JOHNNY EARL: My name is Johnny Earl, and I started a brandcalled Johnny Cupcakes. And I make clothes with cupcakes on them.It sounds strange, but it's what I've been doing for the past 10years. It's been strong and growing. I started this when I was 19years old while working at a record shop. I had a bunch ofdifferent random nicknames. People would call me Johnny Appleseed,Johnny Pancakes, Johnny Coffee Cakes, Johnny Cupcakes. And when Iwas late for work, they'd call me Johnny Come Lately. While gettingt-shirts made for the hardcore metal band and I was in at the time,I thought it would be funny to make a completely random t-shirtthat said Johnny Cupcakes on it. Not even to sell, just to wear towork. So enough people asked me that I had to keep making more ofthese shirts, and I began to poke fun at pop culture. I'd replacepopular icons with cupcakes, whether it be a Statue of Libertyholding a cupcake instead of a torch, a plane dropping cupcakesinstead of bombs, or the cupcake and cross-bones. There are allthese tough guys that used to wear skull and crossbones shirts thatcame in my work. And enough people asked about this shirt that Iwas selling them left and right. I'd have to pretend to go to thebathroom to sneak out and sell them out of the trunk of my rustycar. And it was happening so much that I was able to quit my joband take a risk and try this out. If you don't take a risk, thenyou never know. And I feel like that's one of the key things thatseparates entrepreneurs from everyday people is that risk takingfactor. I have 32 employees right now within the Johnny Cupcakesbrand. That includes the offices slash warehouse. It includes mythree retail stores right now. We've got one in Hull,Massachusetts. We've got one in Boston, Massachusetts on NewburyStreet. And we've got one in Los Angeles on Melrose Ave. And we'reabout to open our fourth location in London in the UK. All thestores are set up like fake bakeries. I do this because it fitswith the brand and the name, Johnny Cupcakes. I could go out andsave a tremendous amount of money by purchasing displays at Ikea.But saving money and worrying about the bottom line isn't what Ido. LORRAINE EARL: My name's Lorraine Earl. I'm John Earl's mom,and the CFO of Johnny Cupcakes, Inc. I've been working with Johnsince he was born. When he was about 18 years old, he decided toget into the t-shirt line. I think it's harder for family-runbusinesses because you've got that element of such a personalrelationship, being the mom. So I'm always going to get the flak.If he wakes up one morning and he has invented something in hissleep, he wants that product the next day, and it will push otherthings to the side. I always want him to be able to have a freeflowing mind and not worry about the money, not worry about wherethis is coming from, or when this is going to be delivered, or isthis going to be on time. That's why he has 30 of us to back himup. Whatever he comes up with, we've managed to take it and runwith it and make it into a success. It's been quite a ride. JOHNNYEARL: I've taken some pretty big risks. I had a $65,000 budget formy Los Angeles shop, and I ended up spending I think $775,000 onthe shop. LORRAINE EARL: When we first opened LA, I thought he wasjust going to buy some display cases, throw in some antique ovensand a mixer, and that would be it. But he found a company thatdesigns these humongous projects for Universal Studios, DisneyWorld. I felt like we were opening a Disney World attraction whenwe opened the LA store because we spent $363,000 on these ovensthat don't even cook anything. JOHNNY EARL: Everyone was scared. Itook the company's operating money and put it into ovens that shootout steam. And I had to do something to make that store stand out.But I'll tell you, I've made all of my money back and more fromdoing that. We opened. We had hundreds of people in line. And thestore's been growing, despite the economy. And it's turned into adestination spot. We've had actors. We've had sports players goinside. We've been written about in some of the biggest magazines,newspapers, blogs. We haven't had to spend any money on advertisingbecause we created an experience. LORRAINE EARL: LA on its own it'smade about $569,000 this year. JOHNNY EARL: When you have a brand,when you have any company, it's all about reinventing. Everythingin the world has been done before. So that means you have a verygood chance of failing. So you need to think about what you can doto make your brand or company something completely different. Sowe're doing things as random as coming out with our own candy.We're coming out with our own toys. I just hired an animator. We'regoing to start doing Johnny Cupcakes cartoons. We're going to takethose cartoons, develop characters from those cartoons, give thempersonalities, turn those into toys, turn those into shirts. It'sfun to just keep things so random and different. It's true,everything has been done before. You've just got to reinvent it instrange, unique ways, and give people something to talk about. Orelse you're going to get lost with the rest of the people that aredoing the same thing.

Read and answer the following questions.

1. How did the Johnny Cupcakes brand originate?
2. According to the information in the video, what does Earle sayis an essential part of being an entrepreneur?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 According to the above essay Johnny cupcakes is the nickname given to him by his colleagues ... View the full answer