Steve Ells was working as a chef in San Francisco when he decided he wanted to open his own restaurant. Ells found his inspiration in an unusual place—the little taco shops he used frequent in the city. He decided to take that idea and make a burrito restaurant that was different from a typical fast-food experience.
Ells wanted a place where customers could eat food made of the finest ingredients quickly and affordably. After borrowing money from his parents, he opened his first Chipotle in Denver in 1993. It was so successful that Ells abandoned his “real dream” of opening a full-scale restaurant. Now, more than 1,000 restaurants later, Chipotle is raking in the bucks. The company reported $509.4 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2011 alone.
Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan, Method
The idea for an environmentally friendly household cleaner came to Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan when they were roommates in their San Francisco apartment. They noticed that when it came time to clean up from their house parties, the products they used would make them cough. The situation made them wonder whether the products they were using were dirtier than the mess they were trying to clean.
At the time, there weren’t many choices when it came to cleaning products that didn’t contain harsh chemicals. So, Lowry and Ryan did some research and launched Method, an eco-friendly line of home-care products in 2000. Ten years later, the products are on store shelves across the country and the company has gross revenues north of $100 million.
Roxanne Quimby and Burt Shavitz, Burt’s Bees
Burt Shavitz was selling honey off the back of his pickup truck and Roxanne Quimby was an out-of-work waitress trying to make a living at flea markets and yard sales when the two met in 1984. They teamed up to make candles from beeswax to sell at craft fairs and soon expanded to stores.
Things really took off when Quimby found a 19th century book of homemade personal-care recipes. They soon started cooking up natural soaps and perfumes on gas stoves. But their best-selling idea came in the form of lip balm, which they added to the product line in 1991. Burt’s Bees now sells more than 100 skin and hair-care items, but it has quit making the candles that got the business started. The company’s sales topped $250 million in 2007, and Clorox ponied up $925 million to by the company at the end of that year.
Jim McCann, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM
Jim McCann was a bartender and a social worker who was looking for a way to supplement his income when he bought a flower shop for $10,000 in 1976. He eventually opened 13 more stores in the New York Metropolitan area, but it wasn’t until he hit upon the idea to acquire the 1-800-FLOWERS phone number in 1986 that business really bloomed.
The company was the first to put an 800-telephone number in its name, and McCann’s marketing idea paid off. He also made sure technology didn’t leave him behind, seizing the Internet opportunity as early as 1991. In 1999, 1-800-FLOWERS went public and added the dot-com to its name. The company, which has also expanded by acquiring companies such as The Popcorn Factory and Fannie May, reported almost $668 million in total revenue in fiscal year 2010.
Gary and Diane Heavin, Curves
Gary and Diane Heavin opened their first Curves in 1992 with the idea of targeting women who were not being by served conventional gyms. Their idea was to create a place that would give women a supportive and comfortable atmosphere. The couple also focused on busy women’s time constraints with their 30-minute fitness concept.
The fitness club caught on quickly and the business soon expanded. Curves franchised a few years later and now there are nearly 10,000 locations around the globe. System-wide revenue reached about $1 billion in 2010.
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