Good Lifestyle

A lot ofThe largest companies in the nation started as small entrepreneurial companies. Take McDonald's, for example. Whether you are shopping in your hometown or traveling about all around the world, it is likely that you will encounter these golden arches. After all, there is36,000 McDonald's in more than 100 countries around the world! Not what you usually imagine when you hear the term "mom-and-pop shop", is not it? But McDonald has not always been an ubiquitous rapid restoration institution. BrothersDick and Mac McDonald Opened the first time from McDonald's-a, a walk to San Bernardino, California - in 1940. It was not until the sale of Timkshake opportunisticRay kroc In 1954, enter 1954 to become their official franchise agent that McDonald's restaurants started appearing elsewhere. The rest, as they say, is a delicious and greasy story.

While McDonald's's original history is a quintessentizing American business tale, it's hardly the only one of this kind. Here are 15 other huge companies that started as mom and pop shops, each had to deal with long chances in the main street before winning large dollars on Wall Street.

Walmart is the largest retailer in the world. But before it is the retail business, we know today, it was a five-year-old man and a deposit. The origins of Walmart dates back to 1950, when foundersat Walton open5 and 10 from Walton In Bentonville, Arkansas. It was Walton's second general store, but the first to support his name. Motivated by the success of this store, Walton decided to open hisfirst walmart In 1962 near Rogers, Arkansas. The company was built on the lower price promise and better service of service in 1970 and has increased since. Today,90% of the American population Lives in the 10 miles of a walmart. Sales have experienced a similar trajectory, skyrocketes only $ 75,000 in 1951 to$ 514.4billion In 2019.

Before the entire food market becomes the Cadillac ofgrocery storesHe looked closer to a humble chevy. It all started in 1978, when the 25-year-old school dropoutJohn Macquerie And his girlfriend,Renee Lawsonborrowed $ 45,000 from friends and parents to openSAFERWAY, a small natural dishes store in Austin, Texas. The space was so limited that the couple had to store additional stocks in their apartment, which led them to their expulsion. After that, they had to move into the store itself and swim with a water pipe attached to their commercial dishwasher.

Two years later, they merged Safertway with Clarksville Natural Epicery, which belonged to business partnersFear Mocking andMark Eyelashes. The new joint venture, the entire food market, opened its first store on September 20, 1980. This original location was 10,500 square feet and employed 19 workers - a shout away from what the brand became. Today, whole foods have95,000 employees and 509 stores in three countries, each of them is an average of40,000 square feet. Grocery store? More like the grocery store.

TheFirst Starbucks Open in 1971 in Seattle, where he sold entire cafes of fresh beans with a single narrow showcase in the historic market of the city. A decade later, future President and Chief Executive OfficerHoward Schultz has become aloyal customer. He loved the company so much that he rejected it as director of retail and marketing operations in 1982, the same year as Starbucks started providing coffee with local restaurants and espresso bars.

After visiting Italy in 1983, Schultz wanted to bring an Italian culture to Expresso-Bar in the United States and, in 1984, he convinced the founders of Starbucks to open an Italian-style café in downtown Seattle. A year later, Schultz crashed alone and founded Giornale, a small chain of retail cafes that prepares coffee and espresso beverages based on Starbucks coffee beans. In 1987, he GIORNALE acquired Starbucks and changed his name forStarbucks Corp. At that time, there were 17 Starbucks stores. More than 30 years later, there are 30,000 of them.

Half cooked? Trapu monkey? Cherry Garcia? Whatever your favorite flavor of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, you owe its existence to the best friendsBen Cohen andJerry Greenfield, who opened theirFirst ice cream scoop shop shop In 1978 in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont. They had little money (only $ 8,000 in cash and a bank loan of $ 4,000) and even less experience (a $ 5 correspondence in the manufacture of ice creams from Penn State) .

And while it may seem like a recipe for abad business planIt was a step forward: Cohen, an artist, made of pottery that no one bouched, and Greenfield wanted to be a doctor, but failed to enter the school of medicine. So they agreed to open a store together. Initially, the plan was to sell bagels. When Bagel's manufacturing equipment turned out too expensive, however, they put their point of view on ice cream, which they started packing in pints to sell in local grocery stores in 1980. Forty years later, societyProduced up to 400 pints of ice cream per minute.

In the business,name is all. Some brands are so ubiquitous, however, that you do not even need a name to recognize them - everything you need is a logo, such as the emblematic Swoosh of Nike who makes it one of the most recognized by modern culture.

