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The Gurkha Grand Reserve 5 pack was featured in “Gifts for him under $50” on the Marvelous Girl Blog.
GRAND RESERVE – Robusto Natural 5 pk of cigars, from Gurkha Cigars ($48.50) – Nothing puts a smile a man’s face like cigars. So why not impress your him with these flagship cigars from Gurkha Cigars. Infused with Louis XIII cognac and handmade from the finest tobaccos, he’ll truly enjoy the rich, creamy flavor with a hint of spice and a pleasantly light finish found in these cigars.
Our Gurkha Archive cigar was featured in the Baltimore Magazine December 2009 issue within their gift guide under the “Boss, In-Law & Teacher” portion.
Check us out in the holiday gift guide for Delaware County Magazine. Gurkha Cigars was featured as a great luxury men’s gift.
The Gurkha Archive and His Majesty Reserve cigars were featured in the “10 Best Cigars” feature for Exec Digital Magazine. The magazine features the most luxurious, high-end products for executives across the globe.
As Miamians, our appetite for entertainment can be quite insatiable. We have been catered to and coddled to such an extent that nothing short of novel creative genius will impress us anymore.
Thankfully the powers that be heeded our call to raise the bar on what constitutes the good life, and luxury boutique hotels, sexy supper clubs, and international dining venues have risen up like shining beacons of pleasure.
Take for example, the W South Beach. When this property opened in July, right in the heart of resort row on Collins Avenue, South Beach scenesters showed their support by lining up three-and-four deep along 22nd Street just to get a glimpse inside. As the first outpost of the W brand in Miami and the new flagship for the global brand, it took a slew of those creative geniuses to deliver the breathtaking results. Art Deco elements blended with a contemporary design motif make for a sleek aesthetic that feels like the haute couture of luxury interiors. With artwork from Aby Rosen’s private collection, Italian sofas, and a 120-foot-long marble wall, the lobby itself is worth a visit, but you’ll find the sophisticated jetsetters lounging in the Living Room Bar, clubbing at the ultra-exclusive Wall, or enjoying a Sunday funday poolside at Wet.
For guests staying at the hotel, one and two-bedroom ocean suites, beach bungalows, W’s signature presidential suites, and penthouse accommodations offer private sanctuaries right in the heart of our American Riviera. With amenities too long to list, if there is a pampering comfort that can be dreamt of, the W South Beach can offer it. Bliss spa is slated for a December opening, and the property also offers tennis courts, basketball courts, an expansive outdoor garden, and a fitness facility with panoramic city views.
Additionally, a nod towards the luxury resort would not be complete without a Mr. Chow mention. An August opening ensured that Mr. Chow Miami had plenty of time to build the buzz throughout the summer months, and executive chef Nick Jinson Du is more than happy to deliver on the hype. Hailing from one of China’s most renowned resort restaurants, Made in China, he finally brings his unique culinary techniques for pulling pasta to the States. The Michael Chow restaurant brand built an international reputation as a celeb favorite, and now the South Beach scenesters are joining in on the delectable action. Seating more than 300 guests in the interior restaurant, bar, and al fresco dining area, artwork from Mr. Chow’s renowned private collection, including a 125-foot gold-leaf and Swarovski crystal chandelier designed by Chow himself, decorates the space.
After a stint of South Beach resort life, the time comes to venture off of the property. No need to go far though, as the entertainment complex of Bancroft Supperclub awaits just seven blocks south. Developed in the Art Deco space of the Bancroft Hotel, the venue is a well-executed blend of a chichi organic restaurant helmed by Chef Tim Andriola, sharing space with a nighttime den of debauchery befitting South Beach club lore. It has been described as a 20s-style jazz hall, but it is also so much more. With various bars, tabletop dancing girls, and a terrace lounge that makes people-watching on Collins Avenue a nighttime event, Bancroft Supperclub has become the über haute hangout on the beach. And considering the nightmare that traffic and parking on this stretch of South Beach can be, it is the ideal all-in-one venue for dinner, drinks, and dancing.
