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Boot Me Up: 11 Great Companies Launched for Less

A look at eleven companies and how they were started with very little capital investment.

By Susan Greco | 
 

Eleven great companies that were launched for less

The Company: CrossCountry Courier, Bismarck, N. Dak.; founded 1979. Provides courier and delivery services

Winner of... The Tom Arnold Piggyback Award (for best use of other companies' coattails)

The Founder(s): Dewey Tietz. Formerly a manager at an equipment manufacturer

$$ Started With: $1,500

Numbers Now (1993 projections): $4.8 million in sales, $240,000 in pretax profits, 104 employees

Most Shameless Ploy for Getting off the Ground (or Surviving While Stuck There): Instead of using pay phones to call his office when alerted by beeper that a delivery was needed, Tietz located 10 businesses around the city whose phones he could use. Savings were about $2,000 a year.

Key Early Capital Sources: Personal savings

Number of Months Before First Paycheck: 12; first salary, $8,400/year

Best Free (or Nearly Free) Stuff: First delivery truck. Had 100,000 miles and cost $650. Covered another 175,000 miles without major repairs.

Stretched Cash By... dressing the way I do. "I've got the money now, but I don't spend it on clothes. When I ask more of employees, I'm not squeezing them so I can look better. I'm squeezing them so they can look better."

What Selling Cycle? (or How I Cut Corners and Reached Customers Fast): Would take any job -- even floral deliveries. One Halloween Tietz crammed the van with 45 arrangements and a roly-poly five-gallon pumpkin. The flowers survived -- sort of.

Square Footage of Start-up Headquarters: 225. "It was more of a closet, really."

# of Pounds Gained/Lost During Start-up: Stayed the same; menu included hot dogs four times a week. At first, total personal budget was $14 a day.

Life in the Cheap Lane Means... for lack of warehouse space, using a Kmart parking lot to sort packages.

* * *

The Company: Buckeye Beans & Herbs, Spokane, Wash.; founded 1983. Manufactures specialty foods

Winner of... The Mickey Rooney Hey-Kids-Let's-Put-on-a-Show Award (for savviest impromptu use of local talent)

The Founder(s): Jill and Doug Smith. She's a potter who started Buckeye as a Christmas project; he formerly sold real estate.

$$ Started With: $1,000

Numbers Now (1993 projections): $6.3 million in sales, $800,000 in pretax profits, 32 employees

Key Early Capital Sources: Suppliers

Number of Months Before First Paycheck: 36 (Doug) and 60 (Jill); Jill kept her pottery business on the side.

Best Free (or Nearly Free) Stuff: Makeshift bean-packaging machine. It was an old semiautomated rig from a candy manufacturer; the Smiths gave the owner "a few dollars," rebuilt it, and use it still.

Stretched Cash By... using local suppliers, including summering professionals from big cities and the nearby USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council, which distributed 45,000 Buckeye samples nationwide, free, just to spread the leguminous word.

What Selling Cycle? (or How I Cut Corners and Reached Customers Fast): To get the most from independent sales reps, Doug travels with them and does presentations to set the tone. "We don't send out a broker and say, 'Good luck."

Square Footage of Start-up Headquarters: 120, in a house basement. Later used a 300-square-foot renovated schoolhouse

# of Pounds Gained/Lost During Start-up: Doug lost an unspecified amount; now gaining on a diet of fancy food eaten at shows.

Life in the Cheap Lane Means... their banker won't let them take much salary -- $75,000 for both of them.

The Company: Civco Medical Instruments, Kalona, Iowa; founded 1982. Manufactures medical accessories

Winner of... The Jane Fonda Feel-the-Burn Award (for most weight loss and greatest diet improvement during start-up)

The Founder(s): Victor J. Wedel. Formerly chief technologist, University of Iowa

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