Effectual Entrepreneurship, Third Edition
Practically Speaking
Gardener’s Eden: Is a Cost Always a Cost?
Partnering with suppliers enabled this entrepreneur to make her limited start-up capital go more than four times further.
Entrepreneur: Ruth Owades
Entity: Gardener’s Eden
Country: USA
Pages 248-250 in
Chapter 15 Asking Potential Partners to Make Commitments (pp. 239 to 256)
"As an executive at diversified mail order retailer Avion Group, Ruth Owades saw an opportunity in the amateur horticulturalist segment, a group that was easy to reach, was extremely loyal if well served, and, most important, had a pressing need: these consumers did not have easy access to specialty gardening equipment.
Ruth proposed the idea of building a mail order business around this need to executives at Avion, but they had no interest. Her next step was to ask if she could develop it on her own. Surprisingly, they agreed.
After a brief investigation, Ruth, who had never worked outside the comfortable confines of the corporate world, discovered that investment money for an unproven entrepreneur with an unproven idea was not exactly forthcoming. Ruth's best offer came from a group of four private investors, who were asking for 49% of the company and would require Ruth to provide 25% of the money for the venture from her own bank account. Determined to make it work without the investors' money, she plunged into business, naming her venture Gardener's Eden.
"
Under Construction: Join Us in Co-Creation!

Video Resources
References & Links
- How Starbucks Became An $80B Business—YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUBeH7VQaFY&t=50s
- Howard Schultz. (n.d.-a). Schultz Family Foundation. Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://schultzfamilyfoundation.org/team-member/howard-schultz/
- Howard Schultz. (n.d.-b). Forbes. Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.forbes.com/profile/howard-schultz/
- Howard Schultz. (2025). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Howard_Schultz&oldid=1285405168
- Howard Schultz: An Overview of the Entrepreneur’s Career - 2025. (n.d.-c). MasterClass. Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.masterclass.com/articles/howard-schultz-life-and-career
- hpeiper. (2018, September 4). Schultz to young entrepreneurs: ‘It can happen for you’. Starbucks Stories EMEA. https://stories.starbucks.com/emea/stories/2018/bocconni-university/
- Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz: How to Be Strategic Thinkers | Inc. - YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5Djl9_Xc3w
- Starbucks’ CEO Talks Business—YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83yInyY1KLs&t=152s
- Starbucks’s Howard Schultz: From Coffee Entrepreneur to Three-Time CEO. (n.d.). WSJ. Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.wsj.com/story/starbuckss-howard-schultz-from-coffee-entrepreneur-to-three-time-ceo-439768fc
- Taylor, K. (2017, December 13). From Brooklyn to Billionaire: The Story of How Howard Schultz Transformed Starbucks Into an $84 Billion Business. Inc. https://www.inc.com/business-insider/howard-schultz-chairman-former-ceo-starbucks-successful-billionaire-coffee.html
- The Man Behind Starbucks Reveals How He Changed the World—YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnA7n9qSB7E&t=255s