The Idea Behind King Size Bows
To Find Successful Business Ideas, Satisfy an Obvious Need
Oct 1, 2008
Good business ideas come from necessity. In 2001 Lynda King and her husband decided to surprise their daughter with a car for Christmas. She called 10 car dealerships looking for a big bow to complete the gift.
“The dealerships told me they wished they had a company to refer me to,” recalls Lynda. “That’s when the idea struck.”
From Great Idea to Business Plan
Lynda made the bow for her daughter’s gift then began designing another for production. Playing off of her own last name she named the bows the King Size Bows.
“I wasn’t the first to have this idea,” says Lynda. “A lot of people had the idea before me. But I was the first to take action and create a business out of it.”
Lynda King is no stranger to action. She had a happy upbringing with parents who encouraged her to think big.
“I see life as a series of opportunities,” says Lynda. “Life is like a video game with lots of action and I just can’t turn it off. Maybe some of it came from my parents. They were always encouraging my brother and I to expand our thinking. I never heard them say that we couldn’t do something.”
The family was also big on fun.
“We laughed a lot as a family,” she recalls. “We felt very comfortable being ourselves when we were together. Having a history like that gave me a “can do” attitude. To this day, I believe that the humor in my marketing campaigns is one of the reasons my ads are so successful.”
Creating Marketing for a New Idea
When Lynda started the business she went to the largest car dealership convention in Vegas and tried to figure out how she would distinguish her business from all the others.
“I needed to find something drastic to get people to come to our booth,” she recalls. “I went to one of the casinos and asked to talk to their most beautiful showgirl. I asked her to wear a mini-skirt and a Giant Bow with a sign that read, ‘Put a king size bow on your models.’ To this day, people are still looking for our models.”
Facing Adversity in Life and Business
Lynda’s a successful entrepreneur from a solid, loving family. But like most people she’s also faced hardships.
“My brother went to Hawaii to celebrate his birthday by doing something he had never done before,” she says. “He always wanted to surf so he got a surfing instructor and went out on the waves. After many attempts, he caught his first wave and stood up. They had a hired a photographer to capture the moment. The picture was perfect. My brother was standing on his surfboard with the biggest smile on his face. The picture captured him living in the moment.”
Her brother died of a massive heart attack just moments later; 9 minutes from the time of his birth.
“He died doing what he always wanted to do,” she says. “That experience made me dig into life even more deeply than ever before. I got more passionate in everything: life, family, business. It made me more passionate about every opportunity to live and to love.”
Her brother’s life and death taught Lynda that life is short.
“It sounds cliché but it made me realize that I couldn’t wait for some magic moment to start living. My life was always about taking action, but even that took on new meaning.”
Making Your Idea into a Successful Business
Lynda believes that success isn’t about ideas, it’s about action.
“I wasn’t the first to think of making and selling King Size Bows, but I was the only one who took action and made a successful business with the idea,” she says. “An idea has no life until it is put into action. Live everyday with passion. You are not promised tomorrow so take action today.”
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