For the Lincoln Road groupies, a stroll down the strip requires a visit to Meat Market Miami. Located in the old Pacific Time haunt from the good ole days of prosperity, since its opening last November, fans claim not to recognize the 4,400-square-foot revamped interiors. With an inspiration to catapult the conventional American steakhouse into the 21st century, restaurateur David Tornek and Chef Sean Brasel incorporate contemporary designs composed of sleek lines with wood and stone in shades of sand. The décor goes against the grain of traditional upscale chophouses, to be sure, complete with a crudo bar that features the spices of life that Brasel can’t resist, such as oysters with yuzu truffle mignonette, atomic horseradish and habanero cocktail sauce, or mahi-mahi with green tomato, jalapeño juice, cilantro, corn and a touch of tequila. With a self-proclaimed irreverent use of ingredients, the red meat menu options include Kobe skirt steak marinated in lemongrass, ginger, and roasted local chili; buffalo tenderloin steak with a chili and espresso rub, topped with bittersweet chocolate mole butter; and a 16-ounce prime ancho and coffee marinated bone-in filet mignon from Niman Ranch.
For the ultra fancy palates, a trip to the permanent location of The Webster is a must. This luxury shopping boutique opened in a temporary location in 2007, while fashion mavens, caviar lovers, and owners Laure Hériard Dubreuil, Frederic Dechnik, and Milan Vukmirovic waited with baited breath for the completion of the final destination. In June, 2009, the fateful day finally arrived. Not only does the 20,000-square-foot emporium house the finest luxury brands like Balenciaga, Prada, Lanvin, Miu Miu, and Marc Jacobs, along with exclusive pieces from Tom Ford and Yves Saint Laurent, the three-story venue in the heart of South Beach’s Art Deco district is also the U.S. outpost for the acclaimed Parisian restaurant, Caviar Kaspia Miami. The original Caviar Kaspia has served the likes of Nicolas Sarkozy, Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino, Anna Wintour, and Karl Lagerfeld. The Miami version is sure to serve our own American royalty, with world-renowned caviars like Sevruga, Oscietra, and Baer. Wild salmon, duck foie gras, lobster medallions, specially bottled vodka, and Champagne also grace the menu. French art adorns the walls throughout The Webster and Caviar Kaspia, and each floor has a specific dedication, like the third floor jewelry showcase, featuring Aurélie Bidermann, Ilias Lalaounis, and Solange Azagury-Partridge, with the private rooftop terrace serving as the setting for private, luxury brand events.
But Caviar Kaspia doesn’t have the lock down on fancy French cuisine on the beach. While resort row and Lincoln Road have long been spotlight stealers for visitors to our fair city, a true trip in beachside luxury awaits in the über hip and trendy SoFi district (or South of Fifth for those of you who are not yet in the know). Turning up the heat in SoFi is Au Pied de Cochon. The famed Paris-based brasserie features menu items like Iberian ham imported from Spain, Nova Scotian lobster, and oysters imported from France. The escargot is to die for, and Sunday brunchers have taken over this eatery because of the omelets and eggs benedict. The fact that Au Pied de Cochon is open 24 hours-a-day, all year long, means that following a late night of drinks and dancing, it is one of the only haute spots to hit for after-hours munchies.
When Raphael Reboh opened his sophisticated salon in the heart of South Beach, the style mavens breathed a sigh of relief. Femme Coiffure Hair Spa, located in Ritz-Carlton South Beach, features interiors that are worthy of its luxury location, with shelving, styling stations, and marble flooring finished in high-gloss stark white, accented with powder blue furnishings and the product placement of the emerald green René Furterer collection, all underlit with LED lighting. From the top-of-the-line products to the state-of-the-art hair restoration equipment, and one of the poshest locales on the beach, we would expect nothing short of singing in the streets in praise of the opening of these elegant doors.
