Some entrepreneurs think that they need to wait until they get that one angel investor to come along for them to be able to start up their business. Others believe that until they get an office of their own, or perhaps even some part-time assistance, that they will never be able to get their business off the ground. But, if there is one important lesson to take away from Sanders’ experience, it is to get real and get started already.
Sanders had money problems like everyone else when he was first building Kentucky Fried Chicken. In fact, he says, “One of our biggest problems getting started was money.” Left almost broke after his first restaurant was sold at an auction, Sanders had nothing but his cheque for $105 per month from social security. “That paid for my gas and the travel needed to get the franchises started,” he said. “Lots of nights I would sleep in the back of my car so I would have enough money to buy cookers the next day if someone took a franchise.”
Sanders was not born into a rich family. Instead, he spent much of his youth living and working out on his own, trying to support himself and stay off the streets. But, he did not let that stand in the way of his future success. In fact, the experience as a young boy taught him how to make do with what he had available to him. And, it was precisely that attitude that was able to lift KFC off the ground.
“It boggles the mind just to think of all the procedures and precautions the company takes to protect my recipe,” Sanders said. “Especially when I think how [my wife] and I used to operate. She was my packing girl, my warehouse supervisor, my delivery person – you name it. Our garage was the warehouse.”
Sanders did not have much money, nor did he have an office or any other staff. Instead, he worked out of his car and his house, with only his wife by his side, in order to get his business started. Sanders would mix the spices by hand on a specially cleaned concrete floor on his back porch. Once he hit the road to find franchisees for his chicken, his wife would stay behind to take the orders. “She’d fill the day’s orders in little paper sacks with cellophane linings and package them for shipment,” said Sanders. “Then she had to put them on a midnight train.”
Sanders and his wife did not have much, but they had what they needed to get started: each other and resolve. His success proves that it does not take a large initial investment to launch a business, nor a twenty person-strong team. By making do with what they had – a car, a garage, two sets of hands, and a meager social security cheque – the couple slowly began to build up their dreams.
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