Ida Manning

Executive Director
Illinois Institute of
Entrepreneurship Education
In seven voyages
from 1405 to 1433,
Zheng He spread
China's goods across
the world and
returned with
treasures for the
Ming Dynasty
A writer, publisher,
inventor, politician
and diplomat, he
always considered
himself a
businessman.

Rothschild's banking
empire would stretch
across Europe,
essentially becoming
the world's first
international bank

Came to New York in
poverty at age 20 and
built a near-monopoly in
the global fur trade.

Astor poured his fur
profits into New York
real estate; the income
from the rents and the
value of the land
combined to make Astor
the wealthiest American
of his time
Rockefeller started his
first business selling
grain and other goods
before he was 20 .

By buying out oil
refineries around
Cleveland and New York
after the Civil War,
Rockefeller soon
dominated the market
The Scottish
immigrant and
weaver's son built a
steel empire whose
mills churned out the
railroads, ships, and
structures of post-
Civil War America
and created a fortune
for himself in the
process.
In 1946, she founded the
company that bears her
name to sell makeup
and perfume in high-end
department stores
around the world
Lauder became a giant
in the nascent beauty
industry by making sure
the quality of her
products exceeded the
expectations of her
target market, namely
wealthy society women
Carver changed the
South from being a
one-crop land of
cotton, to being
multi-crop farmlands,
with farmers having
hundreds of
profitable uses for
their new crops
Ford did not invent
the automobile, but
he made it affordable
to the middle class
that he helped create
His manufacturing
process created the
modern car industry,
and with it, the car
culture of the 20th
century
In 1905, Hershey
built the world's
largest chocolate
factory in
Pennsylvania
Millions enjoy what
once had been
reserved for the
wealthy. Selling "low-
cost luxury" became
a viable business
model

Harland Colonel Sanders
b. 1890, d. 1980
Kentucky Fried
Chicken, pioneered
by Colonel Harland
Sanders, became
one of the largest
quick service food
service systems in
the world
A billion "finger lickin'
good" KFC dinners
served annually in
more than 80
countries and
territories.
Walker's line of hair-
and-beauty products
geared toward blacks
tapped into a market
ignored by other
businesses because
of racism
She set an example
for generations of
entrepreneurs in a
time when women
were still struggling
for voting rights
Edison's relentless
innovation made him the
most prolific inventor of
his time

Started as a telegraph
operator but soon moved
on to refining that
technology and creating
others that would turn
the world on its head: a
device to turn power into
light, a machine to
record and play back
sound
Ray Kroc turned a
California burger shack
into a brand whose
golden arches span the
globe

By investing in
franchisees, Kroc drove
the inexorable growth of
McDonald's and created
one of the most visible
brands in history
The first multimedia
empire was built on
animation

He also founded
Disneyland .

His company owns:
Buena Vista Pictures
Entertainment, ABC TV,
ABC Family Channel,
and ESPN
Founded Black
Enterprise magazine in
1970, a publication that
recognized the
expanding financial
power of the black
community and helped
spur its growth

Boasts a paid circulation
of half a million and has
been profitable since its
10th issue

He helped found Intel
and navigated the
company's shift from
making memory chips to
microprocessors

During his tenure as
CEO from 1987 to 1998,
Intel grew at a rate of
30% annually
Kellogg's accidental
discovery, promoted with
savvy marketing,
transformed the way
Americans eat breakfast

Kellogg grasped the idea
that kids influence
buying decisions
galvanizing the brand's
success
Started a catering
business out of her
Westport (Conn.)
home in 1976

Went on to expand
into retail, publishing,
television, and
merchandising
Premji built a leading
IT company as the
industry was growing
and he expanded
into the global
market by adhering
to rigorous
standards.