After stints on resort row, Lincoln Road, and SoFi, a short trip to the north side of the island will deliver luxury galore. The Bal Harbour Shops have long been celebrated as one of the top shopping destinations in the world. Recently, they added to the exclusive shopping directory with the addition of the Carolina Herrera boutique as well as
Roberto Cavalli Bal Harbour. Both designers came to town for their grand openings and hosted separate private events for their favorite fashionistas. The Cavalli boutique, encompassing 3,000 square feet, is the largest and most lavish to date with interior walls finished in burnished brass Venetian plaster with gold dusting, and one wall featuring a beautiful textured damask pattern. Even the floor has an opulent feel, made of a special resin with specks of 14-karat gold. The boutique offers plenty of dramatic touches such as a special lingerie area hidden behind curtains of Swarovski crystals, and a VIP area with alternating décor depending on the theme of the current season’s runway presentation. With velvet covered couches and special one-of-a-kind pieces, the VIP area evokes an opulent, wardrobe-like environment offering the ultimate shopping experience.
Believe it or not, all of the action is not relegated to the beach alone. As Miami mainlanders will attest, there are dozens of destinations across the bridge that are equally deserving of praise. The perfect example is Club 50 at the Viceroy. When George Perez’s Icon Brickell hit the downtown scene just in time for an exclusive preview during Art Basel last December, the town couldn’t stop talking. In 2009, we have been blessed with the official opening of the three towers that have redefined Miami’s downtown skyline. The third tower has garnered the most attention from the elite power players, both locally and on an international scale, for the third tower is the home of the legendary Viceroy Miami hotel. It is not just the room accommodations that have both va-and-staycationers gawking and squawking. This year it is the semi-exclusive rooftop lounge Club 50 that has won the hearts of the city’s most notoriously hard-to-please tastemakers. From fashion shows to celebrity-laden cocktail parties, Club 50 at the Viceroy has cast its spell on the movers and shakers of the Magic City. Private elevator access escorts the elite power players to the top floor of the Kelly Wearstler-designed hotel and lounge. From the dizzying height of 50 stories up in the air, the floor-to-ceiling wall of windows showcase Miami’s never-ending display of twinkling nighttime lights. The interiors could be described as Goldfinger-esque, with turquoise and citrine paying an ode to Miami’s tropical style. Outdoors, Club 50’s private rooftop pool reflects an Asian influence that is just haute enough for the sophisticated set that graces its terrace. And just to prove how haute they really are, a sampling from the liquid opportunities and entertainment menu includes cigars from Gurkha Grand Reserve and Cohiba Puro Dominicana.
Located on the 15th floor of the same famed Viceroy hotel, the name Eos, which translates to new dawn in Greek, hopes to incorporate the philosophy of its name by waking up the culinary scene of the Magic City. Recognized with top honors from Bon Appétit and Food & Wine, the super food duo of Donatella Arpaia and executive chef Michael Psilakis have created Eos’ exotic menu incorporating ingredients and entrée items from far away lands like Portugal, Spain, and Morocco. The 27-foot bar, crafted from Brescia pontifica marble in swirling hues of pink, yellow, and white, is not only the focal point of the restaurant, but also serves as the parking spot for the elite guest list of Hollywood starlets like Sharon Stone and Phoebe Cates, along with hometown heroes Emilio and Gloria Estefan, who showed their support at the opening in May.
Another mainland favorite, Da Vittorio reopened under a new moniker late last year, but with the same Coral Gables address. Reality personality Fabian Basabe is running the business side of the eatery, while Roman-born Chef Vittorio Lozzi offers a menu that has been compared to Italy’s greatest hits, meaning a myriad of noodles prepared in a dizzying array of styles. Hosting international businessmen for power lunches and local celebrities for intimate evening meals, Da Vittorio is winning the battle to entice diners off of the beach, as is the newly opened Sci Sci restaurant in Brickell, which specializes in southern Italian fare. The restaurant, located in the new 1060 condo building, is packed nightly with scenesters who are sick of the hassles associated with some South Beach venues.
