Small Business Success Stories Part 3

Back to our series of startup success stories, many people ask how to succeed in business. Here we’ll showcase a few more small businesses that started from nothing, many with the owners working from home or in a garage somewhere, and managed to find great success, whether that was from down and dirty hard work, dedication, self-discipline, passion, solid belief that it was a great idea, or more likely a nice combo of each of those.

Sometimes it’s difficult to realize that success doesn’t happen automatically, or even over a few weeks. It’s an accumulation of a lot of hard work and persistence, and often people give up right before they manage to hit the success level they’re aiming for.

ECF Farmsystems

Berlin, Germany is currently estimated to be the fastest growing country in the world for startups. This aquaponic farm (reported in 2015) is generating 30 tons of fish and 30 tons of vegetables per year(!) with this self-sustaining system – one part (the fish) creates enriched water and CO2, while the other part (the greenhouse) uses the water and CO2, creating oxygen for the fish.

This small company has big goals, including going global and creating aquaponic systems on rooftops and in urban areas.

Virgin Records

“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.”

Billionaire Richard Branson started life fairly normally, with a successful, supportive family and the ability to attend good schools. He, however, struggled with dyslexia and didn’t do well in the school environment. On his last day, his headmaster told him he would either end up in prison or become a millionaire…. Talk about mixed messages!

His mother was an entrepreneur and supported his endeavors from an early age. He started his first business when he was 16. At age 22, he started a mail order record company, which two years later became Virgin Record stores. With a few bumps along the road of business experience, he was eventually earning enough money from the store to launch a record label (Virgin Records) and bought an estate that he installed a recording studio into. He leased out studio time to young artists and signed controversial bands (Sex Pistols) that other labels were reluctant to sign. Later on, the company signed artists like the Rolling Stones and Paula Abdul, and it became the world’s largest independent record label.

After that, Branson has expanded into numerous industries, creating the Virgin Group which now controls over 400 companies, including his own Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Mobile, and more recently Virgin Galactic, which plans to provide space tourism in the near future!

The media tells stories about businesses and entrepreneurs in a very shortened timeline and goes for the “sexist” and most extreme cases because that makes for the most exciting story for them to tell to their audience. It’s not perfectly realistic the way the stories end up being portrayed and if you as an entrepreneur or business owner can remember that, you’ll be much less likely to be discouraged seeing others hit it big right before you do!

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, contact Worldwide Capital Management and we’ll be happy to help you with a large or small business loan, purchase order financing, or a merchant cash advance.

We also offer a variety of other financing options. Fill out our simple application to see if you qualify!