I met him many years ago while still in Houston and he recounted to me he started with a load of twenty mattresses in a box truck, some which he paid up front for and the rest was on account since an initial investor backed out, a storage unit lease for 6 mos, and his own pickup truck for deliveries.
At some later time he was hard-scrabble down to 10k in hard cash, which he went 'all in' with the first of his TV commercials.
Pretty darn close to 'starting from scratch' in my book. Twice.
(11-30-2017 10:26 AM)tanqtonic Wrote: I met him many years ago while still in Houston and he recounted to me he started with a load of twenty mattresses in a box truck, some which he paid up front for and the rest was on account since an initial investor backed out, a storage unit lease for 6 mos, and his own pickup truck for deliveries.
At some later time he was hard-scrabble down to 10k in hard cash, which he went 'all in' with the first of his TV commercials.
Pretty darn close to 'starting from scratch' in my book. Twice.
Heard him speak at a breakfast meeting many yrs ago, and that's basically what he told the audience. It was make or break with that first, classic, TV commercial. If it didn't work he was going to close the doors. The rest is history.
I mentioned that the 'buy today, delivery tonite' service was an impressive service, going above and beyond. Au Contrare, he said while that sounded good in the commercial, he really did that to get the furniture delivered before the customer could change his mind and cancel the order. Now you'll never see that strategy in an MBA textbook.
(11-30-2017 10:26 AM)tanqtonic Wrote: I met him many years ago while still in Houston and he recounted to me he started with a load of twenty mattresses in a box truck, some which he paid up front for and the rest was on account since an initial investor backed out, a storage unit lease for 6 mos, and his own pickup truck for deliveries.
At some later time he was hard-scrabble down to 10k in hard cash, which he went 'all in' with the first of his TV commercials.
Pretty darn close to 'starting from scratch' in my book. Twice.
Heard him speak at a breakfast meeting many yrs ago, and that's basically what he told the audience. It was make or break with that first, classic, TV commercial. If it didn't work he was going to close the doors. The rest is history.
I mentioned that the 'buy today, delivery tonite' service was an impressive service, going above and beyond. Au Contrare, he said while that sounded good in the commercial, he really did that to get the furniture delivered before the customer could change his mind and cancel the order. Now you'll never see that strategy in an MBA textbook.
Right after I graduated the first sofa I bought was from his store.
The first time I met him was actually at the when I bought the thing (he was hovering and came over to talk to an obvious younger first time furniture buyer), and he touted the 'delivery tonite' --- then he asked whether I would like it in a marked or unmarked truck. The unmarked truck fee was 40 bucks, the marked truck fee was free.
I scratched my head -- but he said that for specific area codes they offered the service. I was in a duplex *right* on the edge on Montrose and River Oaks and that popped the query. He told me that he sold a *ton* of furniture into the Memorial and River Oaks areas, and noticed that almost all the sales into those types of areas had one or two delivery services that would stop buy the store and do regular deliveries on the respective homeowner's dimes into those areas. There were so many instances of this he bought some unmarked trucks and sold their time and services as a store premium ---- his margins on the service were through the roof.
It turns out that those types of areas loved Mac's furniture, but just didnt want their neighbors to know. Again, a strategy and profit center you will never see in an MBA syllabus.
(This post was last modified: 11-30-2017 05:21 PM by tanqtonic.)
Glenn McCarthy started out by scouting locations for a service station.
He found a good one and finally convinced Sinclair to give him a station.
They would keep the profits from gasoline sales, and he could keep
the money from any other sales.
He started by going around buying tires and selling them at a pretty good
markup. He would drive customers to work and pick them up, wash
their car, etc.
His business expanded, and he eventually had enough to start drilling.
He had such a good reputation, that even when he hit a dry hole, people still invested with him.
(This post was last modified: 11-30-2017 05:37 PM by JSA.)
