What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From “Mrs. B”

The founder of the largest home furnishing store in North America can teach you more than any business school would.

A carpet manufacturer once took Mrs. B to court because she was selling carpets at half the price of what they were selling. They were making a profit of 50% on each carpet sold. But she knew better. She wanted to make only 10% on everything she sold.

She bought the carpets for $3 a yard and sold them for $3.95 a yard. Her competitors were selling a yard of carpet for $7.95. The result? She was outselling them.

When they saw threats couldn’t stop her, they sued her for unfair trade. They sent three lawyers to court. But she turned up alone. She told the judge, “Judge, I sell everything ten percent above cost, what’s wrong? I don’t rob my customers.”

What do you think happened next? The judge threw the case out. He visited Mrs. B’s Nebraska Furniture Mart the next day and bought $1,400 worth of carpet.

Rose Blumkin, popularly known as Mrs. B, founded the Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1937. She made it the largest home furnishing store in North America from nothing. All she had was her intolerable work ethic and a credo for doing business, “sell cheap and tell the truth, don’t cheat nobody, and don’t take no kickbacks.”

Mrs. B was born in Russia. For a better future, she migrated to the United States in 1917. She didn’t ask anyone for a better future though — she made it for herself.

She started the Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1937 with only $500. With her ambition and hard work, she made it the largest store for home furnishing in the United States. In 1983 Warren Buffett successfully convinced Mrs. B to sell 90% share to his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, for $60 million.

One question I always ask myself in appraising a business is how I would like, assuming I had ample capital and skilled personnel, to compete with it. I would rather wrestle grizzlies, than compete with Mrs. B and her progeny.

— Warren Buffett

Most entrepreneurs start from nothing. But very few start from where Mrs. B did. She had nothing but her ambition when she started. Now look where she took it. If you want to build your business from the ground up, you won’t find a better teacher than Mrs. B.

1. Make work your narcotic

I come home to eat and sleep, and that’s about it. I can’t wait until it gets daylight so I can get back to the business.

If you want to succeed at what you’re doing, you’d better make work your life. Don’t work to live. Instead, live to work. Work gives your life meaning. Find passion in what you do.

Look forward to the next day to do what you’ve planned. Always think about how you can make your business better. Your work should be the reason you breathe and also the reason you don’t want to die.

2. Be your own boss

I want to be my own boss. Nobody’s going to tell me what to do.

Follow your heart. Listen to what your gut says. Nobody should tell you otherwise. There’s a reason why you became an entrepreneur. You don’t want others to boss you around. You’ve chosen to be your own boss. You wanted to take control of your destiny.

Live your life your way. Take your business where you want it to go. Do business your way. If someone doesn’t agree with how you run your business, well, to hell with him.

3. Have ambition. Money will follow.

Even if you don’t have money, if you try, you could have it. I only had ambition, that’s all. Money doesn’t bother me. I don’t get thrill out of money.

Have ambition in life. Have a vision about where you want to see your business go. Where you want your life to be heading.

Don’t run after money. Don’t think of money as an obstacle to what you want to do. If you really want to do something, you’ll always figure a way out. You can always manage money to do what you want to do.

Money is only a means to an end. It’s never the answer to anything. You can’t find life’s meaning in money. If you get better at what you’re doing, you’ll get money. Plenty of it.

Just focus on your work. Make your business the best it can be. Money will follow. Always.

4. There’s always a way out

Up to 1942, nobody would sell me nothing — the leading lines. I wasn’t good enough for them. And the banks never loan me a penny. So I was so smart, I outsmarted the bankers. Anything the manufacturers didn’t sell me, I went to different towns.

When her competitors saw that Mrs. B was outselling them by offering the items cheap, they threatened the wholesalers and manufacturers not to sell to her. The banks also didn’t loan her money because they couldn’t trust her.

What did she do?

Nobody would sell her furniture in the city. So she purchased furniture from outside the city. She found a way out. She always did.

