To meet women like Eve Yen, learn more about our STRATA program.

Are you finding what you need for your business? To get matched with high-quality pre-screened vendors in everything FROM WEB DESIGN TO FINANCING, fill out a short form FOR FREE and submit your request to our vendor matching service now… Responses are immediate.

========================================================================

When Eve Yen started Diamond Wipes International in 1995, she had a good idea, a battered mini van, and not much else. Today, her business employs 120 people and generates $15 million in annual sales, leading her success story to be featured in a recent issue of FORTUNE Small Business.

Everything about her initial venture was modest, except for the concept, which revolutionized how Asian restaurants in America pamper their customers. At the time, sushi bars commonly offered diners hot towels to freshen up before they started eating, as a continuation of a popular Asian tradition. Eve had seen the concept updated to the individually wrapped, moistened towelettes given to diners at restaurants in her native Taiwan. When she moved to America in 1994, so her daughter could attend high school, Eve saw an untapped market for these towlettes here.

Using seed money borrowed from family and friends, Eve set up shop in a 1700-square-foot space with two employees, a secretary, and one machine, which produced 80 cases of her products each month. To learn more about financing opportunities, when you are starting out, check out our Financing Section. The company has since expanded to include a 100,000-square-foot site in Ontario, California and a 60,000-square foot site in Ohio. Combined, they produce more than 10,000 cases of product each month, including the branded wipes Eve offers through her contract packaging service. In 2007, Eve launched Diamond Wipes International’s sister company, La Fresh Group, which features 10 employees and manufactures specialized towellettes moistened with makeup remover, sun block and disinfectant.

Long gone are the days when Eve landed her first customers by visiting their restaurants in her minivan and relying on handmade fliers and cold calls to get the word out. But she offers her many current clients the same hands-on service she did back then, treating each and every one as if they were her only client, or at least the only one who matters.

What we learned from Eve

“I think, in the beginning, you have to budget your money wisely. Save the unnecessary overhead. Don’t put up a very huge warehouse or office just to show off. Spend money on the product, on quality, to present it to customers. Always present a better product than a bigger office.”

Target Your Market

“The market study, for me, is easy. How many potential customers are there? How many Asian restaurants are there? How many Japanese restaurants are there? You just do some simple research, and you will get it. How much, per meal, do they want to spend? How much does a linen towel cost, for laundry? And so, if we go in, how much can we sell to them? So, [you know] the market is there….You have to go out and research and see, who is your target customer?”

Learn to Think Like Your Customer

“The restaurant owners understand, if you offer something, other than food — the food is always something to drive them back – but better service is another thing that will keep customers coming back to the restaurant. And in a very [competitive] time, how do you offer customer service without increasing your cost? It’s very important. Now, this is the restaurant industry. But for other industries — for anybody who wants to offer a service or a product — the same idea has to apply. How is your customer different? How do you help them save money? How do you help them offer better service to their customers? How do you help them make money? It’s the total ultimate goal to being successful.”

Money Can’t Buy Everything

“I had the struggle before; if I had money, I would have hired the CEO, I would have hired the VP of sales, and such and such. But you know, honestly, I don’t think you should believe in those people — not that they are bad — but sometimes it will take them a long time to get things done. You have to believe that you can make it happen. And an expensive team doesn’t mean they are all good. The General Motors, and all the big companies’ CEOs, they might work for some functions, but they are not necessary for new startup companies.”

Learning to Think Like a Company

“Once you decide to form a company, the level of engagement is completely different…You’re not just looking to see if you want to make a new dance. That should have been taken care of awhile ago…You have a very kind of focused vision as to what your company is going to achieve, and how you differentiate between you, your work, and others, which is an ongoing process.”

Growing Goal By Goal

“The best way for you to [grow] is to identify the goal that you want, and lay out the plan. From here to there, what do I need to do? And then, hire the people. After hiring the people, you have to train them. If you do not train them and do not set up the right [standard operating procedure] for them, it might fail. Most likely, it will fail. It will not deliver the outcome that you want.”

One Dream at a Time

“Sometimes entrepreneurs are very quick, Type A persons. So you’re always dreaming about new things, new products, new markets. You want to do it, but then you fail to look at, internally, we need to get there. How do we expedite it? How do we…identify our goals, set up the steps to get to the goals, hire the right people, train them to execute [the goal]? And then, repeat it over and over.”

Knowing How to Juggle Is Its Own Skill Set

“You know, even today, I still juggle three or four jobs. At one point, I could be the owner of the company. At another point, I’m sales. At another point, I’m new product developer. And, at another point, I’m the mom. And I believe there are a lot of women like me, driving the kids to the soccer game, ballet dancing, while thinking how am I going to do business? I think [you juggle] by working harder. My husband always says that I work 24 hours, seven days, because even Saturday and Sunday, I steal time to do my emails and be thinking about business.

I still find, during the hour while I am folding the laundry, I think about things. While I am waiting, that’s what I do. I have my notebook all of the time. When I am driving and waiting for my kids to come out from tennis class, or anything, I will throw down my business plans.”

Read Your Way to the Top

“Read a book, read magazines, read Business Week. Read a lot of things. Reading helped me a lot. Usually, I read business news, financial news, and any articles related to the customers that I want to go to, some lifestyle magazines, or [magazines about] social and lifestyle trends because that helps some of our business to go on. Sometimes, I also read some fiction to just take my mind off [work].”

Be the Smartest Fish in the Sea

“One of the books I think is very, very good for a startup company is one I like called Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. This blue ocean strategy says that business is like an ocean. On the surface are commodity items. All the fish are there, and everybody is fighting for the commodity items. But deep down is the blue ocean, which is the untapped market, which is a lot bigger market.”

Share and Share Alike

“There is enough business for everybody. There is so much business out there. It’s just; you have to go get it. You don’t have to be a cutthroat competitor to other people, no need to. I always maintain very friendly relationships with my other competitors because we compensate each other.”

This Featured Lady was profiled by Sarah Tomlinson, a freelance writer in Los Angeles.

* Learn more about the Ladies Who Launch STRATA program and become a Member Success
* Learn more about PR Opportunities and PR Leads from Ladies Who Launch
* Reach your Launch Potential by taking advantage of these SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES and online resources from Ladies Who Launch