"Judi Henderson-Townsend had never worked in retail. She had done no market research on the demand for mannequins. In fact, she had never actually touched a mannequin prior to getting into the business. All she wanted was a creative art project—to mosaic a mannequin for her garden. But instead of buying a single mannequin, she impulsively bought 50 from a vendor who was closing his mannequin rental business and leaving the state. Cost of startup: 2,500 US dollars.

Paying Guests
Though it didn't cost an arm and a leg for Judi to get into business, she then had to figure out the rest of the equation. After explaining to her husband Jay that they would have 50 unusual guests in their basement, Judi went about creating the market."