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Before Cookie Johnson founded her own CJ by Cookie Johnson denim line, shopping for jeans was an exercise in utter futility and frustration. The wife of NBA legend and business extraordinaire Earvin “Magic” Johnson stopped waiting for someone else to create jeans for curvaceous and plus-sized women. Johnson entered the entrepreneurial arena to address the jean needs of the “invisible woman.” Cookie Johnson offers several other business tips for aspiring proprietors.
Business tips:
1. “Do your homework first. Whatever business it is [you want to] get into, do your homework, research. And find out everything you need to find out about it, so that you can have that taken care of before you go meet with partners or you sign your name away.”
2. “I added a partner with this venture [Michael Glassner]. The key was finding the right partner. Someone who was already in the business, who knew the business, [and] was into denim.”
3. “Find a niche: This jean is a niche market. No one’s making jeans for curvy bodies. All the jeans that are out there on the market right now are for straight up and down bodies. So this was a jean for all those women who have not been able to really wear jeans before. So we found a niche in that market, what we call the ‘invisible woman.’ ”
Advisory board:
1. “My friend has been in the fashion business forever. She has a fashion consultant business. She’s been a buyer for Nordstrom for years. And now she has her own business where she puts a lot of people together in this industry.
2. “My husband, of course, is the number one person [on my advisory board] … [he’s] great with business. We sat down and had a long talk. He gave me lots of great tips.”
How to maintain a happy marriage and family and still pursue your dreams: “You know what? With everybody it’s a little bit of give-and-take. And sometime you have to understand that you are not home a lot, you work a lot. So we don’t have a lot of problems with that — when he has to do a lot of work or if I have to. It’s a little bit of give-and-take. You have to communicate. Communication is very important. And you have to be a little patient.” –terry shropshire
You can find CJ by Cookie Johnson on Facebook, Twitter and Nordstrom.com. Johnson will also unveil her denim line in Seattle, San Francisco and Dallas. In August, CJ will debut in Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s.
