Zero to $100 Million in Five Years

Ready…Fire…Aim is both an attitude and a method that creates fast and cost-effective success in business.  The attitude is based on a very realistic fear: that if you don’t get things rolling right away, the opportunity will pass. The method is designed to test the product idea as quickly and cheaply as possible. In the case study below, my research assistant Jason Holland shows how Jeff Grady used Ready…Fire…Aim to develop a $100 million dollar business in less than five years.

Occasionally I receive letters from ETR readers who are skeptical about some of my claims:

• That it is possible to start a successful business with little cash and no industry contacts or experience
• That one can create a seven-figure net worth in less than seven years
• That you don’t need bank financing or a financial angel to get into business

Jeff Grady was an unemployed dotcom veteran busted flat when he turned his life around. If he can do it, why can’t you?

Michael Masterson

Within hours of designing one of the first protective cases for the iPod, Jeff Grady had an order for 2,000. Five years later he had $100 million in sales.

Grady, unemployed at the time like many other dot-com veterans, had bought an iPod when they first came on the market in 2001. Fascinated by this new device that allowed you to store, organize and transport music digitally, he was constantly loading it with music in between checking Monster.com for job opportunities and his daily workout.

“I wanted to take it to the gym, but they didn’t sell a case. I used a simple design program on my Mac to create one. I thought if I need one, then I’m sure a lot of other people do too,” recounted Grady.

He called an Apple accessories buyer, but they hadn’t even heard of the iPod. They must have asked around because they called back minutes later with the first order. Then more people started requesting these cases – all based on the sketch on Grady’s computer.

“Right from the beginning orders were just flooding in,” said Grady.

He found a manufacturer in Asia to handle the orders and thus Charleston, South Carolina-based Digital Lifestyle Outfitters was born.

Familiar with e-commerce and marketing from a previous company he had started, Grady quickly built a Web site offering cases, headphones, chargers – about eight products in all – including a FM transmitter that allowed users to play the iPod wirelessly through a car or home stereo. He holds a patent to that product.

“I had this whole line of product and then in six months started going to retailers,” said Grady.

Today DLO products can be found in retailers online and nationwide.

When Grady comes up with a new product or product line he doesn’t spend time or money on focus groups or consultants to study the market.

“We just throw it out there. We’re talking about small, expensive products. For $100,000 for 20,000 products we can test the market with an actual product,” says Grady.

It was important to Grady, who you remember didn’t have a job when he started DLO and was the sole investor in the company, to not take on any long-term debt when building the business. So he relied strictly on cash flow. Some other business building principles Grady follows:

• Be first to market with a new type of product. “Speed is enormously important. First to market beats best to market. Coke still beats Pepsi,” says Grady.

• Keep your expectations in check and make sure they’re realistic. Also, make sure everybody on your team is working toward the same goal.

• Don’t micromanage. Grady hires employees that don’t need him standing over them to get things done. “I’m not in the business of managing. No company should be in the business of managing,” says Grady.

In early 2007 he sold his company to Philips Electronics for a considerable sum he wouldn’t reveal. Grady will stay on as president “as long as its fun” but at least two years.

“The consumer product space can be great, if you have a hot product. Being an entrepreneur is great, but it’s a lot of hard work. If there is a next time it won’t be all on my dime. Now I have a track record. I know how to create, manufacture, and market products cheaply,” says Grady.

Jason Holland