0816_TOEFL-Test-and-Score-Manual-1997

286 ● 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business
Using some money she received as a wedding gift, Vernon placed a $495
ad in the September 1951 issue of Seventeen magazine: “Be the first to sport
that personalized look on your bag and belt,” read the copy, touting a $2.99
leather purse and $1.99 belt. That ad attracted $32,000 worth of orders—an
enormous amount of money at the time.
“I make quick decisions based on my golden gut,” said Vernon, who
named her firm after Mount Vernon, the New York City suburb where she
lived. Later in life, she legally changed her from Lillian Hochberg to Lillian
Vernon.
In several interviews, the feisty entrepreneur told me how, despite a
lack of formal business training, she turned $2,000 in wedding money into
a successful mail-order business serving more than 20 million customers.
“To this day, I don’t know how to read a financial statement,” she admits.
“I still need help with the numbers.”
When mail order companies went online, Vernon’s sales company suffered
and the company filed for bankruptcy. A group of investors eventually
rescued the company and the Vernon brand remains strong. The company’s
sweet spot is still kids’ clothes, toys, and all sorts of kid-friendly merchandise
that can be personalized.
Vendors submit thousands of products for consideration every year,
but Vernon’s biggest hits have been the things she dreams up.
One year, for instance, Vernon received 120,000 orders for the
Battenburg lace Christmas tree angel she designed. Not bad for a Jewish
woman whose family fled their comfortable life in Leipzig, Germany, after
the Nazis chased them out of their home in 1933. Vernon’s amazing ragsto-riches
story is detailed in her autobiography, An Eye for Winners (Harper
Business, 1997). Vernon’s book mixes intimate and painful details of her
life story with practical business advice.
Known for her sharp wit and strong support of Democratic politics,
Vernon, now in her 80s, told me she always tried to hire professional
managers to complement her entrepreneurial style. “At one point, I surrounded
myself with experienced veterans of large corporate cultures,”
she said. “Unfortunately, they almost killed us—they took analysis to the
point of paralysis.”
Vernon shared this advice: “Risk your own money, trust your creative
instincts, and find someone who can execute your vision.”