"The greatest failure is not to try. Had I listened to all the people during the course of my life who said, “You can’t. You’ll fail. It won’t work. You don’t have…,” I wouldn’t be here today.” - Debbi Fields
Debbi Fields (born September 18, 1956) is the founder and current spokesperson of Mrs. Fields Bakeries. Additionally, she has written several cookbooks. She currently lives in Memphis, Tennessee, with her husband, and is very involved in philanthropic work throughout the area.
When Fields first decided to create her own business baking cookies, she was ecstatic. She thought her family would be too. But even her loved ones, the people she had expected to count on for support, turned their backs. Her husband told her: ‘Oh, sweetie, that is such a stupid idea,’” and her parents said that she didn't have any business going into the cookie business.
With no family support, Fields began visiting banker after banker to try and get the startup capital she needed for her business, but the response was poor. With only two years of college under her belt nobody wanted to back a woman with no business experience and little formal education. She became so desperate to find financing that she began to go through institutions one by one through the Yellow Pages. Finally she found a banker who agreed to give Fields the money she needed to get her dream off the ground, but it came with a steep price: 21 percent interest. According to Fields: “It was the cheapest money I could have because it was the only money I could get.”
In Palo Alto, California in 1977, Fields opened up her first cookie store. Although sales were slow to start and Fields was forced to go out into the street to offer free samples, she eventually got it up and running. Over the next six years, Mrs. Fields would multiply throughout the U.S. By the end of 1984, there were more than 160 cookie outlets across the country, which along with four international stores, were bringing in $45 million in revenue. In 1993 she eventually sold out to private investors and still remains the spokeswoman of Mrs. Fields Bakeries.
Action Item #1: Don't Let Rejection Hold You Back
Every new business is going to have its share of doubters. You'll have potential customers, lenders, suppliers, partners, and employees turn you down. You may even have your friends and family question what you're doing. If you're sure that your idea has merit then you owe it to yourself to give it your best. Use the rejection as fuel to motivate you to keep going - remember that each no gets you closer to a yes.
As far as Fields was concerned, she knew she was not going to disappoint her husband and her parents who did not believe in her. The only person she risked disappointing was herself if she did not try. “And, so, my journey began,” says Fields. “I made the decision, and I was going to see it through.”
Meanwhile, Fields’ parents continued to discourage their daughter’s plans. Again, Fields’ mother told her to give up telling her that “There’s magic in those words because when she said, ‘Debbi, just give up,’" Instead of giving up, Fields created a mantra for herself, and maintained the faith that there was someone out there that would finally say ‘yes’ to her dream. Her advice: "You do not have to be superhuman to do what you believe in. The most important thing is for you to believe in what you are doing. Absolutely know there are people out there who want to say yes.”
Action Item #2: Let Customers Try Before They Buy
With any new product or service customers are reluctant to buy because they don't know what they're getting. If you can think of a way for your clients to try out what you're selling on a small scale they are much more likely to buy, assuming that you have a quality product or service. Trying something out reduces the risk for the customer and increases the chances that they'll place an order with you.
When Fields opened up her first shop she had trouble getting the foot traffic outside to come inside her store. To create an incentive for new customers to come in, she began sending out trays of free cookies into the streets. People would try her cookies outside and wander into the store to see where they could find more.
According to Mrs. Fields: “I wanted to make my first investment in my customer. I wanted to give the product away... I wanted people to actually experience the product, try the product, and if they thought it was worthy, if they liked it, then they could buy it.... Try it and buy it. That was the way we really found customers.”
Action Item #3: Good Enough Never Is
If you want to have long term success as an entrepreneur then you need to constantly be upping the quality of the product and service that you provide. Create a high standard of quality for what you're currently producing and be on the lookout for other ways that you can make it even better and add more value.
One day Debbi Fields walked into one of her stores to see a long line of customers waiting to purchase a huge batch of cookies that she immediately knew had been over baked. Fields was upset; she did not want those cookies to be sold, or for those customers to associate her name with over baked cookies. Fields approached the manager to figure out what was going on. “What do you think of these cookies?” Fields asked him. “He responded by saying, ‘Oh, Debbi, they’re good enough.” Fields was upset and immediately threw out all of the cookies. “Good enough?” she said. “Good enough never is.
Fields now had a long line of hungry customers waiting to buy cookies that had just been tossed in the garbage. She went over to them and explained, one by one, what had happened. “We’ve over baked these cookies,” she said, “and I want them to be perfect and whatever you are standing in line for, I will absolutely give them to you free plus I’ll match for free if you will come back.” According to Mrs. Fields: “Good enough never is. Set your standards so high that even the flaws are considered excellent.”
True Story
In growing her business, Fields was determined to bring on board only those people who shared her passion for cookies. To make sure she was hiring people who were going to love their jobs as much as she did, Fields began auditioning all of her employees. People who wanted to work for Mrs. Fields were not just going to sit through the regular interview process. Fields would send her candidates into the street with trays of cookies, and told them that if any customers came into the store mentioning their name, they would be hired.
Fields would also make her candidates sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to her in the middle of the store. “That’s how I found the best cookie people in the world,” she said, “because if they would sing and belt out ‘Happy Birthday,’ I knew that smiles were going to be created, laughter, fun times; and we were going to have a relationship.” Her formula was a success, and as a result, Fields never wrote a customer service manual because she felt that "customer service comes from the heart.”
Have you used rejection to fuel your success? Do you believe that good enough never is? What part of Debbi Fields' message impacted you the most? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!
Evan Carmichael
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