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Proverbs 31:10-31 (Motherhood)

Resource

  • Living Beyond The Daily Grind, Vol. 2, Swindoll, p. 472

Mail Order Company

In 1951, 24-year-old Lillian Katz wanted to add $50 to her husband’s weekly income of $75. Pregnant with their first son, she took $2,000 of wedding-gift money, bought some supplies, and sent $500 to Seventeen magazine to place an ad for personalized handbags and belts to be sold by mail. “Be the first to sport that personalized look,” read the ad. “Personalizing” involved putting the customer’s initials on a handbag or belt. “I figured that for $125 a week we could do everything we wanted,” she recalls. “I liked the stimulation of work, and I wasn’t prepared to do only child care. I chose the mail order business simply because it was the only thing I could think of that would allow me to work at home and be with my children.”

Within six weeks after the first ad appeared, Lillian Katz was at her kitchen table sorting through $16,000 worth of orders. Today the Lillian Vernon Corporation has annual sales of $137 million. Her company receives 30,000 telephone orders weekly and employs 1000 people.

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