Johnny 'Cupcakes' shares his tips for success
John Crisafulli
Issue date: 10/10/08 Section: Campus News
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Growing up and watching his mother work in a job that she hated, Johnny decided that he would one day work for himself. He never understood why people "did things that they did not like." As a boy, he would sell things to make money. Lemonade stands, yard sales, and even novelty items at school.
By the time he got to high school, he was purchasing novelty joke items at wholesale and reselling them to classmates to make a profit. After nearly being expelled for selling itching powder, he started selling candy. Even at such a young age, he knew how to work the market and turn a profit. He sold better candy and a lower price than the school store, so much so that the store pushed to have him reprimanded. He was a budding entrepreneur.
Knowing that school was not for him and after spending only part of a semester in college, Johnny continued on his path to success. He was not a partier and had trouble sitting still. Instead of going out and wasting money, he stayed in making lists and developing his ideas. "Nothing feels better than crossing something off a list," he said.
But, his road to success was not a straight away. He spent time traveling with the band he was in and working at Newbury Comics. While working at Newbury, he gained a number of nicknames, but "Johnny Cupcakes" was the one that stuck. Johnny decided to make a "Johnny Cupcakes" t-shirt for himself just for fun. Little did he know that it would be the start of a multi-million dollar company.
His shirt was a hit and soon total strangers were asking him how they could get one. He started making more, selling them out of the trunk of his car. He would sell out of shirts before he had the chance to make new ones. He continued to put his profits back into the company, to help it grow. Soon, he had established a website and was selling shirts online.
Johnny's t-shirts featuring cupcakes and poking fun at popular culture gained an almost cult following. As the business grew so did the customer base and soon he outgrew the attic in his parents' home and set up shop down the street in his hometown of Hull, Mass. As time passed, he learned the "ins and outs" of owning a business: how to present a professional image, how to spread the word, how to keep the customer wanting more, and how to produce a quality product.
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