And when you’ve had enough of Miami all together, a short jaunt north to the shores of Ft. Lauderdale is sure to relax the nerves and revive the senses. Rising up to meet the demands of South Florida’s most discerning residents and visitors is the W Fort Lauderdale. Remember the time when you were a child and life was easy because it consisted of only three things: recess, naps, and snack time? The W Ft. Lauderdale is just such a playground, albeit for adults, offering such delights that we remember from childhood. Recess takes place in not one, but two sleek infinity pools; private cabanas and posh guest rooms are ideal for the much needed afternoon siesta; and savory cocktails and an array of award-winning menu items ensure that this will be better than snack time at summer camp. Prepare for the night to come at Bliss Spa with a youth-as-we-know-it facial or hot milk and almond pedicure. STEAK 954, an ultra-modern, sexy boutique steakhouse guarantees to satisfy the palate of any red meat lover, but for those seeking the ultimate experience, request a table in the lavish outdoor garden. Next, make your way to Whiskey Blue, a cutting-edge lounge where you can wrap up the evening with cocktails and dancing.
From the luxury boutique hotels to electrifying nightclubs and exotic fine dinning establishments, there is a reason snowbirds flock here every winter. It is the perfect culmination of nightlife, tropical beaches and people from all over the world that make Miami the unique super-power that it is.
We trace a fine cigar’s journey from remote Honduran fields to your hands.
You are the 30th person to hold your cigar. Its previous handlers include the field workers who picked the tobacco leaves, the packers, the rollers, the testers, and the men who sat in cramped quarters in a factory, ridding the leaves of their foul ammonia odor. And all you have to do is smoke the thing.
Real cigar making — the kind that takes place in high-yield factories in Central America — is not quite as glamorous as the type that’s done at upscale parties, where cigar-rolling stations have become a sophisticated staple in recent years. But it’s no less impressive than the work of those party patrons. In fact, real cigar making is even more so considering that the same handcrafted quality must be produced in large quantities as well. For the workers at the Scandinavian Tobacco Group factory in Danlí, Honduras, where cigars for premium labels, including Gurkha, are produced, accomplishing quality in quantity requires having a sharp eye, quick hands, and a willingness to put in long hours.
Danlí is located in the hill country of Honduras, about 70 miles from the capital city of Tegucigalpa. Parts of the broken two-lane cliff-side road that leads into town have collapsed into a ravine below. The rusted old pickup trucks on the winding roads seem barely able to survive the roller-coaster commute. Burros, chickens, and cows graze along the sides of the streets. Thin, sun-kissed faces of locals stare out from shacks stocked with bananas or flowers, which are sold to people driving by. Honduras’s resort-lined coast might as well be light-years away or in another age.
This dusty town is home to about 60,000 souls, more than half of whom work at one of the 25 cigar factories in town. Related industries employ most of the remainder of the populace. The town doesn’t get many visitors, so the bellmen at the Hotel Granada, located in the center of town, offer beaming smiles to new arrivals, adjusting the revolvers they wear at their sides to pick up patrons’ bags and carry them to rooms.
The Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s factory lies behind a high wall that is topped with razor wire. Its huge pair of metal doors swings open, exposing bales and bales of tobacco lining the inside of the warehouse. The operation is the domain of José Olivas Benavídez, whose father, Fidel, started the factory after relocating to Honduras from Nicaragua. The family and its partners, the Toraño cigar company, sold the factory, then known as Latin Cigars de Honduras, to new European owners last year, but José Olivas continues to work as the factory manager under the new ownership. Olivas is a soft-spoken, unassuming man. He strolls past the tobacco bales, explaining the ancestry of each plant; some are from Honduras, while others are from Nicaragua or the Dominican Republic or Connecticut or Sumatra. Beyond the warehouse, rows of workers stretch tobacco leaves that are to be made into wrappers. The workers are almost exclusively female. “Women work harder,” Olivas explains, “and they have better eyes.” That quality becomes important later on in the process, when employees must sort through piles of cigars to ensure that all in a box look precisely the same. It takes a keen eye to distinguish between the wrappers, which may vary in color by only a few subtle shades. For men — who suffer from color blindness far more than women do and who, according to Olivas, are generally not as good at differentiating color in any case — the task would be Herculean.
