Dane Wilt from York Technical Institute Interviewed Jasmine Grimm from Ruby, Inc.

1. Entrepreneurial Interview

2. Dane Wilt Entrepreneurial Interview March 4, 2013
Ruby Inc.
Objective
This paper was written to help potential business owners understand what it takes to become a
successful entrepreneur. It will focus on key characteristics, business operations, and tips on becoming
successful. My goal is that it will help potential entrepreneurs understand that though you’re in business to
make money, it is also important to take a societal conscious approach and ensure that your business benefits
the community as a whole.
Summary
Jasmine Grimm, founder of Ruby Inc. is much more modest about her accomplishments then most
would suspect. Even after recently being nominated for Inc. Magazine's “Top 30 Under 30, America's
Coolest Young Entrepreneurs”, placing on Central Penn Business Journal's “Top 25 Women of Influence”,
and receiving the 2013 SCORE Business Development Award. For most of us, just one of these honors
would be humbling…but to Jasmine, it’s just business as usual.
Jasmine came up with the idea for Ruby Inc. while attending Syracuse Universities EBV Program
(Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for Veterans with Disabilities). The program is designed to work at a high
speed allowing participants to gain the tools needed to start and manage their own small business. While
attending she needed to come up with her own creative business idea to sell to a group of venture capitalists
at the end of the week. She always had an eye for fashion, and at the suggestion of her husband, used that
background to formulate a business that would benefit many women. Simply put, teach women how to dress
for their body type. From helping customers choose properly fitting clothes, to helping them develop a
fashion sense, and even assisting them with accessorizing, Jasmine’s business plan covered it all. The
concept went over remarkably, and when she returned to Lancaster, Pennsylvania Ruby Inc. was born.
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3. Dane Wilt Entrepreneurial Interview March 4, 2013
Ruby, Inc.’s mission is: “To inspire women that their worth is far above rubies and the company
addresses specific needs for women in three niches including color analysis, fit, and personal style.” During
her first year in business Ruby Inc. was able to break even, which is very rare for a first time business owner.
She also decided to become an LLC and is considered to be non-profit as she took a very society conscious
approach to her business and donates 10% of her revenue to charity. Jasmine still does this, and hopes that
someday Ruby Inc. will be successful enough that she can keep 10%, and donate the other 90%.
Marketing
Many great business concepts have failed because their owners had no concept as to who they were
marketing to. This is not an issue for Ruby Inc., as they have a very clear picture of who their customers are.
Jasmine has broken her demographic down into three key categories:
1) Fast Trackers-Women who are college graduates, generally in their late 20’s to early 30’s. These
women can be married or single, but regardless live a very busy life style.
2) Successful Multi-Taskers-Women who are college graduates that make at least $50,000 a year. They
live a busy, often hectic life balancing family, work, and social lives. These women can be any age,
but generally late 30’s into early 40’s.
3) Fulfilled Empty Nesters-Women who have aged very gracefully. Most have reached or are quickly
approaching retirement, make over $50,000 a year, and have a strong desire to remain fashionable
during their “golden years”.
To reach these three key demographics, Jasmine utilizes several advertising methods. Social media is
critical for her business. You can find Ruby Inc. on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even her webpage is an
interactive blog. She also utilizes YouTube creating E-how videos to help promote her business and inform
consumers. She also appears on podcasts and wants to begin advertising on local radio stations. In addition
to that she appears in multiple magazines, has accepted many awards, and often does public speaking events.
Her two biggest promotional tools are simple, but often over looked by other companies. Word of mouth is
critical in her industry. It’s free and reaches all members of her demographic with no additional cost to her.
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4. Dane Wilt Entrepreneurial Interview March 4, 2013
She is also a true philanthropist, stressing many times during our interview “just help people”. She works
closely with many non-profits, donates 10% of her total revenue, and is always quick to volunteer a helping
hand within the community. Though she does these things because she feels it is the responsible thing to do,
it also greatly benefits her through the notoriety Ruby Inc. receives.