Of course, today, everyone knows Nike. But in 1964, no one did. It is at that time a trail coach from the University of PortlandBill Bowerman associatePhil knight, a former mid-disk runner on his team and ground team, to establishBlue ribbon sports. Since the 1950s, Bowerman has been looking for an alternative to traditional racing shoes in German, that he thought he had hindered the performance of riders because of their weight and materials used to do so. When he started developing his own shoes, his first guinea pig was Knight, who was looking for a post-college career that always allowed him to continue his passion for athletics. After learning about Japanese running shoes, which he considered higher than those manufactured in Germany, Knight convinced the shoe manufacturerOnitsuka Tiger Export its products to the United States and give it exclusive rights to sell them. Every investment of $ 500, Knight and Bowerman then startedBlue ribbon sports Import Japanese sneakers, which they sold to Portland from the trunk of the Knight car.

The kicks were a success and the company grew up. But then, Onitsuka Tiger started interviewing the agreement. Knight and Bowerman have decided to start doing and sell their own shoes using Bowerman designs. They called the new company incorporated in 1971-Nike. Nearly half a century later, the company reported 2018 global revenues of$ 36.4 billion-Do bad bad for two shillingkers guys of their car.

Fashion designerEileen FisherMade simple and simple clothes. It should not be surprising that its eponymous fashion brand, Eileen Fisher Inc., has a simple,Simple original history. It was 1984 and Fisher worked as interior and graphic designer in New York - and she hated getting dressed to work. What she needed was a comfortable, timeless and effortless cabinet, she decided to make one.

Even if she could not sew and only $ 350 at the bank, she managed, with the help of friends, to produce four samples she took in a fashion lounge. She received $ 3,000 in order, expanded her eight-room line and attended a second show where she sold $ 40,000 of merchandise. An idea borne by the need suddenlybecame a company. Today, Eileen Fisher boasts$ 429 million In annual turnover. Clearly, she filled a hole on the market.

Anyone who has a child, knows a child or once a child has probably played with something that has been done with something Titan Mattel toy, the playful force behind the American girl, Barbie, Fisher-Price, Hot wheels, Thomas and friends, etc. . Although the company now sells its products in more than 150 countries, itstarted where so many startups do: In a garage.

Co-founderHandler Elliott Had a company that makes Lucite jewelry or plexiglass. When the United States entered the Second World War, however, Lucite has become a restricted material reserved for military use. He and his wife,Ruth ManagerSo associated with a friend,Harold "Matt" Matson, to create a new business, make wooden and herd image frames. The manager designed them, then Matson made them in his garage. They called the ventureMittel-A hybrid of "Matt" and "Elliott".

After establishing the company in 1945, the manager began using wooden remains of these frame frames to create mullet furniture. Shortly after, Matson sold his share of the company in Handler and Mattel started focusing exclusively on dollhouse furniture andOther toys. Then, in 1959, while watching his daughter playing with paper dolls, Ruth had the idea of ​​creating a three-dimensional doll through which girls could imagine their future future. SheNamed the doll "Barbie"After his daughter, Barbara. Mattel became a public for the next year and by 1965, his sales exceeded $ 100 million, officially launching society in Fortune 500.

Yankee Candle Co.'soriginal story is as sweet as the company's brand candles. He started in 1969, when 16 years oldMike Kittredge fashioned a houseChristmas gift for his mother Canned wax, melted red pencils, cooking string and milk cardboard. When a neighbor saw the candle, she convinced Kitredge to sell her to her instead. He used the money to buy enough wax to make two additional candles: one to give to his mother, the other for sale. And so, Yankee Bougene was born. In 1973, the company had 12 employees and in 1983, annual sales reached $ 1 million. Today, the company is more than 200 million candles a year and generates more than $ 1billion for sales. We can only imagine how much the mother of Kittredge was proud.

The world of the skin has been drinking bees of Burt for decades. But before society is well-liked by its balms, lotions and its cosmetic products, it was known for its candles.

WhileHitchhkhiking to get home In the Rural Maine in 1984, artistRoxanne Quimby I saw a yellow picking truck Datsun pulling next to her. She recognized the driver - and his signature Bushy Beard-instantly: he wasBurt Shavitz, an eccentric local apiculture that was well known in the area not only for his face hair, but also for his honey stand on the road. Quimby and Shavitz have become quick friends and soon embarked on aCommon business venture Sell ​​Quimby candles manufactured with unused wax of shavitz hives. They made $ 200 sell candles at their first artisanal fair and $ 20,000 during their first business year. In the early 1990s, the companystarted selling a lip balm And permanently moved his focus on health and beauty products shortly after. Then Shavitz made a controversial exit of his name company and, in 2007, Quimby sold it to Giant Corox consumer products for $ 925 million. Shavitz died at the age of 80 in 2015, but his heritage still lives as the symbol of Burt's bees today.

Soulcycle operates a fitness empire ofNearly 100 studios of indoor cycling. 45-minute bike courses of the company - which take place inside the dark rooms with high energy music and zealous instructors - have aas follows the worship. But before becoming a fitness brand, it was simply an idea of ​​two linked people. Co-foundersCutler Elizabeth andJulie Rice met in 2006 on a kind of blind date of the company. Both were looking for a new kind of fitness class, so a mutual friend presented them. They had lunch, discussed their desire for a fitness studio based on pleasure and community, then at work bringing theirshared vision to live.