Beyond the wrapper room, workers wielding thin hoses spray water on rows of pressed and stretched tobacco leaves in order to help them retain some of their elasticity and to humidify them for the fermentation process that rids the plants of their natural ammonia odor. In another cramped room, workers swat fistfuls of tobacco leaves in the air, trying to remove the excess water so the leaves can be stacked into pilones (carefully layered piles) to ferment.
Out on the main floor, approximately 50 rows of cigar rollers sit at counters, working tirelessly. Each one receives a premeasured pile of tobacco leaves that should produce a certain number of cigars. Supervisors watch each line of workers, and the overall supervisor — a woman in a white polo shirt with a short cigar dangling from her lips — keeps tabs on the whole floor. The room is hot and muggy. Once again, almost all the workers here are female. The two lone male rollers are the only ones of the scores of workers in the room, aside from the overall supervisor, who smoke as they work.
Creating each cigar takes only a few seconds. A buncher lays out a binder leaf, inserts the prescribed amount of tobacco, rolls it up, and then puts the tightly packed tube of tobacco into a mold. The molds are pressed for 30 to 45 minutes. Then, two boys take the nearly finished cigars and place them into a machine that tests whether they are smokable. Most of the tested smokes are placed in a tray, signaling that they are fit for packaging and later consumption, but a few are cast aside. This extra step assures that a clogged or poorly rolled cigar almost never makes it into a store. Finally, the cigars are sent to the final roller, who puts the filler in a tobacco wrapper and applies an all-natural odorless gum to one end of the cigar before sealing it. That end will one day be lopped off by a cigar cutter.
The finished products are placed in long boxes and stored in a series of narrow rooms that are blessedly cool and dry. After the cigars have been allowed to age for several months, the boxes are packed up in trucks that make the nail-biting journey across the crumbling roads to Tegucigalpa, where they are then loaded on a plane and shipped out to their respective companies and retailers.
All Gurkha cigars go to the Gurkha corporation’s unassuming headquarters in Doral, Florida, a suburb of Miami, before being sent to their final destinations. Company founder and president Kaizad Hansotia, a big, affable man, operates out of that office, but he’s just as likely to be in Hong Kong, Macao, Russia, or one of the several other far-flung countries Gurkha distributes to as he is to be in Doral at any given time. He tells the story of how he created his luxury cigar brand from almost nothing. “In 1988, I was in Dowa — a Portuguese territory off the coast of India, near Bombay — and I found these two guys making cigars,” Hansotia recalls. “I started talking to them, got drunk on cheap rum, bought all their boxes, and bought the company for $143. Gurkha Cigars was essentially a dead brand name. … We make more than three million cigars each year now.”
Hansotia’s building in Doral includes several refrigerators, each two stories tall and the size of a studio apartment, that serve as humidors for the company’s 29 individual brands of cigars, each one pricier than the last. Gurkha does not make cigars for the masses; it makes cigars for smokers who love their pastime and are willing to pay for the best cigars money can buy.
In his office upstairs, ensconced amid antique Indian furnishings, Persian rugs, brown leather sofas, and a massive television, Hansotia typifies the Gurkha customer. “I wanted to make a cigar for a guy like myself, who may not smoke every day, but when I do, I want the best,” he explains. “So, I started going and trying to find the best crops. One bale, two bales, three bales out of 500. The big cigar companies don’t care about picking out the very best of the crop — separating the cream from the milk. They can’t afford to worry about making [only] 500 or 1,000 boxes from the cream. They need to worry about making 200,000 boxes, 500,000 boxes.”
Gurkha’s smaller output means it can concentrate on making the absolute best. The company makes several thousand boxes each year of its flagship Grand Reserve brand, but its other lines are much harder to come by. Only about 500 boxes of Beauty cigars come out each year, and each box retails for about $770. Think that’s steep? “We’re making one box right now that we’ll only make five of and will sell for $500,000 a box,” Hansotia says. “It will be called HRH: His Royal Highness. The boxes will be made of solid silver, and each of the cigars will be flawless.”
