“In starting a business and growing a business,
every day is learning how to manage obstacles.”
— Sara Blakely: is an entrepreneur and founder of Spanx
Forbes lists Sara Blakely as the youngest female self made billionaire. They say she didn’t get investment money from her dad or a husband, everything came from her own savings of $5,000. With her company Spanx, now valued at a billion dollars, that makes Sara’s estimated worth over a billion. This doesn’t mean that she has a billion in the bank but she could potentially if she were to ever sell her business.
As a female entrepreneur myself I am extremely proud of what she has accomplished. Also, living in Clearwater, Sara’s hometown, for six years myself, it makes it even more personal since she’s a ‘hometown’ girl.
Sara’s journey in a nutshell is that she was selling fax machines, yes fax machines, to businesses here in Florida and then Georgia. She wore panty hose for work, and as anyone knows in Florida summer humidity, sucks! Plus, she wanted a flawless panty line but didn’t want her toes to be covered up in her sandals. She had the idea for footless hosiery and was turned down by several manufacturers before one in North Carolina finally took a leap of faith on her idea. While still working at her day job, she created her first prototypes and was able to start selling them to certain stores.
One huge, lucky break for Sara came when Oprah listed Spanx as one of her favorite things! That was probably the tipping point at which more department stores said yes to carrying the line and the product took off. Not without hard work though! It’s amazing how many people think that success stories are made overnight and that’s not the case. It’s been 12 short years since Sara launched Spanx, and that, coupled with her being a young, driven female is probably why this story originally published by Forbes gained so much attention. As a follow up, Forbes reports that 680,199 views of Sara’s billionaire status were cited on the Forbes.com website.
Just two and a half years into my business, I work everyday to try and replicate those same successes that Sara has accomplished. I wouldn’t say that I hope to be that successful in another 10 years because hope doesn’t make things happen. I’m going to learn to manage obstacles, as she says, and stay focused and then hopefully that will create a successful business that has longevity.
Congratulations to Sara! You really are an inspiration to young, female entrepreneurs. Hopefully, I’ll run into you one day on Clearwater Beach and we can have a nice chat about our businesses. 🙂