hello and welcome to modeling the
masters a new series dedicated to
helping entrepreneurs find a shortcut to
business success by modeling the
strategies and ideas of other famous
successful entrepreneurs you can learn
viable strategies to implement into your
business today to achieve success for
your company modeling the Masters and
their strategy is quite simply as the
fastest way to go from credit card debt
to business success my name is Evan
Carmichael and today we’re gonna be
talking about the Harley Davidson Motor
Company
hey what may be an American icon today
when it was first started was founded by
two young entrepreneurs with an idea a
big dream and the willingness to make it
happen
we’re gonna learn a little bit about
their story how they got started what
factors led to their success and what
take-home lessons you can implement your
business today to achieve success on
your own the first lesson from Harley
Davidson is build a great team it’s
extremely difficult to build a great
company as a one-person operation which
a lot of entrepreneurs unfortunately are
when Harley Davidson started it was
started by two young entrepreneurs
William Harley and Arthur Davidson when
they were 20 and 21 years old
they started the business unfortunately
didn’t know a lot about actually
building motorcycles they took bicycles
tried to put an engine on top of it and
it wasn’t working out for them they
needed somebody with a little bit more
experience so they brought in Walter
Davidson was an older brother from
Kansas they promised him a chance to
ride on the motorcycle he only later
found out that he had to actually build
the cycle for them but he stayed on
later on as a company grew they also
brought in William
to be the first official president of
the organization so it’s important to
really surround yourself with the people
who can help your business get to that
next step
realize what you’re really good at and
find people who are really good at the
other areas and you don’t want to touch
it or that you can’t be bothered with or
you’re not really gonna be passionate
about if you focus on your core
strengths like the harley-davidson team
did everybody focuses in on what they’re
really good at then you have a much
greater chance of achieving success
lesson number two is build slowly when
the company was first started and they
made their first motorcycles in 1903
they only made three the next year they
made another three the next year they
made only seven more and finally the
next year they expand it and were able
to make 50 when they started there were
no employees it was just the founders
they were working on sweat equity alone
they didn’t spend the money to go and
get warm ploys and dig themselves into
debt and when they started their first
center of operation was a little shed
they had built in their backyard and
their sister Hannah wrote Harley
Davidson Motor Company on the outside of
the door it wasn’t until their fourth
year that they were able to expand to a
full level Factory and build those 50
motorcycles too many entrepreneurs when
they get started take on too much debt
they borrow money from all sorts of
different sources and then they blow
their brains out trying to accomplish
rapid growth don’t overextend yourself
build slowly make sure that you have a
product that people are willing to pay
money for and then be able to build your
company and grow through the profits
being reinvested into your
lesson number three is sell to big
companies one of the major reasons for
the success of harley-davidson was their
ability to secure the big contract some
of the big deals at the Atlanta tour
with the United States Postal Service
the police departments and the allies
during World War one and World War two
it’s a lot easier to find a big company
and sell them a thousand copies of units
of whatever you’re selling to try to go
out and sell thousand different people
one copy or one unit of whatever you’re
selling go out and try to find those big
customers when the recession hit the
Great Depression in the United States
and around the world before that hit
there were 300 different manufacturers
of motorcycles in the United States
after a hit they were – and the main
reason why they only get through it so
well was their ability to keep with
those big contracts find the big
contracts and one or two major cuts of
customers keep them happy and look you
coming back for more lesson number four
is leverage big brands one of the best
marketing decisions that harley-davidson
ever made was to sponsor a team of
racers called the wrecking crew these
were guys who went out and raced
motorcycles they won all the races and
they were known for their dangerous
stunts in their style by being able to
associate with this group they passed on
a lot of brand value to harley-davidson
suddenly everybody knew who
harley-davidson was it’s not unlike what
Nike does now by sponsoring some of the
top athletes so for your own business
think about who you can partner up with
who was already a known entity people
know about them they have a respected
brand and by latching onto them
