How I Start Companies
My fastest-growing and most profitable business ever was the store the back of Ellen Nottingham's classroom at T.T. Minor Elementary School. I bought a box of pencils at a store near our bus stop, and Cy Keener and I sold them the next day at school for 15 cents each.
The next week, we diversified into erasers, pens, and paper. A month later, after expanding into higher margin, about 3 weeks of reinvestment, and annoying pink things that Cy claimed that girls would buy (he was right). We were netting about $20 per week, which was back when $20 meant something.
The partnership worked pretty well: Cy had a good idea of what peple would buy, and I was stingy with the money.
Initial investment: five dollars.
Read more: Lesson 1. Don't get a MBA
