Ben & Jerry's almost shut down. A hidden message saved them.

On April 20, Ben and Jerry's will introduce the burrito and you'll see why 420 will be exactly like 4 20. After two childhood friends failed to achieve their biggest dreams, they decided to strike out on their own with just five dollars and learn how to make ice. . cream and opened a store called Ben and Jerry's in an old, run-down gas station, they nearly went bankrupt and were drawn into a David and Goliath battle with Pillsbury, a billion-dollar corporation, but they won public support and turned their store in an empire that was bought for millions of dollars the ice cream business, you know on the outside, it's fun, it's ice cream, you know, everyone loves ice cream, it's sweet, they're kids, it's happiness and the reality of the business side Ice cream is one of the dirtiest businesses that exist, from nerds to failures 12 years before Ben and Jerry's opened in 1951 Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were born in Brooklyn and grew up on Long Island They met in seventh grade in the class of gymnastics where we were the two slowest and fattest kids in the class.

We were running together on the track, there was a group of kids in front who were bending me from behind. Uh, the coach was yelling at us, gentlemen, you have to run the mile in less than seven minutes if they don't. You're going to have to do it again and Ben would yell at coach g coach if I don't do it in under seven minutes the first time I certainly won't do it, it's the second half being two of the slowest. The children at school quickly became close friends and bonded over their love of food. One summer, Ben got a job driving an ice cream truck.

He made a hundred dollars a week and could eat any amount of ice cream for free. He thought it was the best job ever and convinced Jerry to join him, but Jerry quit after one day. He didn't believe there was a future in the world of ice cream. When they graduated from high school, they remained close friends but chose different paths. Ben had no intention of attending college and only went because of his parents, he then dropped out of four different colleges, colgate university, skidmore college nyu and the new school, between each term he worked as a McDonald's cashier, janitor, security guard, superintendent building, taxi driver, delivery driver, and emergency room worker, meanwhile, Jerry stayed with studying pre-med at Oberler in college in hopes of becoming a doctor, but his plans changed after applying to medical school.

His 20 applications were rejected without knowing what to do next, Jerry moved into Ben's apartment in New York City and got a job as a lab technician and took biochemistry classes to improve his chances of getting into college. medicine. Ben took up pottery and drove across the country in a white Ford truck to try to sell his pottery. We were the only two of our friends who didn't seem to do it. reach anywhere in the world, so to speak, at that time neither of

them

knew that failure would be part of their journey to success. Strength to start three years before Ben and Jerry's expanded into grocery stores, a year later Jerry was rejected again from 20 medical schools.

Meanwhile, Ben couldn't sell a single pot, so they later decided to try their luck and start a bagel business together, but they found out that the equipment would cost forty thousand dollars, it was more money than they had combined, they thought the ice cream had It had to be cheaper, so they followed that idea, starting by paying five dollars for a course on how to make ice cream and collecting brochures on how to start a business. They then moved to Saratoga Springs to open their first ice cream shop. It turned out to be a big disappointment.

Before they could try, someone beat

them

to it, so they packed up and moved to Burlington, a college town that desperately needed an ice cream shop. The only affordable place they found was an old dilapidated gas station. There were six-inch holes in the ceiling. of ice on the floor and

almost

no walls yet Ben and Jerry decided to make an offer they requested a loan of twenty-six thousand dollars but only received four thousand dollars Ben's father made a small investment but it was not enough to cover all his costs so They decided on used equipment and did renovations themselves, forcing them to not spend money on problems and become experts in their industry drowning in debt six years before Ben and Jerry's raised $750 thousand in May 1978 finally They opened their ice cream shop called Ben and Jerry, with Jerry's biochemistry background and the help of a textbook, they perfected the mixture using high quality ingredients. there was just one problem.

Ben had anosmia, a condition that made it difficult for him to smell or taste and taste ice cream, so he suggested intensifying its flavors and adding pieces of fruit or candy. Jerry wasn't sold on the idea, but he committed; Fortunately, customers were hooked, and considering the chunks part of Ben and Jerry's signature style, Ben and Jerry still failed to turn a profit, later realizing it was because they were scooping out too much of their ice cream. They dared to limit their balls so they decided to start selling tubs of ice cream wholesale which we started selling to some local restaurants to try to survive and then after we bought a truck it was costing us more money to repair this old one truck that we bought from the one we made from selling ice cream, which was a really difficult time.