partnering with them you’ve gained
instant credibility it’s hard to go from
nothing people don’t know who you are to
becoming that rising star and an easy
way to do it is by leveraging the brand
that others have already built
harley-davidson continued to do this as
they grew their company when they
partnered with the police departments
and with the Allies during World War one
in World War two because people look up
to the police and to the Allies when
they saw that the police and allies were
using Harley Davidsons then they must be
a good product and everybody else wanted
to get them as well so think about who
you can leverage a brand that’s in your
industry or related to your industry you
tagged on to them and they can help take
you to that next level of success our
final lesson lesson number five is
innovate Harley Davidson was always on
the cutting edge of innovation for their
motorcycles and they were known for
always having high quality new
technologies coming through to make
their motorcycles more reliable and
faster they were the first ones to have
the step starter so you didn’t have to
ride the bike for a certain amount of
time before the engine would kick in
they would first is the v-twin engine
and they were the first ones that break
all sorts of different land speed
records with their motorcycles
especially in tough economic times it’s
important to invest in your research and
development and have the best product
possible if your product is similar to
everybody else’s and the price is the
same as everybody else’s it’s going to
be hard to stand out give customers a
reason to buy from you by making a
product as good as it possibie invest in
making it the best technology out there
on the market so the customers have no
choice but to buy from you today
harley-davidson has almost 10,000
employees and almost 6 billion dollars
in revenue it seems like a really big
company now but remember when it first
got started it was two young
entrepreneurs with an idea a big dream
willingness to make it happen and by
following those five lessons that we
talked about today you can also achieve
success and build a great company for
you
I hope you enjoyed the session today I
wanted to thank phantom media or the
sponsors of this event you can learn
more about them by clicking on the links
provided and as well you can learn more
about Riley Davidson on their stories
and the stories of other famous
entrepreneurs on our website at
economical calm I hope you enjoyed the
session and look forward to the next
modeling the master series with you
masters a new series dedicated to
helping entrepreneurs find a shortcut to
business success by modeling the
strategies and ideas of other famous
successful entrepreneurs you can learn
viable strategies to implement into your
business today to achieve success for
your company modeling the Masters and
their strategy is quite simply as the
fastest way to go from credit card debt
to business success my name is Evan
Carmichael and today we’re gonna be
talking about the Harley Davidson Motor
Company
hey what may be an American icon today
when it was first started was founded by
two young entrepreneurs with an idea a
big dream and the willingness to make it
happen
we’re gonna learn a little bit about
their story how they got started what
factors led to their success and what
take-home lessons you can implement your
business today to achieve success on
your own the first lesson from Harley
Davidson is build a great team it’s
extremely difficult to build a great
company as a one-person operation which
a lot of entrepreneurs unfortunately are
when Harley Davidson started it was
started by two young entrepreneurs
William Harley and Arthur Davidson when
they were 20 and 21 years old
they started the business unfortunately
didn’t know a lot about actually
building motorcycles they took bicycles
tried to put an engine on top of it and
it wasn’t working out for them they
needed somebody with a little bit more
experience so they brought in Walter
Davidson was an older brother from
Kansas they promised him a chance to
ride on the motorcycle he only later
found out that he had to actually build
the cycle for them but he stayed on
later on as a company grew they also
brought in William
to be the first official president of
the organization so it’s important to
really surround yourself with the people
who can help your business get to that
next step
realize what you’re really good at and
find people who are really good at the
other areas and you don’t want to touch
it or that you can’t be bothered with or
you’re not really gonna be passionate
about if you focus on your core
strengths like the harley-davidson team
did everybody focuses in on what they’re
really good at then you have a much
greater chance of achieving success
lesson number two is build slowly when
the company was first started and they
made their first motorcycles in 1903
they only made three the next year they
made another three the next year they
made only seven more and finally the
next year they expand it and were able
to make 50 when they started there were
no employees it was just the founders
