I decided to look up each one of the entrepreneurs and see who was the most interesting to me. I decided that Lillian Vernon was an interesting lady. I was so impressed that this lady became an entrepreneur when women didn't even work. I was impressed with her, because she had a vision and she ran with it. Lillian's story was very inspiring to me. The fact that she was young, pregnant, an immigrant, and a newlywed was what caught my eye the most. She wanted to help her husband pay the bills. This is exactly the same reason I want to become an entrepreneur.

Lillian Vernon was born Lilly Menasche in Leipzig, Germany, moved with her family to Amsterdam because of the dangerous climate for Jews, and finally fled to the United States in 1937 as the Nazi threat escalated. Her family was desperately trying to escape the perils of World War II. She came to this country as a young girl at the age of 10; she knew perhaps more than others how special freedom and opportunity were. She grew up in America believing in her ideals, a land of opportunity. At age 14 Lillian's first jobs were working in a candy store and as a movie theater usherette. She at

LVC is a direct mail specialty catalog company concentrating on the marketing of gifts, household, kitchen, gardening, Christmas, and children's products. Lillian Vernon Corporation is a 51-year old specialty catalog and online retailer, with 5,500 employees during peak season. In 1956 the first Lillian Vernon catalog was published, with 16 pages of products in black and white, mailed to 125,000 customers who had responded to her ads. This was the first time women began flooding the workplace and had less time to shop. The Lillian Vernon Corporation was formed in 1965, posted one million dollars of sales in 1970 and went public on the American Stock Exchange in 1987. By the 1990's, its catalogs were received by one in four American homes resulting in approximately five million orders and $240 million in sales annually.

In her autobiography, An Eye for Winners (1996), Vernon describes her personal struggles to become a leading businesswoman and role model in a predominantly male industry and the role she has played in every aspect of her company's growth and management. A working mother herself, Vernon details her own management style and techniques to support those seeking both career and family. Throughout she shares marketing tips that have helped make the Lillian Vernon Corporation such a phenomenal success. It never occurred to her in 1951, that starting a mail order business was something that a woman did not do. As an entrepreneur, she held fast to these principles. She now does business in more than 33 countries and knows that her story could only have happened in America. A new state of the art distribution center was completed in Virginia Beach, VA in 1989. More than nine million customers receive Lillian Vernon catalogs offering some eight hundred items. An average of 30,000 orders are shipped daily. Lillian Vernon remains the company's primary merchant and travels around the world on buying trips. She is an active member of two groups of the nation's most influential businesswomen: the Committee of 200 and The Women's Forum. She is a supporter of entrepreneurs, cottage industries, and Third World artisans she is also the recipient of many awards.

Here's how Lillian explains the birth of her company. One afternoon in early 1951, as she was walking restlessly through h

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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)