THE GLITTER PLAN

The Glitter Plan by Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor - Although it always catches my eye, I've never bought Juicy Couture since it seems to small, too young, and a bit too glitzy. I knew it was started by two California girls whose look caught on and who made it big. Which is true. But there is so much more to their story. The Glitter Plan is actually a guide for would be entrepreneurs about how to do it the old fashioned way. I love Gela and Pam! They took a love of fashion and vintage, $200 and a niche market, and cleverly  stumbled their way into success. They never stopped having fun and laughing along the way. In the book they take credit for a number of ideas for which I can name someone who did it before them, but they are good at self promotion, so if they can get away with it, more power to them. They made it big the way I would hope to make it big.....one step at a time.
A couple of years ago, I thought it would be interesting to see if there was a market for Steve's Yogurt. It's the old fashioned greek recipe that his dad used to make and my papou used to make, and that Gia still makes. Steve's been making it for years and it's delicious. I thought we could take a few batches to some stores and see if it sold and generated re-orders.  Simple, right? I mentioned it to a friend, and he said no, you have to get a distributor, get licenses, get manufacturing and go big. So all of a sudden, instead of investing a few gallons of milk and man hours, we were going to have to invest a fortune in time and money. This friend would be the perfect guy to sell this yogurt, and without him, I realized that I didn't know enough about it and love it enough to do it my way. So I dropped the idea (which Steve was never into anyway).  As soon as I take Peter to college and square away a few things, I want to get back to jewelry and sewing. Love what you do.
I'm inspired by Pam and Gela and their Juicy story. It's still possible to start small and grow your company into a real brand. If you've ever had an entrepreneurial dream, this modern day Cinderella story is a great read.  

Today Peter and I are off to Cal Poly. We've spent the past couple of days packing, and tomorrow we'll be moving him into his new home away from home. He chose a beautiful place to go to college, and I wish him success in his academics and athletics, as well as in his new friendships. His grandmothers have been teary, I'm just excited, Steve is Steve, and I hope his grandfathers and all those greeks who came before him are looking down from heaven and loving that their grandson, Peter George, with his Panagos, Cotsirilos, Pappas and Chelepis blood is going to college. Go Mustangs!