with one another in the protection of Mary Elizabeth's property, and the promotion of her business. Growth of the Business The success of the booth soon supplied the funds and the basis for a larger candy shop located near the Arcade. This store, conducted on the same principle of giving value received, always meeting the demands of its patrons, of being a little different from other stores, was as successful on a larger scale as the booth had been; and from that time on the Mary Elizabeth record is one of a very successful, selffinancing undertaking. At the present time, the business is a large one. Its candy stores and tea rooms are located in half a dozen different cities. The rental for one of these alone-the Fifth Avenue store in New York City-amounts to $45,000 a year, and the annual "turn-over" of the various establishments runs far up in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mary Elizabeth remains at the head of the establishment founded so humbly some fifteen years ago, and it is still conducted on the same general lines laid down in the early history of the undertaking. In Business for Oneself The little candy-maker succeeded in doing successfully that which men in large number long to do-launch a profitable enterprise of their own. Most men of ability, in fact, would rather work for themselves than for others. "I would give anything to go into business for myself," declared a high official recently, a man who stands in the highest ranks of New York's leading railroad system. "After twenty years of working for some one else, I feel very strongly, at times, that I want to be absolutely independent." This statement was made by a man whose salary runs into five figures. He is enthusiastically interested in his work, and gets on well with his associates. But to "be one's own boss" is often a greater attraction to the executive type of man than to work for another-even when independence results in lessened earnings. The growing size and complexity of modern undertakings diminishes the opportunities for the one-man business, or the partnership in which men are their own bosses. It is to be noted, however, that almost every big business of the present day has grown from small beginnings and that it happens in the career of most executives that at one time or another they see the opportunity of running a business of their own. The task itself is complex and difficult, that is certain, but by no means impossible. Requisites of a Successful Enterprise In the successful development of a new enterprise three things are essential: 1. A sound undertaking. The order in which the three factors are listed above represents their importance. A sound undertaking, efficiently managed, will-unless the odds are too heavy-overcome the handicap of insufficient working funds. It may also survive a period of inefficient management and be rescued from disaster by a change in its executive force. But a business which is unsound at the core must fail sooner or later. Testing the Soundness of an Enterprise The necessity for a sound undertaking is apparent. When a man starts in a line in which he has already had a wide experience and knows its possibilities he is generally a good judge of its worth. In some cases, however, a business must be tested or even developed before its soundness or unsoundness can be determined. Money is frequently thrown away because no thorough investigation is made of the enterprise itself, or of the future possibilities of the market or of the supply of the materials or other essentials upon which the life of the enterprise depends. The importance of testing out and selecting the most feasible project was discussed in Part IV; "The Thinker in Business." Generally speaking, the value of almost every new enterprise may be investigated or put to test in advance of operation at a small fraction of the cost required to try it out on a commercial scale. The man who believes in the future of a business should have actual tested facts on which to base his belief. The Factor of Management Given a sound plan or project to start with, the problem of its management is the next important consideration. Usually the young man starting in business for himself or interested in a venture or side line of his own, thinks that capital is the next essential of success, but this is not so. A sound undertaking, if managed by men whose integrity and ability are known and proved, will always be able to attract the capital required to finance it. The enterprise may be meritorious, the money supply may be ample, but every banker and investor knows that without good management the business will fail. In speaking before a group of Wall Street financiers who were discussing the possibility of obtaining the very large sum of money required to carry out a project under consideration a prominent banker said: "Gentlemen, this matter of money is the least thing we have to think about! There is only one problem. Where are we to find the man big enough to handle the job? I speak as a banker and not in my personal capacity when I tell you that if you will show me the right man to put through the plans we are discussing, you need not give the money a single thought." The financing of the project was to him a comparatively simple problem. The finding of the right kind of man to handle it was the difficult matter. Sufficient Capital The third essential, sufficient capital, is the one with which we are here primarily concerned. The reader, it is assumed, has his profit-making project in mind; he is thoroughly convinced he can manage it; but where can the necessary funds be secured? This is the problem to which the next chapters are devoted. CHAPTER XX THRIFT AS A WORKING POLICY Your ship can't come in unless you send one out. Financial Preparedness The number of persons who believe that they could make a fortune if only they "had the money" is astonishingly large. Opportunities appear; they are detected, but owing to financial unpreparedness they cannot be grasped. The difficulty and how certain men with such notable success have solved it, appears well illustrated in the following incident drawn from the early career of H. C. Frick, the "coke king" and multimillionaire. In company with two partners, Rist and Tinstman, Frick had early engaged in the coke business. The panic of 1873, however, which littered the country with financial wrecks, plunged the firm into bankruptcy and the two partners very much desired to liquidate their holdings. Although young, relatively inexperienced, and already burdened with more debt than capital, Frick so believed in the future of the coke business that he sought out Pittsburgh's principal banker and staggered him with the size of the loan he wished to negotiate. Mr. Forbes, in "Men Who Are Making America," tells the story as follows: Judge Mellon sent a man (an uncle of W. E. Corey) to Broad Ford to investigate the character and caliber of this daring Napoleon of finance. Instead of finding H. C. Frick to be one of the leading citizens of the place, living in sumptuous style and owning a wealth of property, the investigator discovered him to be merely a youth of 24, employed as |