One of the keynote speakers was Jane Wurwand (she’s the beauty in the picture with me), founder of Dermalogica and joinFITE. She started Dermalogica in 1983 with $14,000 and two team members. One team member slept on her futon in her living room for over a year while they got started. Her partner took a job that paid $1,200 a month and that is what they used for their living expenses. They weren’t allowed to buy anything outside of rent and food. The only clothing they allowed themselves to buy was socks, underwear and hosiery. After three years of not taking a salary from the business, she gave herself a paycheck of $300 to start with.
A friend of theirs sat down with them in their second year to do an “intervention” because it clearly wasn’t working. After that intervention Jane looked at her partner and said “This is crazy. Are you in?” He said “YES.” And they proceeded.
In 2010 they had over 1,500 employees. Dermalogica is in over 80 countries. They were just over 270 MILLION dollars in revenue. 100% of their products are made in the US. AND they just joined forces with Kiva to provide loans to entrepreneur women all over the world. Not to mention the thousands of women they train to use their products. WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF SHE QUIT?!
I was moved to tears during her presentation. My soul was moved by her example of tenacity and vision. Thank you, Jane, for making a difference for me and for paving the path for other women entrepreneurs to play big and make a big difference.
To see how you can play with joinFITE just visit www.joinfite.com.
