Jerry Gillies Quotes

When a product is market driven, it should be able to pay for all its raw materials at market prices.

It's very difficult to run a business when you're buying something for $5 and selling it for $10.

In the corporate world, there's, like, a 300 percent markup. In our world, we normally don't go above a 100 percent markup.

My revenue was $4 million my first year in business, off of one $20 item.

If your goal is to provide a service at terms your customers can afford, you have to figure out how to offer your services at price points such that your aggregated costs are lower than your aggregated revenues.

A merchant is someone who figures out how to select, how to smell, how to identify, how to feel, how to time, how to buy, how to sell, and how to hopefully have two plus two equal six.

Every retailer, when they price their goods, looks at their total cost overall. When they have costs go up, they'll price their products accordingly.

If you make a really good product that people want and are willing to pay for, money will come.

When I think of revenue growth, I think of the words 'mix' and 'shift.'

If something's a high-margin product, I understand its importance to the store.

Almost every ride we're profitable on. We make money on every ride.

Remind people that profit is the difference between revenue and expense. This makes you look smart.

EBay gave me the framework to discover I was an e-commerce entrepreneur. I touched everything, from shipping to logistics.

As the years passed, and I was nine, 10, 11 years old, it became obvious I was going to start up a business of some sort.

I don't think you should ever start a business and move in a direction where you can't see it becoming a business.

I was 17 years old when I built the first store... A very simple, basic store with a basic counter - not very much equipment, all purchased second-hand. And the menu was very simple.

One of my earliest ventures was when I was nine years old. I realized there was a shortage of pencils at school, so I started Rent-a-Pencil. But I made a fundamental mistake. Everybody stole my pencils.

And you also have to do movies that are about commerce because that's what is required of the industry today.

The best companies are the ones that offer their products for free.

Pricing is actually a pretty simple and straight forward thing. Customers will not pay literally a penny more than the true value of the product.

Nobody forces you to work at Wal-Mart. Start your own business! Sell something to Wal-Mart!

It's definitely an interesting question: 'Do you need more funding to start a luxury business?' That's something I want to think about a little bit more.

I have a hard time with businesses that don't make money at some point.

Go find out if you can make your product. Once you make it, stop projecting what's going to happen and go find out whether your product can sell. Find out whether someone is willing to take hard-earned cash out of their pocket and exchange it for your product.

My sister and I had a lemonade stand - with a two-drink minimum.