Kim & Scott Holstein: Success with Gourmet Pretzels

The most successful businesses are those that are able to spot opportunities -- even in the seemingly ordinary things in our every day life.

Kim and Scott Holstein were in a supermarket in Wilmette, Chicago looking for unique flavored pretzels. However, all that was offered in the frozen food ailes section was plain salted pretzel.

Then a lightbulb lit up: why not offer uniquely flavored soft pretzels as the gourmet alternative to the plain salted pretzel? They would experiment with various flavors, adding fruits, cheeses, spices, cheddar jalapeno, herbs, sun dried tomatoes, and others to see which flavors work best.

Believing that a huge market exists for their distinctive pretzels, the Holsteins decided to launch their business in May 1995 out of their cramped studio apartment. With $25,000 borrowed from family members and credit cards, the couple launched Kim & Scott's Gourmet Pretzels (http://www.kimandscotts.com/).

The challenge, however, was that they both did not know anything about the pretzel business. Though Scott's family owned a Ben and Jerry's franchise, the Holstein's had no culinary experience and education. They had never sold baked goods before either! To help them develop their pretzels, they hired a chef to bring forth their ideas for a unique line of pretzel.

Now their pretzels are sold in restaurants, coffee shops, and grocery stores nationwide, including Barnes and Noble coffee shop, Sams Clubs, Whole Foods, Albertsons, among others. However, their biggest sales outlet is the home shopping network QVC where they have appeared more than 22 times selling about 625,000 pretzels!

Check out (Kim & Scott's Gourmet Pretzels ).

Sara Blakely: Success from an Ingenious Invention

Sara Blakely, creator of the footless hosiery company Spanx, is proof positive that successful business ideas can be found everywhere, even in personal vanities.

Sara stumbled upon the idea for her insanely successful footless panty hose when she was frustrated with visible panty lines that shows under light colored pants and stockings that precluded her from wearing open-toed sandal. She wanted body shaping pantyhose that she could wear with pants and sandals. As she says in her website:

I never dreamed visible panty lines and uncomfortable thongs would inspire me to become an inventor.

Frustrated that no such product exist in the market, she cut her control-top pantyhose to remove the feet. The result was a primitive version of Spanx, but she saw that her idea provided a slimming effect on her hips and thighs, and allowed her to wear open-toe shoes.

Sara realized she had stumbled across a product that women like her are waiting for. She was then selling fax machines and office copier for office-supply company Danka Business Systems in Atlanta, Georgia. Even though she had no experience in the hosiery industry, she decided to go into business plowing $5,000 of her own money into getting a prototype made.

Today, the company she built, Spanx , has grown into a $150 million hosiery business offering about 100 different styles. Read about Sara's story in her Spanx website.

Suzi Drnec: How Extensive Product Knowledge can Propel Business Success

Suzi Drnec is the owner/manager of the world's largest supplier of Ready-To-Win western show apparel company Hobby Horse clothing. Her company sells blazers and jackets, tunic tops, hats, even body wear smoothers and slinkers for women horse riders.

A lifelong fan of horses, she dreamed of starting a horse-related business when she was just 8 years old. With her focus and determination, she realized her dream by establishing her company when she was in junior high school. She mailed her first catalog in 1991.

Hobby Horse now posts $2-3 million in sales a year. Suzi attributes the success of the business to her extensive customer knowlege as well as lack of competition (lucky gal!). In an interview with Catalog Success magazine, she was quoted as saying:

I really know the market because I'm my own customer."

Read more of Suzi and learn from her success

Maria de Lourdes Sobrino: Success with Gelatin Desserts

Maria de Lourdes Sobrino stumbled upon the idea of selling ready-made gelatin products in cups after failing to find the products in the United States. A favorite dessert in her native Mexico, Maria felt that there's a huge market, though untapped, in the United States for delicious gelatin, flan and rice pudding desserts.

In 1982, she opened LuLu's Dessert to sell gelatin desserts in a cup she made from her mom's recipe in Torrance, California.

Given that the American market is not yet familiar with the product, she initially focused on first generation Mexican immigrants who know the concept of "gelatina." Even supermarkets only agreed to sell her products if it is on a consignment basis. Her biggest break came in 1999 when Wal-Mart agreed to sell some of her product lines.

Today, the company she started, Lulu's Dessert, has grown to become a $10 million business. Her delicious products are now sold in grocery stores (in the refrigerated section) as well as in her online store http://www.lulusdessert.com/. She even exports her dessert to her native Mexico! Maria has also published her book "Thriving Latina Entrepreneurs in America."

That's sweet success in a cup!

Karen Belasco Staitman: Success with Custom Fortune Cookies

Some of the best ideas are created unexpectedly.

Karen Belasco Straitman, a party planner, created giant fortune cookies for party invitations. While walking in a department store in 1995, she saw apples that have been decorated and thought about her giant fortune cookies. She had the idea of dipping the giant fortune cookies in chocolate, decorating them for every occasion and putting personalized fortune messages inside.

The giant fortune cookies were a hit.

While she had no idea initially of starting a business around her sweet treats, the demand for the cookies were astounding. Hence, Good Fortunes http://www.goodfortunes.com/ was created.

She borrowed from her family and friends to steer her business to success. She grew the business through phone sales, word of mouth and PR, getting featured in media such as Food Network and magazines such as Elle and InStyle.

Karen transformed the ordinary fortune cookies into something special, and found success by offering a unique product that she never expected.

Catherine Keane: Tapping a Lucrative Ipod Niche

Ipods are the hottest music accessories today, with the signature white earphones showing up everywhere from subways to streets to offices. In March 2008, about 170 million Ipods have been sold worldwide.

Given the popularity of this product, it is no wonder that service industries revolving around Ipod would crop up. HungryPod.com, a business that converts CDs into MP3s that can be uploaded to Ipods is one such example.

Catherine Keane, then 23, started HungryPod.com in September 2004 after hearing an acquaintance pay $500 to convert her CDs and load them up to her Ipod. She initially provided her services in the New York area, later branching out to the Web through her website HungryPod.com.

Her niche business grew primarily through word of mouth, Craigslist ads, and a 2004 New York Times article. In addition to CD conversions, she also offered music consulting services by selecting songs for her clients and buying them in iTunes. Her business soon earned revenues of more than $100,000 a year, employing three people.

In May 2008, Catherine sold her HungryPod business for an undisclosed amount to competitor Moondog Digital. But Catherine has shown that money can be made with the right niche business.

Christy Webber: Success in the Landscaping Business

Christy Webber is one of the most succcessful landscape and lawncare business owners today. She is the founder of Christy Webber Landscapes , a full-service landscape provider, offering landscape design, construction, and landscape maintenance programs to residential, commercial and municipal properties throughout Chicago.

Her company, which she built from the ground up in 1990, is ranked by Lawn and Landscape Magazine as one of the top companies in this industry in terms of revenues. She started mowing lawns when she was a student for extra money, but sold the first business to start a teaching career. However, she realized that teaching was not for her and restarted her lawn care business. She started Christy Webber Landscapes in 1988 with only two people working out of her home.

Today, her company's 2007 revenue is estimated to be at $18.2 million!

A very hands-on business owner, Christy's tip to other business owners:

"It's important to surround yourself with the right people who know what they're doing. For example, I don't know where I'd be right now without my CFO. He's taught me how to be smart when it comes from borrowing money and provided me with valuable insight when it came to the company's finances. I could never have achieved this success if not for these people around me. That's the key to running a business this size."