Though her market is relatively narrow, she does have some key competitors. Stacy London of “What
Not to Wear” competes with her on a much more national level. But, locally she has a very similar
competitor in Style Wise. To a lesser extent she has to deal with Nordstrom’s who offer styling advice for
free, provided you purchase from them. Many places in local malls offer fittings, but these locations generally
don’t offer the style advice expertise that Jasmine does. However, her biggest competitors of all are women
who are “Do-It-Yourselfers”. This can be problematic because though there are a large number of women
out there who have the ability to style themselves, there are an equal amount of women who try and greatly
fail at self-styling.
Jasmine’s long term marketing goals are to continue her “controlled growth” model, simply put don’t
grow beyond your means. In time her hope is this will create a self-sustaining non-profit, that would allow
her to continue to foster goodwill for Ruby Inc. within the community. Her hope is someday to be
successful enough she can start another non-profit company. Her vision is to create a place where disabled
veterans can come and help train their own service dogs.
Management
It is often hard for Jasmine to focus on the minor details, her mind works in a much more
complicated and conceptual way. She prefers to look at her business in “the big picture”, concentrating on
the direction of the business. This might lead to her self-described “Service Leadership” style.
Jasmine is not the kind of manager who will tell you what to do every step of the way, she will not
micro-manage you. Because of that it has become invaluable for Jasmine to find the right people for the job.
To Jasmine, the right person is going to view her as a resource who can remove obstacles from their path. In
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5. Dane Wilt Entrepreneurial Interview March 4, 2013
addition to that she believes it is important to plant seeds so others can grow, and let them excel. For this to
be successful, she needs to find people who have the drive and solid character to thrive in this kind of
environment. Even if they don’t have all the necessary skills, she’s willing to train the right people.
One such candidate is her 80 year old Grandma. Her Grandma has been involved in small business
for a long time, however never really had exposure to social media, YouTube, blogs, or many other
technological cornerstones of Ruby Inc. Jasmine knew her Grandma would be a valuable resource…but only
if she was willing to embrace technology. She decided to introduce her to technology utilizing some fun and
relatively simple iPad apps. Jasmine could think of no better one then the worldwide sensation Angry Birds.
Her Grandma’s initial job was to sit down with an iPad and play Angry Birds. Once she became comfortable
with that she began learning other applications. This eventually led to her exploring the internet, utilizing
email, and in time working in much more complicated software programs. Presently, her Grandma handles
all of Jasmine’s accounting utilizing QuickBooks and assists with creating YouTube videos. You can argue
that it is too time consuming to take this kind of time to train one employee. However, the success she is
experiencing with her Grandma is all a result of Jasmine taking the time to train the right person for the job.
Is this practical for every business to do? Of course not, but so far it has been a recipe for success at Ruby
Inc.
Entrepreneurial Characteristics
When asked what the single greatest personality trait an entrepreneur can exhibit, she didn’t hesitate
for a second before answering “heart”. Elaborating that you can be the smartest or the richest person ever,
but if you do not have the ability to persevere through turmoil, you will not be successful.
It is also important to remember that you represent your brand at all times. Rather your out on a
date with your significant other, or drinking at a bar with your friends, you will always be the face of your
company. She reminded me of the story of GoDaddy.com’s CEO Bob Parsons and his safari misadventure.
Parsons’ was on an African safari hunting elephants, but made the mistakes of videotaping the hunt and
wearing GoDaddy.com paraphernalia. This received a great deal of negative attention from the media, and
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6. Dane Wilt Entrepreneurial Interview March 4, 2013
ultimately cost GoDaddy.com a tremendous amount of money and led to Parsons eventually stepping down.
Jasmine says she refuses to let something like this happen to Ruby Inc.
Though Jasmine has learned many lessons through her business, her best piece of advice is simply to
take a Sabbath. It is very easy for an entrepreneur to completely wrap themselves up in their business, and
because of that it creates a great deal of stress on the individual, their family, and friends. That is why it is
paramount for everyone to take a day of rest and unwind. The trickiest part of being a successful
entrepreneur, is finding the correct balance of work and life. You may be living your business every day, but
occasionally everyone needs a break.
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