Your cigar might not have a price tag of $20,000; it may be closer to $20. But a long line of people undoubtedly put many hours into making it, regardless of the cost. And as you enjoy the sweet smell of the smoke as it swirls from the base, you can be thankful for the rollers, the testers, and the men who swat ammonia-scented leaves in a factory somewhere in the hills of Honduras.
Location is key in cigar production. Just ask the folks at Arturo Fuente cigar company.
Though Gurkha cigars are produced solely in Honduras, cigar manufacturing is a thriving industry in many Latin American, European, and Asian countries. The heart of Arturo Fuente cigar company’s cigars is located in the heart of the Dominican republic, but it took a while for the company to find its niche. after starting in the back room of Arturo Fuente’s Florida home in 1912, the operation moved to Nicaragua and then to Honduras before finally establishing its chateau de la Fuente plantation in the Dominican republic.
It’s common for cigar companies to establish plantations in multiple countries, but Arturo Fuente cigar company broke from the norm when it decided that there is value to be had in homogeneousness. It created the first Dominican puro – meaning all the cigar’s ingredients are Dominican — on the market, according to the corporation’s vice president of operations, Karl Herzog. The company found that the climate, the agriculture, and above all the people of the Dominican republic produce a blend unlike any other.
Embedded in the cigars is more than tobacco; each cigar contains the unique flavor of the country’s people. Says Herzog about the locals’ relationship with the company: “They are the heart and soul of it.” — Lauri Valerio
Gurkha nos presenta la línea de puros “His Majesty Reserve“, que se ha convertido en los favoritos de importantes luminarias de Hollywood y con justa razón. Su wrapper es una exótica mezcla de tabacos del mundo, y una vez enrollado pasa un proceso de aeñjamiento durante cinco años utilizando una botella entera de Cognac Louis XIII. Con este puro, saborea el mundo cubanísimo.
His MajestyReserve Cigar” de Gurkha, 750 dólares por puro y 15,000 dólares por caja con veinte. www.gurkhacigars.com
How 4 Entrepreneurs Plan to Make 2009 Their Best Year Ever
Steven Strauss
So there I was, glued to my television set, watching the market crash. Lehman Brothers vanished into thin air, Congress failed to pass the $700 billion bailout package, and then the stock market was on its way to its worst day ever, plummeting a jaw-dropping 778 points. The feeling that we were on the edge of Great Depression II was inescapable. The fear was palpable.
And then I get an e-mail from my editor at SUCCESS asking me to do a story on four entrepreneurs who have what Jim Collins and Jerry Porras called, “Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals” for 2009. Suddenly, I felt much better, remembering that we entrepreneurs are a different breed of cat. Sure, the Dow Jones might be tanking, but that does not mean that there still aren’t many great businesses out there doing just fine, headed by visionary CEOs with even bigger and bolder plans for next year, thank you very much.
As the business columnist for USATODAY.com and the author of The Small Business Bible, I speak with entrepreneurs every day, and what I know is that good ideas are fungible; they can be shared, spread around and used by many people. If these supersuccessful entrepreneurs can dream big for next year, so can (and should) you.
So let’s take a gander at four entrepreneurs who have Big, Hairy Audacious Goals for 2009.
THE SWEET SPOT
Daniel Khabie is the CEO of Digitaria, a company he helped found in 1997 to do nothing less than “reinvent the digital marketplace.” (Yep, like any good entrepreneur, Khabie had Big, Hairy Goals from the get-go.)
Back then, that meant creating a better desktop experience. But Khabie was savvy and fortunate enough to pick the right business at the right time: It wasn’t long after Digitaria’s startup phase ended that the digital world changed radically, and for the better, with mobile and Internet options exploding.
If these super-successful entrepreneurs can dream big next year, so can (and should) you.
So these days, Digitaria finds itself in the sweet spot, helping customers like Adidas Golf, Sony and Bravo TV capitalize on the multitude of new media options out there, like online social networking, Web site widgets, video, online marketing and so on.
It should be no surprise that the company has had three straight years of 100 percent growth and looks to exceed $14 million in sales this year. Continuing that streak tops Khabie’s Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal for 2009: to reach $20 million in revenue.
