No One Believed in Mrs. Fields . . . Except Mrs. Fields

Sometimes the problem is your unwillingness to pivot (he said to himself! 🤯)

Back in 1977, Debbi Fields was a 20 year old housewife in Palo Alto with a dream but who was told no by those who mattered:

• Her mother told her she had no business talent, and that her baking skill was just a hobby

• The bank turned her down

• Her husband, Randy, a successful economist, co-signed her $50,000 loan but remained a total skeptic. He thought her “Chocolate Chippery” cookie store would be out of business by dinner.

In fact, Randy made a bet with her on opening day: He bet she wouldn’t make $50 in sales by the end of her first day.

The Wall

Undeterred, Debbi went for it, opening the doors at 6:00 AM at a Palo Alto outdoor shopping center food court. She had used the highest quality ingredients - real butter, heavy chocolate, pure vanilla.

She knew her chocolate chip cookies rocked.

Yet that first day, she waited. And waited. And waited.

By noon, her sales were exactly . . . $0.00.

The mall was busy, sure, but the market was winning. People don’t walk into a dedicated cookie store in the middle of a Tuesday (at least not then they didn’t!) They stayed on their path. They stuck to their routine.

Most people would have seen that $0.00 as a sign of failure. They might have sat behind the counter, looked at their spreadsheets, lamented their fate, cursed the Gods, and prayed for something to change.

But here’s the deal with entrepreneurship: Sometimes the thing that has to change is not something outside of you, it is you, or your plan, or your intransigence.

Debbi Fields realized that the issue was not her delicious cookies, or probably even her idea, it was the door she kept staring at.

The Experiment

Debbi didn’t wait for a miracle. She pivoted.

Piling a tray high with warm, gooey chocolatey samples she walked out of the store, stood on the sidewalk and started talking to people, offering free samples of her yummy cookies.

Who would say no to that?

No one, that’s who.

Once they tasted the quality, her ‘market problem’ immediately vanished. People did not just take the sample; they followed her back into the store. By the end of the day, she didn’t just hit $50. She hit $75.

She won the bet, and she found the blueprint for an empire.

The Aftermath

Mrs. Debbi Fields quickly grew that sidewalk experiment into a global powerhouse with over 600 stores.

But things change.

She grew too fast and took on too much debt. By the early 90s, the company faced a massive financial hurdle due to that rapid over-expansion. And so, in 1993, Debbi Fields made the ultimate pivot: she sold the company to an investment firm to ensure the brand survived.

Her price? $100 million.

While she is no longer the owner, Debbi remains the “consultant and quality guardian” of the brand. Today, Mrs. Fields Cookies is owned by Famous Brands International and still does hundreds of millions in sales through some 200+ retail locations and a massive online gifting business.

Why? Because Debbi Fields took a risk … on herself.

How I Can Help You

Last week, after my recent SCORE webinar, Diana contacted me and we are now in the process of creating and launching the newsletter she has always wanted to do. Yves also contacted me and I am now ghostwriting his Linkedin and we are launching his newsletter next week too.

If you are finally ready to launch your newsletter or make a splash on Linkedin, let’s talk. I offer both “Done-With-You” and “Done-For-You” options to help you skip the learning curve, jump to the front of the line, and immediately launch the sort of high-impact content that will get you noticed.

Book a free call with me here and let’s get to work!

The Takeaway

Debbi’s breakthrough was not her recipe. It was her willingness to experiment and pivot when the plan failed. In a world full of digital noise, we often sit behind our screens waiting for the market to find us. Debbi Fields reminds us that the breakthrough can happen when we are willing to change our thinking.

Steal This Strategy

🌐 The Origin Story: How Debbi Fields built a $450 Million Brand from a Sidewalk

📈 The Current Brand: Mrs. Fields Cookies Today

🛠️ Mrs. Fields on Instagram: Yum!

🌐 Free! ‘Start Your Own Profitable Newsletter’ Webinar: A free replay of my popular SCORE webinar on how to launch your own attention-grabbing newsletter.

About Steve

Steve Strauss is the best-selling author of The Small Business Bible (and 17 other books), Inc.’s small business columnist, a lawyer (non-practicing), and an entrepreneur. He sold his last venture, TheSelfEmployed.com to Mark Cuban & Zen Business. Need a ghostwriter or a newsletter for your business? Contact Steve!