As a twenty-four-year-old line cook, Ellen Marie Bennett couldn't stand the kitchen staff's poorly designed, cheaply made aprons. So when her head chef announced he was ordering a new batch, she blurted,
"Chef, I have an apron company" — even though she had no company, no business plan, no plan at all-just a glimmer of a design idea. Through hustle, and a willingness to leap into the unknown time and time again, she built that first order into a multimillion dollar company called Hedley & Bennett, making aprons and kitchen gear worn by many of the world's best chefs and by home cooks everywhere.