Source: www.usatoday.com

By Laura Petrecca

The crumbling of Wally Amos’ cookie empire taught him how to be a better man, and a better business leader.
The creator of Famous Amos Cookie Co. opened his first cookie shop in 1975. A decade later, the once-growing company faced severe financial trouble, forcing him to sell the company in pieces to outside investors.

A competitor’s tastier cookie didn’t cause the trouble. He did.

“I thought that I knew more than anybody else,” he says. “I thought I was the main attraction, and I wasn’t listening to other people.”

When he later tried to use his name and image for a new product line, he was sued by the new owner of Famous Amos.

Now 73, he’s trying to use the lessons learned with two new firms, Uncle Wally’s, specializing in muffins, and Chip & Cookie, a gourmet cookie producer.

“Teamwork — that is the greatest lesson I learned from losing Famous Amos,” he says. “It’s not about me, Wally Amos. It’s about respecting the rest of my team members … giving them access to make suggestions.”

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His blunders weren’t, and aren’t, unique. Big-name producers of makeup, yogurt, eco-friendly cleaning products and hip sportswear all have had their shares of big-time gaffes.

Early in her career, cosmetics entrepreneur Laura Geller signed blank checks and handed them to her bookkeeper. After a couple of years, she discovered that her tax bills weren’t being paid. When Geller tried to get a straight answer, she says, her bookkeeper simply disconnected his phone and disappeared. He was gone — and so was her money — but she was still on the hook for those past taxes.

“It was such a horrible time in my life,” says Geller, whose namesake cosmetics brand is a hot seller on QVC. “Those lessons shake you up enough to realize that you can’t trust everybody. … You have to be mindful.”

That experience and other troubles made her path to success a “rocky road.” But she also stresses that small-business owners should expect some rough times.

“No entrepreneur should ever think that it’s a joyride or they’re going to come away with just a couple bumps and bruises,” she says. “It’s an education. You just have to hope that the bumps and bruises aren’t going to put you out of business.

USA TODAY reached out to successful business people to hear about their financial foibles, their best business decisions and their lessons learned.

Daymond John: FUBU

John’s apparel prowess began on the streets of Queens, N.Y. Shocked by the expensive prices of “tie-top” hats, he asked his mother to teach him how to sew so he could make his own hats and sell them. A banner sales day in 1992 — $800 in sales — further spurred his entrepreneurial drive.

He worked with a friend to create the FUBU logo (which stands for For Us, By Us) and began to produce sportswear from his home. FUBU is now an international clothing brand, and John is a celebrity judge on the TV show Shark Tank.
Read more…

Catch Daymond, along with fellow Shark, Kevin O’Leary, on “Dancing with the Stars” as special house guests tonight at 8pm on ABC.

What we look for on Shark Tank, to invest in businesses, is somebody who is generating revenue, and can track and show growth in that revenue. Or somebody who has a brand or identity that can be patent. This does not mean trademarked! This means patent with a proprietary concept that nobody else can do. In regards to production and printing, you should always start off small. There are always local printers and producers in the garment district of your area; I would start there first!

Regards,
Daymond

Several different questions are asked; In regards to gaining exposure, social networking is probably the best way. You get the purest response from people who do not know you. Putting product into stores so that actual consumers, that do not have any interest just you, go in and pick up your product, solely. After this point, you then move towards making small sales, and when you get up to a sales point where you can show growth and steady revenue income on a small level, you then go after investors, depending on your needs. Most times, investors are not the most important thing, it’s the strategic investor. The person who can not only give u capitol, but someone who understands all aspects of the business.

Good luck
Daymond John

SOURCE: www.5withclyde.com

I recently had an opportunity to sit down and discuss business and entrepreneurship with a gentleman, whose career I’ve been following since 1992. In several circles he is known as the consummate entrepreneur, in others the most pursued branding expert in the United States who’s life story is the quintessential American Dream (rags to riches). His creative vision helped revolutionize the sportswear industry in the 1990’s and today has landed him a prime position in a sea of Sharks. This phenomenal person of character and merit is no other than Daymond John who is known as founder, president and chief executive officer of FUBU (For Us, By Us) yet will be remembered for his blunt honesty as one of the stars of the new Mark Burnett produced series, ABC’s “Shark Tank”.

To capture the true zeal behind Daymond John I had to start where his journey began, which was with the FUBU brainchild. FUBU came about from the minds of four young men, who believed their inner city market had been neglected, so they decided to embrace their market which happened to encompass several different races and cultures but all happen to revolve around music. The quartet came up with the moniker “For Us, By Us” and a revolution was born. They simply began by spreading the word, but didn’t realize at the time that their plight extended outside of their own community, outside of New York and even the country for that matter. It was global. Kids from all over the world were relating. Those four gentlemen would come to understand that hip hop is not something you do, but rather something you live. It’s a life that not only needs a soundtrack, but sportswear that fits the culture as well as the lifestyle.

Daymond admits they had a small vision and small plan, but more important, they had a relentless drive, love and desire, to continue no matter if money was being made or not.
That relentless drive is still engrained within Daymond as he lives by the motto, “You must continue to reinvent yourself and continue doing it for the love”.

Reinvention displayed itself as Daymond published his first book “Display of Power” a little over 3 years ago, which takes a deeper look into Daymond’s life and how FUBU was the cornerstone of it all. He began going on the talk show and speaking circuit, not for the publicity, but rather to have an opportunity to connect. Daymond was proud to provide an alternative perspective of what success could be outside of being a drug dealer, athlete or rapper. That platform would allow Daymond to share information with those who were truly hungry for it and wanted to create trails of opportunities for themselves and others.

Daymond’s journey of success led him right to the dark waters of the deep where he dwells with the other Sharks, who have an opportunity each and every week to fund the dreams of the would be unsuspecting entrepreneurs who often get eaten alive if they are ill prepared for the once in a lifetime chance to pitch to a room of millionaires and billionaires.

“The show has become very popular in places such as Japan, London and Canada, so it’s a well known show”, Daymond explained. “You must do your homework. If you’re not prepared… that’s really something your slippin’ on. All you had to do was google.” As we laughed and joked about being unprepared, the subject matter was very serious.
Daymond shared that the first thing all entrepreneurs should do is invest time and sweat equity into educating themselves. You must know everything possible about your business in order to be successful and persuade others to believe in it.

On the Shark Tank, Daymond and the other sharks encounter entrepreneurs who have been laboring on their ideas for years or even decades, have invested large amounts of money, and are being pressured to throw in the towel by friends and family. Others have simply never had access to the means to live out their dreams, until now. Like so many entrepreneurs, Daymond watched his vision manifest by way of the school of hard knocks, yet his passion to succeed outweighed the odds and the obstacles that he faced ultimately affording him an unmeasurable satisfaction outside of the millions he has accumulated.

Daymond John has learned a lot from the sharks and has an immense amount of respect for them all as he has learned a wealth of information, tools and tactics from the negotiations that take place weekly on the show. Daymond lives by the motto that “the day you stop learning is the day you die”. But at the end of the day, Daymond John is enjoying life, having a good time and still learning.