Small Businesses Ideas 012

Sneezing Pupils make Victoria a Millionaire!

Name: Victoria Knight McDowell.
Nationality: American.
Age: 39 yrs.

'Foolish' Idea: An effective herbal treatment to stop colds - 'Airborne'.

Start-up Capital: $75,000 savings.

How Idea was Launched: Victoria Knight McDowell started her own laboratory for producing her product, Airborne. They have 10 employees including a herbalist, nutritionist and physician.

Sales: Airborne retails in shops.

Earnings: Sales of $2 million a year.

Teacher, Victoria Knight McDowell, was disappointed that none of the cold preventions she purchased, worked. She often picked up colds from her pupils and ended up coughing and sneezing herself. So, in desperation, she started developing her own home-made cure, mixing herbs, vitamins and other natural ingredients. It took her 5 years to perfect a product - which she's named Airborne - which wipes out a cold if taken as soon as symptoms appear.

Victoria, invested $75,000 savings in her project and when her husband sold a TV script, they took the profits and invested it into more research and development. Victoria has her own laboratory producing her product.

Victoria's tips for Success are:

• Be a positive thinker. Keep the faith. Don't listen to naysayers.
• Do your homework. Research, using libraries and the Internet.
• Trust your instincts. You don't need a Harvard MBA to think of a great business idea or to succeed. The most valuable quality is common sense.
• Talk to competitors. Investigate how they do things. Learn how they started their small businesses.
• Enjoy the journey to success. Celebrate your victories.

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