I decided to look up each one of the entrepreneurs and see who was the most interesting to me. I decided that Lillian Vernon was an interesting lady. I was so impressed that this lady became an entrepreneur when women didn’t even work. I was impressed with her, because she had a vision and she ran with it. Lillian’s story was very inspiring to me. The fact that she was young, pregnant, an immigrant, and a newlywed was what caught my eye the most. She wanted to help her husband pay the bills. This is exactly the same reason I want to become an entrepreneur.

Lillian Vernon was born Lilly Menasche in Leipzig, Germany, moved with her family to Amsterdam because of the dangerous climate for Jews, and finally fled to the United States in 1937 as the Nazi threat escalated. Her family was desperately trying to escape the perils of World War II. She came to this country as a young girl at the age of 10; she knew perhaps more than others how special freedom and opportunity were. She grew up in America believing in her ideals, a land of opportunity. At age 14 Lillian’s first jobs were working in a candy store and as a movie theater usherette.

In her autobiography, An Eye for Winners (1996), Vernon describes her personal struggles to become a leading businesswoman and role model in a predominantly male industry and the role she has played in every aspect of her company’s growth and management. A working mother herself, Vernon details her own management style and techniques to support those seeking both career and family. Throughout she shares marketing tips that have helped make the Lillian Vernon Corporation such a phenomenal success. It never occurred to her in 1951, that starting a mail order business was something that a woman did not do. As an entrepreneur, she held fast to these principles. She now does business in more than 33 countries and knows that her story could only have happened in America. A new state of the art distribution center was completed in Virginia Beach, VA in 1989. More than nine million customers receive Lillian Vernon catalogs offering some eight hundred items. An aver!

Lillian Vernon is 74 years old. Even at her age, she isn’t slowing down. Lillian Vernon is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lillian Vernon Corporation, a specialty catalog company that markets gift, household, gardening, decorative, and children's products. Lillian Vernon will step down from the chief executive post at Lillian Vernon Corp., 51 years after she founded the Rye-based company. Vernon will relinquish the title when a replacement is found but remain as chairwoman. Vernon will focus her efforts on expanding the personalized products business and spearhead a new licensing venture. Lilly's Kids and cosmetics may also be attractive since Lillian Vernon is a well-known woman. Fifty-one years ago, she never dreamed my mail order business would grow into a company with sales over $287 million. In 2001, total retail sales over the web totaled 32.6-BILLION DOLLARS. That is up more than 19 percent from the previous year. In order to grow in a com!

petitive retail marketplace, traditional print catalogers are making a major shift to the Web. LILLIAN VERNON—a leading catalog retailer—is transitioning to an e-commerce model. The company’s online sales rose 33 percent last fall. LILLIAN VERNON says “the Internet is a natural channel for direct marketers.” Lillian had a dream, supported by her optimistic s

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