With the October release of No Time To Die, Bond is as big as ever in 2021. Daniel Craig will be retiring from the role after this film and the quest for his successor will ensure that the franchise will stay in the headlines for years to come.
James Bond was definitely a focal point for Amazon's purchase of MGM. Jeff Bezos undoubtedly had the agent in mind when his company purchased the studio for $8.45 billion in 2021.
There are obvious reason for the interest. Movies starring James Bond have grossed almost $5 Billion and the latest Bond film 'No Time To Die' will add much more in worldwide revenue. Declared dead more than once over the past decades, the Bond franchise is as popular as ever more than 50 years after Dr. No's release. As one theme song put it, nobody does it better.
What are some lessons that can be learned from this success? 1) Stick With What Works James Bond works with the British Secret Service with a license to kill. He basically beats up the bad guys, gets the girl, saves the world and looks suave throughout. James Bond was introduced during the Cold War and his adversaries were usually Russian agents, the international crime organization Spectre or mega-villains like Goldfinger.
When the Iron Curtain came down, the villains may have changed but James Bond remained the same. The audience still wanted Bond to wear his tuxedoes, enjoy his drinks and vanquish the bad guys, usually with a quip. The later films had some characters make remarks about Bond being a Cold War relic or a misogynist but he always remained the quintessential Bond that everyone grew up with. You may tweak a product or an idea but it's always best to keep the essential aspects that made it popular in the first place. 2) Change Will Happen But Make It Work To Your Advantage Sean Connery was the perfect James Bond for many but he wasn't going to play the character forever. By the time Goldfinger came out, he was tired from the overwhelming public pressure and the negative effect he felt playing an icon was having on his acting career. What happened next? The producers decided on Roger Moore after a strange interlude where George Lazenby was hired, fired and Sean Connery was brought back only to quit again after one film (more on Mr. Lazenby later). Roger Moore was not Sean Connery Part 2. His Bond was more suave, had a lighter touch and less prone to use his fists. The franchised was re-energized and had massive success with films such as The Spy Who Loved Me and Octopussy. At times, the Roger Moore films went a bit far for Bond purists, especially with the sexual innuendo, but the franchise was as popular as ever and survived the absence of Sean Connery in the title role.
When Roger Moore retired, the James Bond movies kept rolling by using actors who brought different facets to the character but kept the essence. Whether more suave or more brutal, the franchise kept itself fresh by not recycling the same exact Bond character all the time. Some older fans may never have accepted any Bond after Sean Connery but younger fans definitely don't have the same stubborn loyalties. They are entertained by the tried-and-true formula of the James Bond movies and perhaps have never seen any of the movies starring Connery or Moore. 3) Keep Up With The Times James Bond is old-fashioned but he can't be a fossil. Like a business product or idea, the Bond franchise has to keep up with the times. When the Cold War ended, Bond found other villains. When the Shuttle made space travel easier in the 70's, Bond went into orbit. When technology changed, Bond adapted (even Q become a tech wizard in Spectre as opposed to the gadget wizard in the older films).
Customers and clients may sometimes say to leave things as they are, but it's a fast-changing world and nostalgia can't always play a major role. As stated before, adapt but keep the essence. A 2015 Ford Mustang is different in many ways from a 60's version but's still a Mustang. 4) Dream Insanely Big And You Just May Reach That Goal! George Lazenby was 22 when he saw Dr. No on a date in 1962. Seven years later, he was the new James Bond. How did that happen? He was from Australa, not England. He had no acting experience. He was the son of a railway worker, certainly a far cry from the suave British gentleman spy. How did such an unknown take over such an iconic role that had unprecedented world-wide popularity? According to the interview, Lazenby got the part because he wanted it, wanted it more than anyone else. When he saw Dr. No, the date didn't quite work out as planned but he now had the goal of becoming the next James Bond. Watch the video (it's just over 2 minutes) to see how a seemingly impossible goal can be reached simply through desire and perseverance.
If an unknown non-actor could replace an icon like Sean Connery to become the next James, then anything is certainly possible for anyone, if you want it. Spectre was released in November 2015 and turned out to be one of the most successful films of that year. The James Bond franchise has maintained its popularity ever since the first film in 1962. There have been peaks and valleys and rumors of its demise over the years but following the simple rules of success have allowed it to thrive and likely be a viable force for another 50 years. Bring on James Bond 25!
