Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, is an American entrepreneur and businessman. Spanx is a brand of personal wear that specializes in leggings and shaping briefs. Blakely became the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire in 2011.
The Times magazine also named her to their annual list of the world’s 100 most influential individuals. Despite having no prior expertise in fashion, retail, or business, Blakely invented and commercialized Spanx. She is also a philanthropist, having established the Sara Blakely Foundation to assist young women via education and entrepreneurship.
From selling fax machines door-to-door to becoming the youngest woman to become a billionaire is a very inspiring story.Sara Blakely’s success story is below.
Early life and struggles:
Early life and struggles: Her mother was an artist, while her father was a trial lawyer. Blakely went to Clearwater High School and then went to Florida State University to get a degree in communication.Initially, she intended to become a solicitor.
Blakely, on the other hand, scored very poorly on the law admissions test and decided to follow a different career. She worked at Walt Disney World in Florida for three months. Blakely also performed stand-up comedy around this time.
After leaving Disney, she went to work for Danka, where she marketed fax machines door-to-door. Blakely would get up early and drive around from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. cold-calling. She mentioned in an interview,
“The majority of the doors smashed in my face.” “My business card was ripped up at least once a week, and I was even escorted out of a couple buildings by police.”
This, however, did not cause her to give up. She quickly rose to the top of the sales charts and was promoted. Blakely spent her free time trying to figure out what she wanted to accomplish with her life and her strengths.
Spanx and her career:
Blakely was obliged to wear pantyhose in the hot temperatures while working at Danka. She didn’t like the look of the seamed foot, so she ripped the feet off of a pair of pantyhose one day. This allowed her to benefit from the slimming effects of the pantyhose’s top while simultaneously wearing her feet bare. This is how Spanx came to be.
Sara worked on developing her idea for the following two years, spending US $5,000 of her funds. Blakely drove to Northern California to pitch her proposal. Regrettably, every representative turned her down because they did not see the value in Blakely’s notion. After two weeks, she received a call from a mill operator who agreed to support her idea.
Spanx sold 4 million goods in its first year. It made ten million dollars in sales in its second year. Blakely initially handled all parts of her company, including logistics, marketing, and so on. Her partner quit his job afterwards and moved in with her. Oprah Winfrey named Spanx one of her “favorite things” in 2000, which increased sales.
Blakely eventually left Danka to concentrate on her business full-time. She was dubbed the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire on the cover of Forbes magazine in 2012. Her net worth is currently estimated to be around 1.3 billion US dollars.
We can learn the following lessons:
Sara Blakely’s success story is an inspiration to entrepreneurs worldwide. She went from selling things door-to-door to becoming the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. She had faith in her wonderful idea and never gave up hope.
As a result, we must always believe in ourselves and be enthusiastic about our goals. The secret to success is hard work. It teaches us perseverance and determination. Blakely worked so hard to get to where she is now.
Courtesy: Failure before Success