A competitive advantage

Filed in archive Entrepreneurship on July 31, 2007

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While working in Vermont and later as a deck hand on a charter sale boat in Provincetown, MA, at the tip of Cape Cod from September to October 2006, Kraus saved money living with friends, then the family of the charter boat captain and had no car, riding a bike everywhere.

"Except for renting an occasional movie or reading books I really didn't do anything or spend any money," he said.

Returning to Emmaus to live at home while trying to jump start his business he spent an estimated $4,000 on his first two shirts with a run of 200 each.

With a cost of between $8 and $12 he sells them for $25 a piece and figured 70 to 80 sales per shirt would allow him to break even.

He spent virtually nothing nothing using a publishing program already loaded on his computer to launch his website.

When walking in east Greenwich Village wearing a prototype of the Warho shirt, conversation with a man who liked the design led to an idea to sell his wares in New York City on weekends.

Kraus discovered the political nature of his product exempted him from the need for a difficult to procure vendor's licence, an opportunity he promptly exploited.

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