By linking his Microsoft
software to IBM's first
PCs, he dominated the
industry

He developed a two-
prong strategy of
expanding the market
while maintaining a
strong hold on
competitors

Founded
Amazon.com, in
1994

Bezos pioneered
techniques that have
become staples of
online sales.
Created a new model
for PC sales

Cutting out the retail
middleman and
custom-building
computers to suit
buyers' needs put
Dell at the front of
the class of PC
makers
Oprah Winfrey turned
her name into one of the
most successful and
respected brands in the
world

Leveraged that fame into
other interests:
magazines, Web sites,
film and television
production and Social
Entrepreneurship.
2006 Nobel Peace
Prize winner,
founded a banking
system 30 years ago
to lend small
amounts of money to
the rural poor in
Bangladeshi villages
Richard Branson turned,
Virgin, the mail-order
record shop he opened
in 1970 into a label he
sold 22 years later for
nearly $1 billion

Brand includes mobile-
phone service, bridal
gowns, credit cards, and
life insurance. Virgin
Group encompasses
200 companies in 30
countries and boasted
$7.2 billion in sales in
2002
The Apple co-
founder combined
simplicity with
innovation to emerge
from the Internet
boom as one of the
lone tech companies
that can butt heads
with Microsoft

Founders of
MySpace.com
Registering 160,000
people per day with
no marketing
As of September
2007, there are over
200 million accounts.
Like many successful
entrepreneurs,
Lauren was selling
lifestyle more than
product

Lauren imagined a
market for men's
fashion as large as
that for women

The man who built
the world's largest
retailer on low prices:
Wal-Mart

Bought direct from
manufacturers and
made his stores as
efficient as possible,
sending the savings
back to consumers

Chad Hurley, 29; Steve Chen,
28 & Jawed Karim, 27
Founders of
YouTube

Broadcasts 100
million short videos
daily on myriad
subjects

Sold to Google
Founder of EBay,
which made the
promise of the
Internet a reality by
connecting far-flung
customers with the
goods they wanted to
buy

Founder of Los
Angeles PR Firm,
Barnett Ellman

Four-employee firm's
revenues in 2006
were around $15,000
a month and
estimates doing
about $30,000 a
month in 2007
Founded marketing
firm Tatto while
students at Babson
College in 2005 with
a $100 investment

Revenues are $25
million for 2007 and
expected to grow to
$50 million by 2008
Deborah Umunnabuike, 23;
Jessica Umunnabuike, 21 &
Vincent Choi, 23
Sisters are co-founders
of Avant Gaudy, an
online vintage clothing
shop

Almost 26,000 visitors
from more than 30
countries to their website

Recruited Hong Kong native
Vincent Choi to bring a global
perspective to the business
and better reach shoppers in
Asia

Started his latest
company, ClixConnect,
to help online retailers
improve customer
service on their Web
sites
Started his first business
when he was 16
The six-employee
business, has landed
about 70 clients so far


Max Crane, 19; Tyler Dikman, 23; David
McIntosh, 20 & Darian Shirazi, 20

Co-founders of nine-
person software
application and
social networking
company Redux
Began business in
December 2006 and
raised $1.65 million
in venture capital in
March, 2007
Francesco DeParis, 24
& Kyle Redinger, 24

Founders of DeParis
Redinger, a boutique
investment bank that
specializes in mergers-
and-acquisitions
advisory for small tech
firms

The firm, which opened
for business in
December, 2006, does
$10 million to $20 million
deals
This duo started their
own business, Aarrow
Advertising, with $100

Employs 40 full-timers
and 460 part-timers who
range between 16 and
25 years old

Had $2.3 million in sales
in 2006 and projects
$4.2 million this year

Gabriel Erbst, 24; Will
Geronimo, 25 & Dwight Lee,
24
Co-founders of
TableXChange, an
online marketplace to
buy and sell
restaurant
reservations

Expects the business
to be profitable by
the end of 2007
Founders of Unique
Squared, an audio
equipment online
retail shop
Began in March,
2007, with an initial
investment of about
$6,000 and is
already profitable
Owner of Gupta
Financial Consulting

