I Love Lucy

You gotta LOVE LUCY! I watched a show that was hilariously funny, but such a good business lesson for every entrepreneur. The famous girls Lucy and Ethel came up with a brilliant idea. They bottled Lucy’s dressing and sold it on TV, suing Lucy as an anonymous customer who LOVED the dressing. The viewers were SOLD and three huge mailbags of orders came in the very next day! When Ricky came home and found out, he was a cross between admiration and practicality. He asked Lucy how much money she was going to make and of course, if you know Lucy, she had no idea.

Ricky patiently told her you had to do the arithmetic, and when he figured it all out, Lucy and Ethel found out they were only going to profit three cents on every .40 cent jar they sold! Unfortunately, that was before shipping! Lucy, ever resourceful, decided they should do another TV spot discounting the salad dressing as being the worst thing you could ever order, with hopes that everyone would cancel their order.  The idea backfired and customers thought the spot was so humorous they ordered more.

Faced with the difficult task of filling all of the orders, the girls got clever once again, in their own way of course, and went out and bought 1, 053 bottles of salad dressing, applying their own label, (I would never recommend this type of deception, but the episode was very funny!!) This only costs them ten cents more per bottle, but Lucy said that she didn’t care, this way they could fill their orders.

Figuring out solutions, good, bad or indifferent, is always Lucy’s way. I Love Lucy and will continue to find her an inspiration, but in case you were wondering, the business lesson here is “Do The Arithmetic.”

xo, jan