Description of the video:

Scarpino: Do you think of yourself as a role model?

Miller: You know, I do. I do. I think it’s important to do that. If someone calls me and asks for -- it happened yesterday -- I had a phone call and someone said, I have some great ideas for bags. And then they said, I am not going to take any business away from you, but I don’t know where to start. We had to help. We had people that would listen to us and give us some advice. The best advice is no advice. The best advice is to throw back questions and let that person answer some questions, which is what happened to us.

Scarpino: Who supplied you with advice, particularly when you were thinking in terms of creating Vera Bradley?

Miller: When we started with this idea we needed most of –both Barb and I are somewhat right and left brained. Barb is definitely more right brained than me. She is very, very creative. Very talented. Very talented designer. I am probably more left brain. So, we went to SCORE: Service Core of Retired Executives. A friend of ours who had a design business, furniture and interior design business, said you should go to SCORE. So, I looked it up in the phone book, and we have a SCORE chapter in Fort Wayne. I called. They sent out the form. Do you need help with marketing, sales, finance, and I checked all of them. I took our box which was our office with some of our prototypes in; it was our office. George Cook was the person they had us see, and he had just retired as Executive VP from Grey Magnum Wire, which is a branch of Alcoa. George being an accountant was just the right person for us. He is still here. In fact I was saying I am going to call him this week because I haven’t talked to him in a while. He is in his late eighties now and a wonderful man, taught me so much, because he’s the one that never answered my questions. I said George, we need a system; we need to be plugged into a system thinking of a franchise or something. He said “I can’t do that.” You have to walk before you run; you need to figure things out. Being in business, this is our twenty fifth year in business, we figured some things out. We still have a long way to go, but we did figure some things out and he was a huge help. Huge.

Description of the video:

Scarpino: Do you think of yourself as a role model?

Miller: You know, I do. I do. I think it’s important to do that. If someone calls me and asks for -- it happened yesterday -- I had a phone call and someone said, I have some great ideas for bags. And then they said, I am not going to take any business away from you, but I don’t know where to start. We had to help. We had people that would listen to us and give us some advice. The best advice is no advice. The best advice is to throw back questions and let that person answer some questions, which is what happened to us.

Scarpino: Who supplied you with advice, particularly when you were thinking in terms of creating Vera Bradley?

Miller: When we started with this idea we needed most of –both Barb and I are somewhat right and left brained. Barb is definitely more right brained than me. She is very, very creative. Very talented. Very talented designer. I am probably more left brain. So, we went to SCORE: Service Core of Retired Executives. A friend of ours who had a design business, furniture and interior design business, said you should go to SCORE. So, I looked it up in the phone book, and we have a SCORE chapter in Fort Wayne. I called. They sent out the form. Do you need help with marketing, sales, finance, and I checked all of them. I took our box which was our office with some of our prototypes in; it was our office. George Cook was the person they had us see, and he had just retired as Executive VP from Grey Magnum Wire, which is a branch of Alcoa. George being an accountant was just the right person for us. He is still here. In fact I was saying I am going to call him this week because I haven’t talked to him in a while. He is in his late eighties now and a wonderful man, taught me so much, because he’s the one that never answered my questions. I said George, we need a system; we need to be plugged into a system thinking of a franchise or something. He said “I can’t do that.” You have to walk before you run; you need to figure things out. Being in business, this is our twenty fifth year in business, we figured some things out. We still have a long way to go, but we did figure some things out and he was a huge help. Huge.

Description of the video:

Scarpino: Do you think of yourself as a role model?

Miller: You know, I do. I do. I think it’s important to do that. If someone calls me and asks for -- it happened yesterday -- I had a phone call and someone said, I have some great ideas for bags. And then they said, I am not going to take any business away from you, but I don’t know where to start. We had to help. We had people that would listen to us and give us some advice. The best advice is no advice. The best advice is to throw back questions and let that person answer some questions, which is what happened to us.

Scarpino: Who supplied you with advice, particularly when you were thinking in terms of creating Vera Bradley?