Cutler and Rice found theirfirst location-AN Old Dance Studio in New York without external signaling-on Craigslist. They announced passers-by using a yellow pushing spared outside (hence the company's currently famous logo of the company). A year later, classes were full of fitness fanatics andcelebrities AsKelly Ripa,Lena Dunham,Lady Gaga,Bradley Cooper, and evenBeyonce. Cutler and Rice started opening more studios in New York and New York and, in 2011, theysold a majority stake In society at the giant equinox of the fitness, which bought Soulcycle founders in 2016 for$ 90 million each.

In 2018, America has appointed five guysFavorite burger-Alead of McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Sonic, Castle White, In-N-Out Burger and 10 other major burger brands. But five guys did not topic this list during the night. He took a lot of work and a lot of beef. TheFive first guys Open in 1986 in a shopping center in Strip in Arlington, Virginia. FounderJerry and Janie MurrellThe named for Jerry and the four sons of the couple - the "five guys" original, before the Murrells had a fifth son. When the two elder boys graduated in high school, but did not want to go to college, Murrell did a business: instead of schooling, their university economies would be used to open ahamburger for both of them to run. The restaurant, known for its hand-trained cakes, fresh fries and myriad fittings, opened five other places between 1986 and 2001 before starting the franchise. Now, there are more than 1,500 locations around the world.

What happens in darters of dortters, is generally irregular: sleeping, studying, video games and maybe a little party. What happened in the dormitory of the pre-med studentMichael DellHowever, however, was a major exception. Dell was still interested in technology, so much as, at the age of 15, he bought an Apple computer so that it can take it out to see how it worked. And in 1984, as the first year at the University of Texas in Austin, he used $ 1,000 of his savings to establishLimited pc, a company he just ran from his dorm, where he built by handPersonal computer Sell ​​to his peers.

Dell wanted to do what no one else at that time does: sell computers directly to consumers at prices they could afford. When off-campus customers started buying his machines too, he left school to focus on his full-time business. The company has been $ 6 million in sales during its first year and traveled only four years later under the name.Dell Computer Corp. In 2001, Dell was the largest PC manufacturer in the world. Nearly two decades later, the company now known as Dell Technologies$ 36billion Income annually, proving that many guys have had Dells.

Business Business MogulSir Richard Branson worth an estimated value$ 4 billion. Its multinational portfolio, Virgin group, includes more than 60 subsidiaries, including an airline (Virgin Atlantic), a chain of hotels (Virgin hotels), a high-speed railway company (Virgin Hyperloop One), a company Wireless communication (Virgin Mobile), a cruise line (virgin trips), and even a resort of space tourism (virgin galactic). WhatStartedHowever, however, a modest retail business that Branson created in 1970, selling archives by email. This company, Virgin Record, has soon generated a small record store in London, which has become a recorded recording studio and a registered label that has finally signed acts such as sex pistols and rolling stones. In 1984, Branson started Virgin Atlantic and the Virgin brandtook off From there literally.

Before he was an investor on the successful television showShark aquarium, businessmanDaymond JohnCo-founded one of the most recognizable clothing brands of the modern era: the hip-hop clothes FUBU. John designed the brand: an acronym for "For us, by us," he worked as a red lobster server. Knowing that he wanted to start his own business in 1992 he had the idea of ​​aClothing line for fans of rap music. From the basement of his mother in the queens, New York, John and his friends started sewing hats and sweatshirts for sale in local concerts and music festivals. When neighborhood hip-hop artists started wearing clothes,Fubu took off. Nearly 30 years later, the company has generated more than $ 6 billion in retail sales.

The artisanal beer industry in the United States producesNearly 26 million barrels of beer each year and worth a value estimated at $ 27.6 billion. And the company that started is the Boston Beer Company, which was created in 1985. A previous year, founderJim Koch Discovered his recipe of great back-back home home at the house in his father's attic. Koch started brewing lots there in his Boston cuisine and decided to sell it commercially under the name of his favorite founder father:Samuel Adams, whose famous familyowned a Malt house Who produced the ingredient of beer are brewing beer.

April 15, 1985-Patriots Day-Koch presented his brief,Samuel Adams Boston Lager, to customers in the 30 bars and restaurants in Boston. Because he did not have the funds to distribute it in the drums or cans, he sold it in bulk bottles. Six weeks later, Samuel Adams Boston Lager won first place at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. During its first year of activity, Koch generated income of $ 120,000. Now the Boston Beer Company is the largest beer machine owned by the United States, with more than 60 varieties of Samuel Adams beer and almost$ 1 billion In annual turnover.