What’s interesting is that he has three subgoals, all designed to help Digitaria reach that Big Goal:
Khabie is a big believer in setting Big Goals, given that it’s been instrumental in his company’s growth. One of the most important earlier goals was to create a platform and related software that would allow the company to objectively analyze its performance. By combining sales data, customer satisfaction, utilization rates, etc., Digitaria can easily analyze the business to see what works and what doesn’t.
The upshot is that accomplishing smaller goals becomes the foundation for shooting for bigger ones.
Khabie is mindful of some other factors, too. “In a tough economy, the key is to watch your cash and over-service your clients,” he says. “We can hit our goals and succeed only when we help our customers reach their goals.”
OUT OF THE RUBBLE
For seven years, we’ve all been watching Vincent Parziale work, but didn’t know it. Parziale is the owner of The Gramercy Group, a construction, demolition and asbestos-remediation company that’s poised to do $50 million in business this year.
While his company typically works on about 20 projects a year, the most famous is the one we have all witnessed: assisting in the cleanup of Ground Zero at the former World Trade Center.
Considering he started the business less than a decade ago as a part-time weekend venture, being part of such cant undertaking is no small feat.
In 1999, Parziale sold a small garbage company began The Gramercy Group. Because of a noncompete the new owners, he was looking for a different when he was offered a contract to do some demolition
“I’d always been intrigued by it,” he tells Who doesn’t find watching buildings rhythmically fascinating?) And given that he had an asbestos-remediation background, he was able to quickly create unique company; one that could offer a one-stopshop solution to its customers: asbestos removal, demolition, and soil and site remediation all in one. A client could hire Gramercy and get a clean site, ready for building, without all the hassle of dealing with multiple contractors and subcontractors. A mini-empire was born.
Becoming a $50 million company was The Gramercy Group’s previous Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal. “Big goals have always been a part of our business,” Parziale says.
It is the individual entrepreneur with a vision and a dream who will see us through.
But having the goal wasn’t enough; the company got there by taking action, specifically increasing its bonding and banking capacity. Once the company did that, it could bid on, and get, much larger projects like the World Trade Center.
Along the way, the company made sure to focus on the fundamentals: “We grew as big and as fast as we did because we do great work, we know our business, we are sticklers about safety, and we come in on time and on budget,” Parziale says.
His Big Goals for 2009 are no less ambitious. Taking the changing economy into account, Parziale plans to do what any good entrepreneur should do when the market changes—namely, he is going to create additional profit centers.
Think of it this way: An investor would never own just one stock. That stock may go up, or (as we all know only too well!) it may go down. Having a broad portfolio helps you spread the risk around.
Well, that’s what additional profit centers do for a business. Instead of relying on but one way to make a buck, an increased number of profit centers mean there are several sources for generating revenue. Starbucks sells coffee in the winter, slushy Frappucinos in the summer, snacks in between and music year round. They are all different profi t centers.
So that’?s what Parziale plans on doing in 2009. For example, instead of simply relying on the tri-state New York area that is his base, he plans to take his company national. By marketing his business throughout the country, and specifically to Fortune 500 companies, Parziale figures he can continue his dramatic growth.
Staying in Constant Contact
When you receive a professional, elegant looking e-newsletter, you likely have Gail Goodman to thank. Goodman is the president and CEO of Constant Contact, a dot-com company that offers small businesses a variety of easy and affordable tools allowing them to stay in, well, constant contact with their own customers and clients.
Whether it’s e-mail marketing, online surveys, e-newsletters or what have you, Constant Contact endeavors to give small-business people the tools they need to create ongoing and significant customer relationships. Goodman says the purpose is nothing less than to make their small-business customers “wildly successful.”
The company has come a long way since its founding nine years ago when it had no customers and no revenue. Today, it has more than 200,000 customers and is adding 20,000 more every quarter. In 2007, Constant Contact completed an IPO, and shares of its common stock began trading on the NASDAQ (symbol: CTCT).
