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Bottom-Line Beauty
The dollars-and-cents reality of outfitting a new venture may not be the most glamorous topic, but Inc. Technology's special "CEO's Start-Up Toolkit" issue (Summer 2000) showcased both style and substance by featuring Marla Malcolm (MBA 1998) on its cover. As CEO of Bluemercury, Inc., Malcolm discussed the technology purchasing decisions she made when equipping her company, a "clicks-and-bricks" retailer of high-end, hard-to-find beauty products. The Washington, D.C.-based firm now has two boutiques in the nation's capital, as well as a mail-order catalog and an online store at www.bluemercury.com. With a $60,000 budget for the first six months of operation, Malcolm kept a tight rein on unnecessary expenditures, choosing low-cost eMachines over standard desktop computers for her employees' relatively light e-mail, word-processing, and spreadsheet needs. Her philosophy? "We're super cheap. If a product doesn't affect the customer, we don't care about it." Meanwhile, Bluemercury is reaping the benefits of Malcolm's thrift and savvy, with projected revenues of $8 million for 2000 and five new stores slated to open in the coming year.
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