Nowadays, many people do not want to be bossed around but become their own boss. In their minds exists one common dream. This is the entrepreneurial dream of self-employment. It is the freedom to start, grow, and cash in a new business. Entrepreneurs are people who own, operate, and take the risk of a business venture. One famous entrepreneur is William Wrigley Jr.
William Wrigley Jr. was born in Philadelphia in 1862. His father, William Sr., was a soap manufacturer. As a little boy, William had to carry a basket through the streets of Philadelphia selling Wrigley's Scouring Soap for his fathers company. When William became a teenager, he decided he wanted to work with his father and so he took a full-time job as a soap salesman. William had a talent for salesmanship, and so he drove a horse and wagon from town to town trying to convince stores to stock on Wrigley Soap.
When William was 29 years old, he decided he wanted to start his own company. He left Philadelphia with just $32 in his pocket and a dream of running his own business. William was a person who could see things from his customer's point of view and therefore this helped him throughout the way. At the start of his new business in Chicago, William sold his father's soap. He often would give free gifts along with the soap, such as cans of baking powder. However, the baking powder became more popular then the soap and therefore he switched to a baking powder business.
In 1892, William was thinking of possible gifts to give along with the baking powder. He decided to offer two packages of chewing gum with each can he sold. Again, the gift was more popular then the product and so William decided to switch his business to chewing gum. One year later, he brought out a new gum he called Juicy Fruit and so he began the world's most popular and successful chewing gum business known as the William Wrigley Jr. Company. .
The William Wrigley Jr.
