Eyebobs Eyewear, Inc

Abstract

This case could be used in entrepreneurship and managing a small business courses. It describes how an entrepreneur grows her innovative idea into a successful business while managing the associated risks, pace, financing, channels of distribution, quality of manufacturing, and customer concentration. The case shows how a business grown at a slower-than-usual pace was able to survive the risks.

Excerpt

UVA-ENT-0139

Nov. 27, 2009

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Eyebobs Eyewear, Inc

Eyebobs Eyewear, Inc. (Eyebobs), based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was a private company specializing in optician-grade ready-to-wear reading glasses with an attitude, or the “eyewear for the irreverent and slightly jaded,” as the company's tagline proclaimed. The artsy frames in striking colors, innovative shapes, and tongue-in-cheek names such as Board Stiff, Barely Lucid, and Hostile Makeover, had a cult-like following among people with a playful streak. Eyebobs were sold at optical centers, high-end department stores such as Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus, and upscale clothing boutiques from coast to coast.

Eyebobs president and CEO Julie Allinson was a 40-year-old former banker and president of a start-up for children's clothing when she quit her job to launch an eyewear business in 2000. She used her life's savings as seed capital and funded growth entirely out of cash flow. It took her six long years to earn $ 1 million in sales. But in 2007, her company of 10 employees pulled in $ 4.5 million in revenues. In 2008, in the midst of an economic downturn, Allinson proudly handed out year-end bonus checks to her staff and was looking to hire more people. Reflecting on her decision to bootstrap her company and eschew external funding sources, Allinson emphasized the long-term benefits of debt-free growth and the freedom it allowed her:

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Keywords: Growth risks, managing growth, growth necessity, pace of growth