Sometimes she borrowed money from her customers. They loaned her money because they knew her. They knew they could trust her. She sold cheap and didn’t cheat anyone.

You can overcome any problem if you really want to do something. Bet everything you’ve got. Put your life on the line. You’ll figure something out.

5. Earn your competitors’ respect by giving them hell

It’s better to have them hate you than to feel sorry for you.

Mrs. B’s competitors hated her. She was outselling them. They were making a hopping 50% profit. But she was satisfied with only 10% on everything she sold. If she only made $2, that would make her happy.

She knew if she offered the customers the lowest price, they would go to her. And go they did.

Earlier her competitors didn’t take any notice of her. They pitied her. But after she outsold them, they hated her for it. They hated her but also respected her, for she gave them a run for their money.

Don’t earn sympathy from your competitors by being a loser. Earn their hatred if you have to, but give them hell. Show them what you’ve got. Earn your respect.

6. Offer customers the lowest price they can get

If you have the lowest price, they will find you at the bottom of a river

Customers love buying items cheap. If you can offer the customers the same item your competitors are selling for a high price, you’re going to be the one who’ll get the customers. Not your competitors.

People from all over the United States come to the Nebraska Furniture Mart because they know they’ll get value for the price. They know they’ll get items worth their bucks.

Nobody wants to spend more bucks for something they can get for a cheap price. They’ll come to you, even from distant places, if you sell items cheap.

7. People will do business with you if they can trust you

The reason [for] mine success, I was honest with the customers. I told ’em the truth. I sold cheap. And if anything was wrong, I made it right.

Mrs. B never lied to her customers. She always sold her items cheap and was completely honest with the customers. Her customers knew they could trust her with their hard-earned money.

When you’re completely honest with someone, even when something’s wrong with what you’re selling, your customers will see you’re putting their interests before yours. You’re being honest with them.

Everyone wants to deal with someone they can trust. They wouldn’t want to do business with someone who they know would cheat. If the customers think you would cheat them, they wouldn’t come to you. You’d lose your business with them.

8. Don’t do anything that doesn’t add any value to your business and yet costs you money

Everything I made stayed in the business. I never had a vacation, never went any place, never made parties. Accumulated penny by penny.

It’s somewhat extreme, but extreme is what you need to do if you want to be a success. Success doesn’t come to the average people. Success is reserved for those who dare to go to the extreme.

What doesn’t make you money in business, costs you money. The meaningless meetings, business parties, going for a vacation every other week — none of them makes you a dime. If anything, they cost you big bucks.

The better way to spend your time and money? Invest your time and money in your business. Think and work on how you can grow your business. Spend money to expand your business. If something doesn’t add value to your business, it’s not worth your time or money.

9. You can compete with anyone by using your common sense

When it comes to business, I could beat any man and any college graduate. I mean I use my own common sense. That’s what I use for business, for anything.

Mrs. B didn’t have any formal education. Heck, she didn’t even know English. But she outsmarted educated competitors and gave them a run for their money. Some of her competitors went bankrupt because of her.

Mrs. B’s elder daughter would teach her in the evening what she learned in the daytime at school. That’s how Mrs. B learned English.

She did great even before she knew English or basic math. She did all the bookkeeping for the Nebraska Furniture Mart. How did she do that?

She used her common sense. She didn’t have a formal education. But she had common sense. That’s what she used.

And that’s also what you need to use to succeed at your business. You don’t need any higher degree or even an MBA. What you need is common sense. And some business senses.

10. You don’t need to love what you do

It’s not that I love carpet. I don’t love carpet. I just know how to figure the prices.

Mrs. B didn’t love carpet. But she was the best at selling them. She had the drive to make it. Because she didn’t know any other way. She didn’t know what else she could do. Her ambition brought out the best in her.

Stick to what you know. Do what you do best. You don’t need to love it. Love your work. Love the process. You’ll eventually fall in love with what you do if you do it long enough. You’ll get success.