Has clients with
revenues between
$200,000 and $3.3
million

Estimates his
business will have
revenues between
$150,000 and
$300,000 this year

Founder of
Bluepulse.com, where
users can download a
free application that
works on most Internet-
enabled phones

Downloaded by about 3
million people

Landed about $6 million
in venture capital



Launched Hope Wine, a
winery that gives 50% of
the profits from sales of
its wines to charity
Hope Wine is available
in about 100 locations
Hope has donated
$20,000 to charity since
launching, and he
estimates revenues of
$3 million to $5 million in
2008.
After a chemical hair
relaxer caused almost all
of her hair to fall out, she
decided to make her
own
After borrowing $2,000
from her parents, the
high school junior
launched her company,
Eden Body Works
This year she expects to
earn $100,000 in sales

Started bespoke clothing
company Hillhouse
Tailors, which sells
men's dress shirts made
in Shanghai to the U.S.
market that start at $65

Through the company's
online store and
revenue-sharing
agreements with
independent clothing
retailers, Liu estimates
the company will have
revenues of $1.2 million
by 2009
Founder of A Better
Nights Sleep, a
center to test and
treat sleep disorders
such as apnea,
insomnia, and
narcolepsy
Expects revenues of
around $500,000 in
2008
Founders of
Astutant.com which
offers accounting
services to small- and
midsize businesses

Estimates that their
companies will earn $4
million in revenue this
year. By 2014 their goal
is to pull in $100 million
Owner of a fashion
production services
business, Polina
Fashion
Has already
produced about 50
events, with price
tags of $2,000 to
$15,000 per event
Started ASR
Clothing, a line of
streetwear hoodies,
jeans, and T-shirts

Her five-employee
business has been
featured in
newspapers and
magazines
Founder of University
Parent Media which
produces
visitor/information
guides for parents of
college students

Expects around
$800,000 in
revenues in 2007
Created three-employee
Flying Cart to give small-
business owners a way
to sell their products
online

Estimates the business,
which now has more
than 1,000 shops, will be
profitable by the spring
of 2008.

Founder of Brass
Media, a magazine
with a mission to
make money
relevant to young
people

Magazine now has
about 450,000
readers
Started Yodle, an advertising
services company that serves
local businesses that lack the
time or expertise to advertise
online

Expects to have
approximately 1,000
customers by end of the year

Received venture funding in
November, 2006, and plans to
open six to eight additional
offices around the country
within the next 12 months
Owner of AKT
Enterprises, which
consists of 15
businesses that revolve
around the music
industry and include
merchandising, Web
development, and online
ticketing services

The business had $1.3
million revenues in 2006
and estimates it will earn
just over $3 million in
2007
Started Loopt, a
customized mapping
software for GPS-
enabled phones that
allows users to locate
friends on a map via cell
phone or Web site

The 35-employee
company has received
$5 million in venture
funding

Owner of
Studio10Fourteen, a
Web design firm &
Prolete Medical
Billing
Expects Prolete to
have revenues of
around $4 million in
2008
President of Rico Enterprises, a company
specializing in sales, service, consulting,
project design, management and
installation
In business for 22 years

President/Owner of
Reality Fitness, an
award-winning
personal training
studio
In business since
1993
Published author,
columnist and fitness
professional

SBA reports that small business

Represented over 99% of all employers

Provided 75% of ALL new jobs

Produced 55% of innovations


(As of 2000)
With Entrepreneurship Majors

1970 - 16

2000 over 1400
Kauffman Foundation Gallop Poll

90% of H.S. students rate their E
Knowledge as very poor or fair.
7 out of 10 students want to start a
business
84% believe it is important for schools to
teach Entrepreneurship!
You can either work for an
entrepreneur or be an
entrepreneur.
Which will it be?

**All information provided by BusinessWeek.com