Johnny Earle, creator of the successful clothing line Johnny Cupcakes, paid a visit to South Mountain Community College, SMCC, on Thursday, Sept. 12, to inspire students to think creatively and follow their entrepreneurial spirit. Johnny’s creativity and habits of serial entrepreneurialism as a youngster, helped him bake up the unique concept for his stylish T-shirt business.
Johnny didn’t follow the traditional road to small business stardom, but his journey was the only way he knew how. College can be very beneficial, but he said, “Don’t act like it’s a race, you won’t remember a thing.”
Learn from your experiences and take the chances that are worth taking. It might be cliche, but, “The more you put in to your business idea, the more you’ll get back.”
So, how did Johnny Cupcakes get started?
Johnny Earle of Johnny Cupcakes at SMCC
Johnny started multiple small businesses as a kid and into high school leading up to the inception of Johnny Cupcakes.
Let’s take a look at Johnny’s path to starting a thriving business.
As a small child he had a natural, entrepreneurial spirit. He created his own lemonade stand and held yard sales and candy sales. He was a real go-getter and looked for new ways to make money. He would resell drinks from the grocery store on the beach during the hot summer months. That seems easy enough, but you have to go out and do it – that’s what being an entrepreneur is all about.
From ages 8 through 13, Johnny loved magic and wanted to become a magician. His mom placed an ad in the local paper for him to perform at birthday parties. Consider that one of his first businesses.
Johnny says he had a learning disability and he saw it as a “super power.” It taught him to focus on what he actually LOVED to do. He was put in Charter School in 8th grade and he created their first yearbook out of his own scrapbook.
The school would later take his advice and create a yearbook.
Johnny moved on to selling “pranks,” like whoopee cushions and itching powder. It sounds like he was creating his network out of friends at school and people in the community. Well, probably not with those on the receiving end of the pranks, but he went out of his comfort zone and met lots of people.
“It’s better to get out of your immediate social circle and meet as many people as possible,” Johnny said.
During his internship years, Johnny learned three concepts for business:
Eye Contact – it’s a good way to build trust.
Hand Shakes – it’s a sign of good character.
Bad Breathe – because no one will WANT to listen if they smell you coming.
Interestingly enough, Johnny’s first internship was at a T-shirt shop. Like many entrepreneurs, he developed a “work now, play later” concept that has driven his success. He started making T-shirts at his internship with his name on them. He loved making fun of pop culture and he came up with the idea of having a store modeled after a bakery.
“My friends nicknamed me “Johnny Cupcakes” to make fun of me.” Little could they have known it would be the best nickname of all time and gave his dream business a cool name to fit his T-shirt bakery shop idea.
“At age 19, I began selling T-shirts out of the trunk of my beat up ’89 Toyota Camry. With a learning disability and little-to-no start up money, I was able to launch my quirky ideas into a multimillion dollar, experience-based T-shirt brand with clothing stores set up like vintage bakeries.”
Starting a business is a huge commitment and Johnny learned that being in a relationship while developing your business can make or break your success. “If you are taking on someone else’s emotions it equals destruction.”
Here are more lessons Johnny has learned along the way:
Never go in to business with your friends. Money will always make people jealous.
Represent your business well, even if you’re just taking out the trash.
Stand out and do something different every time to leave a lasting impression on customers.
Include hand written notes or gifts for online orders.
Come up with clever, original ideas.
Johnny Cupcakes Frosting Cans with T-shirt
“If starting a business was easy, then everyone would be doing it and it wouldn’t be so special.”