Basketball legend and billionaire Earvin "Magic" Johnson has been involved for decades in opening and owning brick-and-mortar retail locations. And he told attendees as a speaker at the National Retail Federation's conference at the Javits Center in Manhattan this week that he recently drew on that experience to scrutinize a business idea brought to him by his newly graduated daughter — although she wasn't initially appreciative.
The entrepreneur early on developed Magic Johnson Theatres with Sony Pictures before teaming with Starbucks to reportedly become a franchisee before selling. He said he listened as his 20-something daughter requested money to start an online eyewear line after finishing her schooling at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
"So I said, where's the business plan? ... I said, no. I'm not going to do it until you come with a business plan," Johnson told attendees at the NRF conference. "She started crying, and ran to my wife."
His daughter did end up devising a business plan as he asked, but it "didn't have the numbers," according to Johnson, and he sent her back to work on it again. The revised plan "hit it out of the park," Johnson said, and he provided the initial funding for her start-up business. She's selling her designer eyeglasses online now, and "she's doing pretty good, making some money," he told the gathered members of the retailing industry.
The professional basketball Hall of Famer now serves as chairman and CEO of Los Angeles-based Magic Johnson Enterprises, an investment conglomerate that includes 24-Hour Fitness centers, several dozen Burger Kings, movie theaters, malls and a Los Angeles outlet in the TGI Friday's chain.