How Richard Warren SEARS Went from Railroad Station Manager to Business Mogul in 8 Incredible Steps!

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How Richard Warren Sears Went from 

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Railroad Station Manager to Business Mogul in 8 Incredible Steps!

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An original Business blog article by Yonatan Maisel

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Yup, Richard Warren Sears. He’s the Sears part of Sears, Roebuck and Company, the famed American mega-department store chain.

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But how, you might wonder, did this 19th Century businessman create his global empire?

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How did he parlay his job as a railroad station manager into the title of undisputed king of catalogues and a multi-billion dollar empire?

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His story is inspiring. It is educational. It’s history. And his cunning, vision and entrepreneurial spirit gives hope to any businessperson starting out with only the spark of a dream… 

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Image Credit: www.thecincyblog.com

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1) 1886. Richard Warren Sears is the station manager for the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway in Redwood Falls, Minnesota, USA.

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2) Richard Sears is offered a shipment of gold watches which were refused by a local jeweler.

 

Knowing that the United States has just implemented time-zones, he realizes the importance watches will have on businesspeople, particularly railway worker and farmers.

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3) Sears takes possession of the watches on consignment (no payment up front). He will keep all profit earned over the stated value made on each unit. He peddles the fancy gold watches to station agents, train engineers, farmers and passers-by. People in other towns along the rail line hear of the watches; Sears arranges delivery via rail. Within a few short months, he nets a $5,000 profit.

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4) 1887. Sears moves to Minneapolis and founds the R.W. Sears Watch Company. With a savvy Marketing campaign utilizing flyers, he transforms his company into a mail-order business. He takes orders and utilizes the railroad for delivery.

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5) 1888. Sears partners with Alvah Roebuck to form the Sears, Roebuck Company based in Chicago, Illinois.

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6) 1893. The first Sears Catalogue is published. It offers only watches.

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7) 1897. The Sears Catalogue expands to include men’s and women’s clothing, basic farming equipment, tableware, houseware, footwear and bicycles.

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8)  1899. Through his savvy advertising and marketing, and through his ingenious use of the railroads as a delivery system for catalogues and products, the Sears Catalogue, now a whopping 500 pages, is reaching 300,000 homes! 

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Sears established its first fixed-location store in the 1920s. It quickly grew into a mega-chain with locations throughout the US. It remained the largest American retailer until the mid-1980s.

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If you ask me…

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It’s not too damn bad…

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for a guy that began as a railroad station manager…

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and bought a bunch of unclaimed watches!

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The Sears Tower, Chicago, Illinois

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Dear Reader, Thanks for stopping by! If you’ve found this blog post enjoyable, inspiring or in any way useful, please consider giving it a Re-Tweet. I’d be most appreciative!

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Image Credits: R. Sears:  www.wikimedia.org; Gold Watch: www.antique-pocket-watches.co.uk ; Sears Tower: www.1.bp.blogspot.com; House: www.th09.deviantart.net 

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Yonatan Maisel is a Business blogger, history buff and author. He specializes in all aspects of Business writing.

From speeches to resumes, from corporate bios to research, from blogging to website content, from articles to ghost-writing, he provides the highest level of quality at a very reasonable price.