Few Amazing Success Stories of Unlikely Entrepreneurs

While entrepreneurial success stories are always inspiring, the best ones always seem to be those that people can relate to. All due respect to the entrepreneurial geniuses of past centuries, but not many of us are aiming to become a railroad tycoon these days.

Here are some amazing success stories of entrepreneurs that started small but made it big.

1. Judi Sheppard Missett
Jazzercise

The founder of this wildly successful fitness company started teaching dance classes after hanging up her professional dancing shoes. When turnout dropped, she had an epiphany. The women weren’t coming to class to learn the precise steps to a dance, but to lose weight and tone up.

Sheppard Missett picked up the pace, turned up the music, and created a fun class that was soon packed. She trained additional instructors to teach the routines she choreographed, which eventually lead to a franchise deal. The company now has over 7,500 locations worldwide, a clothing line, and an extremely loyal fan base–all from a dance class.

Judi Sheppard Missett’s accountant mother always told her she would never make it in business because she didn’t have a head for numbers. The dancer grew up, earned a theater degree from Northwestern University and founded Jazzercise, the international dance aerobics phenomenon she still runs today. And she’s figured her numbers out — the company earned $71 million in revenue in 2005 and employs 148 energetic, passionate employees.

2. Brian Scudamore
1-800-GOT-JUNK

1-800-GOT-JUNK? was founded in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1989 by founder and current CEO Brian Scudamore[1] after seeing a junk hauling truck in front of him at a McDonald’s Drive-thru.[2]

Scudamore purchased a used pickup truck for $700 and came up with the name The Rubbish Boys and the slogan “We’ll stash your trash in a flash.” [3]

As the business grew, Scudamore began to hire other students to handle the workload. In an attempt to boost sales, his crew would “junk patrol” alleys looking for junk that the city wouldn’t take away.[4]

In 1993, a year and a half short of graduation, Scudamore quit university to concentrate on his business full time, formally incorporating the company as The Rubbish Boys Disposal Service Inc.[5]

Scudamore changed the company name in 1998 to 1-800-GOT-JUNK? and began franchising in 1999, opening locations in Toronto, Ontario and Portland, Oregon.[6]

The company has since grown to more than 220 locations throughout the United States, Canada and Australia.

In the spring of 2005, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? expanded into Australia with the opening of a corporate-owned franchise in Sydney.[5] As of October 2008, there are 2 new franchises in New South Wales and 2 more in Queensland, Australia.[7] In Australia, the company is known as 1800-GOT-JUNK?, without the first hyphen, to match toll-free numbers in Australia.

 3. A.J. Scribante

MAJERS

A.J. Scribante started off selling bleach to supermarkets and other stores around the Midwest. But Scribante had bigger things in mind. He wanted to find a better way to compare regional differences in retail prices, so that he could make more sales.

He worked for Union Carbide in Omaha, but soon was interested in sales. Seeking the best way to market a bleach product, Brite Eyes, Scribante began clipping grocery store ads from newspapers around the Midwest, and in a flash of entrepreneurial inspiration, began compiling ads in a booklet to show fellow suppliers, grocers and manufacturers the price differences for products.

The booklet of ads evolved into MAJERS, a full-service, computerized marketing, information company whose clients included companies like Pepsi, Coca-Cola and General Foods.  

4. Jill Blashack Strahan
Tastefully Simple

Blashack Strahan started her gourmet food company with $6,000 in savings, a backyard shed for storage, and a pool table as a packing station.

In her own words: “I remember sitting outside one day, thinking we were three months behind on our house payment, I had two employees I couldn’t pay, and I ought to get a real job. But then I thought, No, this is your dream. Recommit and get to work.”

She had the idea to sell at taste-testing parties, and sales began slowly picking up.

Fourteen years later, Jill has turned Tastefully Simple into a $140-million-plus company with 30,000 independent consultants throughout the U.S., and she’s been personally recognized with many honors, such as:

• Twin Cities Business Hall of Fame (2006)
• Inc. magazine’s list of CEO All-Stars (2005)
• Fast Company magazine’s 25 Top Women Business Builders (2005)
• Small Business Administration Entrepreneurial Success Award (2004)
• Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year^® finalist (2003)
• Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year for Minnesota & the Dakotas (2000)

 5. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
Ben & Jerry’s

“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream,” proclaims Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of one of the most popular brands of ice cream in the U.S. Indeed, the success of Ben & Jerry’s since its launch almost thirty years ago seems to support his claim. From the $5 correspondence course in ice cream making Greenfield and his partner Ben Cohen took from the Pennsylvania State University in 1978, to being named “U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year” by President Reagan in 1988, the childhood friends not only achieved tremendous success, but they did so on their own terms

The now-legendary duo decided to open a business after taking a correspondence course on the art of ice cream making. They discovered that just about the only college town without an ice cream shop was Burlington, Vermont. With $8,000 in savings and a $4,000 loan, they leased an old gas station in Burlington, purchased equipment, and began coming up with ideas for “unique” flavors. Twenty years later, the company was taking in $237 million in annual revenue.

Sources: Resorce Nation, Wekiepedia