they were working on sweat equity alone
they didn’t spend the money to go and
get warm ploys and dig themselves into
debt and when they started their first
center of operation was a little shed
they had built in their backyard and
their sister Hannah wrote Harley
Davidson Motor Company on the outside of
the door it wasn’t until their fourth
year that they were able to expand to a
full level Factory and build those 50
motorcycles too many entrepreneurs when
they get started take on too much debt
they borrow money from all sorts of
different sources and then they blow
their brains out trying to accomplish
rapid growth don’t overextend yourself
build slowly make sure that you have a
product that people are willing to pay
money for and then be able to build your
company and grow through the profits
being reinvested into your
lesson number three is sell to big
companies one of the major reasons for
the success of harley-davidson was their
ability to secure the big contract some
of the big deals at the Atlanta tour
with the United States Postal Service
the police departments and the allies
during World War one and World War two
it’s a lot easier to find a big company
and sell them a thousand copies of units
of whatever you’re selling to try to go
out and sell thousand different people
one copy or one unit of whatever you’re
selling go out and try to find those big
customers when the recession hit the
Great Depression in the United States
and around the world before that hit
there were 300 different manufacturers
of motorcycles in the United States
after a hit they were – and the main
reason why they only get through it so
well was their ability to keep with
those big contracts find the big
contracts and one or two major cuts of
customers keep them happy and look you
coming back for more lesson number four
is leverage big brands one of the best
marketing decisions that harley-davidson
ever made was to sponsor a team of
racers called the wrecking crew these
were guys who went out and raced
motorcycles they won all the races and
they were known for their dangerous
stunts in their style by being able to
associate with this group they passed on
a lot of brand value to harley-davidson
suddenly everybody knew who
harley-davidson was it’s not unlike what
Nike does now by sponsoring some of the
top athletes so for your own business
think about who you can partner up with
who was already a known entity people
know about them they have a respected
brand and by latching onto them
partnering with them you’ve gained
instant credibility it’s hard to go from
nothing people don’t know who you are to
becoming that rising star and an easy
way to do it is by leveraging the brand
that others have already built
harley-davidson continued to do this as
they grew their company when they
partnered with the police departments
and with the Allies during World War one
in World War two because people look up
to the police and to the Allies when
they saw that the police and allies were
using Harley Davidsons then they must be
a good product and everybody else wanted
to get them as well so think about who
you can leverage a brand that’s in your
industry or related to your industry you
tagged on to them and they can help take
you to that next level of success our
final lesson lesson number five is
innovate Harley Davidson was always on
the cutting edge of innovation for their
motorcycles and they were known for
always having high quality new
technologies coming through to make
their motorcycles more reliable and
faster they were the first ones to have
the step starter so you didn’t have to
ride the bike for a certain amount of
time before the engine would kick in
they would first is the v-twin engine
and they were the first ones that break
all sorts of different land speed
records with their motorcycles
especially in tough economic times it’s
important to invest in your research and
development and have the best product
possible if your product is similar to
everybody else’s and the price is the
same as everybody else’s it’s going to
be hard to stand out give customers a
reason to buy from you by making a
product as good as it possibie invest in
making it the best technology out there
on the market so the customers have no
choice but to buy from you today
harley-davidson has almost 10,000
employees and almost 6 billion dollars
in revenue it seems like a really big
company now but remember when it first
got started it was two young
entrepreneurs with an idea a big dream
willingness to make it happen and by
following those five lessons that we
talked about today you can also achieve
success and build a great company for
you
I hope you enjoyed the session today I
wanted to thank phantom media or the
sponsors of this event you can learn
more about them by clicking on the links
provided and as well you can learn more
about Riley Davidson on their stories
and the stories of other famous
entrepreneurs on our website at
economical calm I hope you enjoyed the
session and look forward to the next
modeling the master series with you
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