
Burt Shavitz from Burt’s Bees
Burt’s Bees started with Maine artist Roxanne Quimby, who Burt had picked up hitchhiking, making candles with the unused wax from his beehives in the 1980s. Burt Shavitz’s hallmark beard and engineer’s cap created the business’ brand and, as the scenes from the 2014 documentary show, his everyman down-to-earth style remains hugely popular today.
Eddie Stobart’s haulage company
Eddie Stobart started out as an agricultural entrepreneur in the late 1940s. The business was expanded to a haulage in the 1970s with the help of his son Edward Stobart. It’s become one of Britain’s biggest brands, largely because of the trucks which proudly bear its name on the side.
Harland Sanders’ KFC
KFC is another mega restaurant chain built by one man with a simple and popular food offering, and an eye for franchises. Before Harland Sanders started cooking his famous chicken recipe he was a sixth-grade dropout, an army mule-tender, a locomotive fireman, an insurance salesman and a political candidate. He didn’t open the first restaurant until he retired. Speaking in his customary white suit and black neck tie, his words epitomised entrepreneurialism: “If you’re a dreamer do it, back up your dreams. I think a dream is just a suggestion to you, to start something out and do something about it. You can always related it to something in your life and make it better.”
Share this story