They say great things come from small beginnings, and businesses are no
exception.
Check out four examples of different million dollar enterprises that started from a very small loan.
Starting a small business can be a lot of hard work, but sometimes
a little hard work, faith, patience, and risk-taking can really pay off in the
long-run.
Subway
This popular restaurant franchise started in 1965 when 17 year-old Fred
Deluca borrowed $1,000 from his friend Pete to open up his sandwich store.
(note: $1,000 in 1965 equates to about $7,000 today)
He got all the tools and appliances he needed by putting out ads for
used ones in the local paper, and he almost went broke when he needed a new
$550 sink installed.
After another $1,000 loan and a lot of hard work, Deluca
opened up more stores year after year until it grew into the world-wide
franchise we know today.
The Body Shop
In 1977, Anita Roddick started The Body Shop with a $6,800 loan from a
bank (note: that equates to about $26,000 today). She got the idea from a small
naturally made skincare shop in California, and she bought the rights to the
name and launched her store in the UK.
With the help of her daughters, she made
natural and unique skincare products from her home and sold them at her shop.
Her customers appreciated that she encouraged them to reuse bottles and
bring them back to be refilled to be economical and environmentally conscious.
When she switched to the franchise model, her business exploded worldwide, and
she became appointed as Dame Anita Roddick in 2003 by Queen Elizabeth II for
her achievements in Britain. She sold the company to L’ Oreal in 2006.
Whole Foods
This famous health food store started when college dropout John Mackey
and his girlfriend Rene Lawson Hardy borrowed $45,000 from family and friends
to start SaferWay (a spoof on Safeway).
Back then, they got evicted from their
apartment after their landlord became frustrated when they started storing food
at home. The couple then decided to just live in the store – using a hose to
take showers.
After Saferway merged with Clarkesville Natural Foods Store, it became
known as Whole Foods, but that wasn't the end of their struggles.
Soon after
the merger, a flood wiped out most of the inventory and destroyed much of the
store, so friends and investors came to the rescue to help clean up the mess
and get the company back up and running.
After much strife and patience, it
expanded to a multitude of states. Now, it is one of the most popular health
food stores in the world.
Domino's Pizza
After a rough childhood of living in orphanages and foster homes, Tom
and James Monaghan got a $500 bank loan and bought DomiNicks pizza in
Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1960.
James sold his portion of the business back to his
brother for a used Volkswagen Beetle shortly afterwards...perhaps one of the
most regretful decisions of his life.
Tom renamed the business to Domino's Pizza and expanded it into a
franchise. Originally, the dots on the Domino's logo were supposed to
correspond to all the stores opened, but he abandoned the idea as the number of
stores grew at such a rapid rate.
The three dots currently on the logo
represent how many stores the company had in 1969; Domino's is now the second
largest pizza company in the U.S., second only to Pizza Hut.
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