Miller: When we started with this idea we needed most of –both Barb and I are somewhat right and left brained. Barb is definitely more right brained than me. She is very, very creative. Very talented. Very talented designer. I am probably more left brain. So, we went to SCORE: Service Core of Retired Executives. A friend of ours who had a design business, furniture and interior design business, said you should go to SCORE. So, I looked it up in the phone book, and we have a SCORE chapter in Fort Wayne. I called. They sent out the form. Do you need help with marketing, sales, finance, and I checked all of them. I took our box which was our office with some of our prototypes in; it was our office. George Cook was the person they had us see, and he had just retired as Executive VP from Grey Magnum Wire, which is a branch of Alcoa. George being an accountant was just the right person for us. He is still here. In fact I was saying I am going to call him this week because I haven’t talked to him in a while. He is in his late eighties now and a wonderful man, taught me so much, because he’s the one that never answered my questions. I said George, we need a system; we need to be plugged into a system thinking of a franchise or something. He said “I can’t do that.” You have to walk before you run; you need to figure things out. Being in business, this is our twenty fifth year in business, we figured some things out. We still have a long way to go, but we did figure some things out and he was a huge help. Huge.

Description of the video:

Scarpino: Do you think of yourself as a role model?

Miller: You know, I do. I do. I think it’s important to do that. If someone calls me and asks for -- it happened yesterday -- I had a phone call and someone said, I have some great ideas for bags. And then they said, I am not going to take any business away from you, but I don’t know where to start. We had to help. We had people that would listen to us and give us some advice. The best advice is no advice. The best advice is to throw back questions and let that person answer some questions, which is what happened to us.

Scarpino: Who supplied you with advice, particularly when you were thinking in terms of creating Vera Bradley?

Miller: When we started with this idea we needed most of –both Barb and I are somewhat right and left brained. Barb is definitely more right brained than me. She is very, very creative. Very talented. Very talented designer. I am probably more left brain. So, we went to SCORE: Service Core of Retired Executives. A friend of ours who had a design business, furniture and interior design business, said you should go to SCORE. So, I looked it up in the phone book, and we have a SCORE chapter in Fort Wayne. I called. They sent out the form. Do you need help with marketing, sales, finance, and I checked all of them. I took our box which was our office with some of our prototypes in; it was our office. George Cook was the person they had us see, and he had just retired as Executive VP from Grey Magnum Wire, which is a branch of Alcoa. George being an accountant was just the right person for us. He is still here. In fact I was saying I am going to call him this week because I haven’t talked to him in a while. He is in his late eighties now and a wonderful man, taught me so much, because he’s the one that never answered my questions. I said George, we need a system; we need to be plugged into a system thinking of a franchise or something. He said “I can’t do that.” You have to walk before you run; you need to figure things out. Being in business, this is our twenty fifth year in business, we figured some things out. We still have a long way to go, but we did figure some things out and he was a huge help. Huge.

Description of the video:

Scarpino: Do you think of yourself as a role model?

Miller: You know, I do. I do. I think it’s important to do that. If someone calls me and asks for -- it happened yesterday -- I had a phone call and someone said, I have some great ideas for bags. And then they said, I am not going to take any business away from you, but I don’t know where to start. We had to help. We had people that would listen to us and give us some advice. The best advice is no advice. The best advice is to throw back questions and let that person answer some questions, which is what happened to us.

Scarpino: Who supplied you with advice, particularly when you were thinking in terms of creating Vera Bradley?

Miller: When we started with this idea we needed most of –both Barb and I are somewhat right and left brained. Barb is definitely more right brained than me. She is very, very creative. Very talented. Very talented designer. I am probably more left brain. So, we went to SCORE: Service Core of Retired Executives. A friend of ours who had a design business, furniture and interior design business, said you should go to SCORE. So, I looked it up in the phone book, and we have a SCORE chapter in Fort Wayne. I called. They sent out the form. Do you need help with marketing, sales, finance, and I checked all of them. I took our box which was our office with some of our prototypes in; it was our office. George Cook was the person they had us see, and he had just retired as Executive VP from Grey Magnum Wire, which is a branch of Alcoa. George being an accountant was just the right person for us. He is still here. In fact I was saying I am going to call him this week because I haven’t talked to him in a while. He is in his late eighties now and a wonderful man, taught me so much, because he’s the one that never answered my questions. I said George, we need a system; we need to be plugged into a system thinking of a franchise or something. He said “I can’t do that.” You have to walk before you run; you need to figure things out. Being in business, this is our twenty fifth year in business, we figured some things out. We still have a long way to go, but we did figure some things out and he was a huge help. Huge.