Given the emphasis on and commitment to small business, it’s no surprise that Goodman’s Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal for 2009 has to do with making her customers more successful. “My goal,” she tells me, “is to not only help our hundreds of thousands of smallbusiness customers survive in this tough economy, but thrive.”
Goodman knows that by helping her small-business customers communicate better with their customers, everyone wins. That’s why she plans to continue to reach them with what she calls her core message right now: Your best prospects are your current customers. If you treat them right, if you stay in contact with them via e-mail, you will create a loyal fan base that will help you thrive during these tough times.
Goodman is taking several significant steps to implement her vision:
“In rocky economic times, small businesses have a huge advantage,” Goodman says, “namely, human touch and better relationships.”
By continually trying to “delight the customer” and by showing those customers how to delight their own customers, Goodman and Constant Contact seem well poised to meet their 2009 BHAG.
TURNING $149 INTO $35 MILLION
In 1989, Kaizad “Kaiser” Hansotia was traveling through India when a unique opportunity arose: He was offered the chance to purchase a historic brand and business, Gurkha Cigars. The Gurkha legacy dates to the height of the British Empire, when England ruled India and British soldiers began making their own cigars, named Gurkhas. Not a bad $149 investment in 1989, not at all.
Although Hansotia bought a great brand name, he knew he needed a cigar worthy of the lineage, so he began to work with partners to create a premium cigar and blend. The new Gurkha cigar was reborn.
Not content with creating what he called “the Rolls-Royce of Cigars,” Hansotia took his desire to create the world’s best cigar one step further by creating cigar boxes that would be as prized as the cigars themselves. And thus, for example, the 2007 limited Black Dragon collection (only five cases of 100 ultrapremium cigars offered and sold) came in a camel bone humidor.
Hansotia is a stickler when it comes to his beloved cigars, selling them in only about 1,000 of the roughly 4,000 tobacco shops in the country, even though he could probably sell them in every one if he so desired. The stores he chooses to work with have been hand-selected, and he takes his relationships with these customers very seriously.
As such, Hansotia’s Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal for 2009 is one that any entrepreneur in this economy could relate to: He plans to strengthen his relationships with his current customers. He doesn’t want or need more stores, he doesn’t want more volume. He wants better distribution and better execution and deeper relationships with his current customers. “We could double sales in 10 minutes if we wanted to,” he tells me, “but we are committed to quality and like to build our business and brand slowly, a store at a time.”
That is how you create a $35 million company from a $149 investment.
In a competitive retail world like that in which Gurkha deals, this makes a lot of sense. Hansotia says Gurkha is willing to do whatever is necessary to strengthen its relationships with its cigar store clientele. “Our stores are our partners,” he says. If that means building the store a new humidor, so be it. If it means creating a better display, it’s done. Gurkha representatives personally work with each store in their network to create optimum visibility.
The result will be a loyal, strong, dedicated customer base that will stick with him, in good times and bad.
TO THE UNIVERSE, AND BEYOND!
While the goals listed by these entrepreneurs range from the big to the huge, the good news is that you need not be an uberentrepreneur to have some big dreams too. Take a look at your business or career and consider the possibilities. Go for it! Let go, and dream big. After all, dreaming big and daring to do the unexpected is what got you where you are today, right?
That’s the spirit!
Of course, there’s no doubt that 2009 looks to be a challenging economic climate for anyone in business but, even it is heartening to remember that macro-trends just that. It’s the individual entrepreneur with a vision and a dream who will see us through. Walt Disney started Disney Studios after failing in one business, a bankruptcy and in the middle of the Great Depression. Microsoft was started during recession.
The bottom line is that dreaming big is part of this gig called entrepreneurship.
Village People cop Victor Willis is out of the hospital after surgery to remove nodes from his vocal chords, but he has to stay off singing for 90 days, according to the doctor. … We’re told that Gurkha cigars are smokin’ out famous new fathers Matthew McConaughey and Brad Pitt, sending the guys boxes of their equally famed stogies. … Heath Ledger’s mother and father came to New York for their late son’s debut in “The Dark Knight,” but didn’t do the red carpet.