Page 249 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

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ICHARD W. SEARS , founder of Sears, Roebuck & Co., made his first
$1,000 in 1884, in a spare-time mail-order business under the name of the R.
W. Sears Watch Company. He wrote his letters with pen and ink in his
leisure hours. Later, when his correspondence demanded more time than he
could spare, he enlisted the aid of a railroad man working on a near-by
section. From this humble start grew the greatest mail-order house in the
world. Soon Mr. Sears’ spare-time work became so profitable that he
resigned his position as telegraph operator, moved to Minneapolis, and
started in the mail-order business in real earnest with $8,000 which he had
managed to save.

In the late eighties he moved to Chicago. He continued to prosper. Then a
Chicago firm made him an attractive offer for his business, which he
accepted. A condition of the sale was that Mr. Sears should not engage in the
mail-order business in Chicago for a period of five years. When the transfer
was completed, Mr. Sears returned to Minneapolis. At this point the level-
headedness of the man is shown in a striking manner. He was not yet twenty-
four, yet he had over $100,000 in the bank, made entirely by his own efforts
in the mail-order business. The possession of such a large sum of money by
so young a man is often a signal for erratic actions. But it affected Mr. Sears
not a particle. His first step was to buy his mother a home. Then he invested
the major part of his capital in Minnesota 8 per cent farm mortgages. He
never parted with this investment.

He started again in the mail-order business in Minneapolis. At this time, Mr.
Roebuck worked for him as repairman. They later formed a partnership and
the new business grew by leaps and bounds. The advantages of Chicago as a
distributing center appealed strongly to Mr. Sears. So at the end of the
specified five years, he moved again from Minneapolis to Chicago. This was
in 1895. Mr. Roebuck stayed with Mr. Sears about four more years.

Mr. Sears was a prodigious worker. He would work eighteen hours a day for