The biggest companies can be built on the smallest amount of money, providing you work hard and have a good idea. These 5 giants of the business world have proved that to be the case.
1. Papa John’s
Usually, the guy who fronts a fast food chain’s marketing campaign is not the actual owner or founder (we’re sorry to break it to you kids, but Ronald McDonald is not real) but Papa John’s is different. He is the owner, he has had a hand in running the company since the beginning, and he was the one who founded it.
He did so in his father’s tavern. He converted a broom closet to a small kitchen, bought a pizza oven and other basic supplies, and made pizzas all day. He eventually moved into the building next store and from there he grew the pizza restaurant into one of the biggest fast food chains in the United States.
Not bad for an oven in a closet.
2. Dollar Shave Club
This began from a simple idea of selling cheaper razor blades. They didn’t have a lot of money and it didn’t look like the sort of thing that could grow into something huge, but it did. They launched their website in the Spring of 2011 and a year later they were backed by $1 million in investment. Within 5 years they had been purchased for $1 billion.
These days there are many similar companies trying the same thing and they are still profitable. See Manly Matters to learn more.
3. Louis Vuitton
Modern fashion designers seem to be millionaires before they start their brands as many are A-listers with a following. But it was a different story over a century ago and if anyone earned their way to the top it was Louis Vuitton.
He was just fourteen when he decided to leave his small hometown for the lights of Paris. He worked in whatever jobs he could get to pay his way. He eventually started making trunks, before mastering the trade and being hired by French royalty to make their trunks.
In his forties, he set up his own luggage store and from there grew into a huge multinational fashion house.
4. Apple
One of the biggest companies in the world was started in a garage with a couple of ideas, two great thinkers, and some nifty marketing tactics. Apple is a great story to learn from not only because of how it started, but also because it came close to going out of business many times and still fought its way back.
They are proof that you can be a fringe brand and even a mocked brand for many years and still grow into the brand that everyone wants and everyone respects.
5. Coca-Cola
The first Coca-Cola was made in batches that were then carried by jugs to local pharmacies. They sold one jug a day, all of which was in a concentrated syrup form that would then be diluted, and this amounted to 9 drinks.
9 drinks a day for a year was enough to propel the popularity of this drink and Coca-Cola today sells over 1.6 billion servings every single day.