Eventually, Ben and Jerry faced bankruptcy and were forced to come up with another idea and decided to package their ice cream in pint containers. of wholesale tubs and selling them to mom-and-pop grocery stores, from there they began selling to independent distributors outside their home state, sales increased by more than 300 percent, proving that not even a disability in bankruptcy could prevent them from growing, which shows that the lawyers were wrong three times. Years before Ben and Jerry's became a $30 million empire after expanding to other states, Ben and Jerry realized they needed to move their operations to a larger facility, but to do so they would need more money, while that venture capitalists offered to invest, they turned everyone away in the In favor of the Vermont community, they wanted them to be shareholders that way, when the business prospered, they would too.

Their lawyer told them they were crazy and insisted they take money from venture capitalists. Instead, they visited Vermont's director of banking and insurance for advice. He told them that there was a fairly unknown part of Vermont law that would allow Ben and Jerry to register as stockbrokers. If they did so, they themselves would be able to sell shares of the company to the Vermont community. Ben and Jerry followed his advice and maintained the first public exchange in the state of Vermont. stock offering everyone told them it would fail since the community was small and not particularly wealthy yet they traveled around the state telling people how they would use their money they also advertised their offering in the newspaper with the headline get a scoop on the stock they sold the offer and showed what can happen when you put your community first the legendary battle with pillsbury 16 years before ben and

jerry

's was bought for 326 million dollars ben and

jerry

raised 750,000.

They had more than enough money to move to larger facilities. What they had to do next was sell more ice cream. They came up with the idea of ​​buying an ad, but they could only afford to run it on late-night TV for 10 seconds. Hi, I'm Ben, I'm Jared. You know, we may not have the money to be on TV for 30 seconds, but we sure make some of the best ice cream you'll ever taste. Look for us above every pipe. His simple idea worked but created an even bigger problem. The Pillsbury corporation just bought Haagen-Dazs and was afraid. that Ben and Jerry's would become a threat, so they warned their distributors to stop selling their ice cream.

Haagenaz was a steamroller who was simply moving forward and took care of what was in her way under federal antitrust law. Pillsbury's actions were considered a restriction. Since trade was a company that dominated the market, they were not allowed to use their power to exclude competitors. Ben and Jerry could sue but it would get nowhere since Pillsbury was worth over four billion dollars so they decided to launch a campaign called What's the Doughboy Is Afraid You Know That The Reason You Can't Find Ben and Jerry's on the shelf is because this large corporation is trying to prevent the consumer from being able to choose what type of ice cream they want to buy.

They place the sticker. on their pint containers it said What is the dough boy afraid of? Next to it was an 1800 number connected to a recording of them telling people what Pillsbury was doing. His idea worked. Pillsbury received hundreds of calls from angry customers and even a letter from an unexpected. insider information was signed by charles pillsbury this was pillsbury's son and he said: you know I am very disappointed in the company's actions against this small vermont company and I look forward to discussing it with your dad when he sees you at Christmas dinner with the endorsement of pillsbury and settled out of court under the terms that they agreed not to prevent their distributors from selling Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

I think Ben and Jerry are the establishment now. I guess that would be the best way to describe it. You know, it's not the little ones. entrepreneur we are the small entrepreneur ben and jerry's continued to grow and entered several more markets to meet demand they raised more money through a national public stock offering they also created a foundation to allocate 7.5 percent of pre-tax profits to drive social change at that time most American corporations gave about 1.5 percent in the first half of the year sales reached $3.6 million, double what they earned the previous year, two years Later, Ben and Jerry's became a $30 million empire and later launched more iconic flavors. including chocolate chip cookie dough and in 2000 they were acquired by Unilever for $326 million.

An independent board of directors was created to ensure the company remained focused on product quality and social change. In an interview, Jerry shared one of his and Ben's secrets. Towards success, don't do something simply because it's a trendy idea and it will make you a lot of money. The reason I say this is because any type of entrepreneurship involves going through difficult times if you are doing something that you are passionate about and truly believe in then that will help you get through this is the story of how two underdogs took over a corporation of a thousand billion dollars and built America's favorite ice cream brand for more inspiring stories and advice from today's most successful leaders.

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