Starting from scratch was the beginning for many successful entrepreneurs we know today. These entrepreneurs started small, but they grew their companies to internationally recognized brands.
In this blog, we will talk about 3 examples of these entrepreneurs who started with little and created lucrative and recognized businesses.
1.Sam Walton. Walmart
Sam Walton was an American entrepreneur and businessman who founded the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club.
In 1945 Walton began operating with his brother a regional chain of Ben Franklin variety stores in Newport, Arkansas, the store was a franchise of the Butler Brothers chain.
Walton was interested in expanding the franchise to rural areas, but the management company refused. So Walton decided to adopt a new concept for a chain of discount stores and base it in small towns.
In 1962 he opened the first Walmart store, at that time under the name Wal-Mart Discount City. The store offered a wide variety of American-made products at discount prices. Walmart became the world's largest corporation by revenue, as well as the world's largest private employer.
In 1983 he founded Sam's Wholesales Club under the category of deeply discounted wholesale stores and five years later began opening Supercenters.
2. Jan Koum. Whatsapp
Jan Koum Is a Ukrainian immigrant who moved to the United States with his mother and faced circumstances of extreme poverty but still managed to build a billion-dollar company in just five years. Jan Koum invented the most widely used messaging app in the world, but before he got there, he lived a really difficult life.
For the first few years, he and his mother relied on federal assistance, such as welfare, and government housing. Despite these circumstances, Jan learned to code on his own and acquired the practical skills that enabled him to apply for a job in Yahoo, and worked there from 1997 to 2007. During those years he met the person who would become his future business partner, Brian Acton.
In January 2009, Jan Koum and Brian Acton created WhatsApp as an easy-to-use messaging application that improved communication between friends and family around the world.
Five years later, they sold the app to Facebook for $19 billion.
3. Do Won Chang & Jin Sook. Forever 21
Some people may not recognize the names Won Chang and Jin Sook, but their fashion brand, Forever 21, is certainly well-known around the world. Forever 21 is a global retailer known for selling a variety of women's and men's fashion and accessories.
Won Chang and his wife Jin Sook moved to the United States from South Korea in 1981 and faced a rocky start. He worked 3 jobs, as a janitor, gas station attendant, and also worked in a cafeteria, while his wife worked as a hairdresser.
But years later they discovered that fashion could lead to success and in 1984 he and his wife opened the first Forever 21 store (called Fashion 21 at first) with just $11,000 in savings, and during the first-year sales reached $700,000. The retailer had its heyday in the early 2000s and in 2015, according to Forbes, Chang and Sook were worth a record $5.9 billion combined.
However, a few years ago Forever 21 faced its worst moment, in 2019 they announced its bankruptcy and began to close stores in different locations around the world. Eventually, the founders decided to sell the remaining assets of their bankrupt empire for $81 million, when years before Forever 21 it reached $4.4 billion in revenue.
To conclude, these examples of entrepreneurs show that no matter where you come from, or how much money you have at the moment, as long as you are willing to take the first step and pursue your dreams, the possibilities for success are endless.
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