Why This Entrepreneur Made Her First Sale Topless, But Not the Way You're Thinking

Leslie Haywood suspected there would be obstacles to overcome when she first decided to start her company, Grill Charms. But she had no idea that one of them would be breast cancer. A stay-at-home mom in Charleston, SC, Haywood approached both the disease and her start-up with guts, optimism, and irreverence. In recognition of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I thought I'd share her story with you.

Haywood, 38, hit upon the idea for Grill Charms when she and her husband were hosting a dinner party in April of 2006. A mix-up on the grill resulted in Haywood biting into an extra spicy piece of Jamaican jerk chicken when she had requested mild seasoning. It was her aha moment: she'd create a grilling accessory -- a charm that could be inserted into meat -- to keep cooking and seasoning preferences sorted out.
"I had the idea in April, and then I was diagnosed with breast cancer in June," says Haywood. "But we knew fairly early this cancer would not kill me." And for that, Haywood was extraordinarily grateful. Her mother had been diagnosed with stage four breast cancer and had been given six months to live when Haywood was just 16, so the family history dictated yearly mammograms for her and her sisters beginning at age 30. "From the time I was 16, I thought of my breasts as ticking time bombs," Haywood says. She quickly opted for a bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction. "I got a couple of new boobs and a bonus tummy tuck because that's where they took the tissue to make the breasts," she says. "I was 34 years old with daughters who were one and three, so the gift of non-terminal cancer was something I treasured." Miraculously, her mother survived and is still living, which gave Haywood hope as well as the courage to face her own diagnosis.

The diagnosis, and subsequent surgeries, did not stop Haywood from moving forward with Grill Charms. She had already done a patent search, so during her eight-week recovery period, she worked on her business plan, and "read every book on how to bring a product to market," she says. When she felt strong enough, she brought drawings to a local machinist who came up with 41 different prototypes of the stainless steel charms. Next, she sought out a manufacturer. "I tried my hardest to have it made in the U.S., but at a $19.95 price point, which is that magic number in the gifting industry, no one in the U.S. could come close," she says. She decided to have the products made in Taiwan and used a home equity loan to finance R&D and production.

Eighteen months after that fiery bit of jerk chicken, Haywood received her first shipment of Grill Charms. "I couldn't wait to make my first sale," she says. "I was having my final procedure for my breast reconstruction, which involved tattooing. As you can imagine, I had known these professionals for over a year very intimately, so in an effort to help me think about anything other than what she was doing, the technician asked how my new little business was going." Haywood leaped off the table and fished around in her purse for a set of Grill Charms. Still topless, she calculated the tax with her cell phone and the technician wrote her a check on the spot, and then helped Haywood with her bandages. "I have never had to make a sale topless before or since, but obviously I'm not opposed to it," she says.

Grill Charms are now in 150 stores nationwide, thanks largely to Haywood's fearless cold calling. "In the company's second full year, I turned a profit and the company has grown 40% over the past two years," she says. She was also featured on an episode of Shark Tank last September, which resulted in Haywood selling 20% of her company to Canadian entrepreneur Robert Herjavec.

Haywood, who is well aware that that she "got off very, very easy," also started a second company with her neighbor, Teresa Rogers, who is a photographer. As part of a class assignment, Rogers took the photo, at left, of Haywood and her sister. "When we saw the powerful image we call "Hope" we wanted to share it with others and decided a key chain is an easy and inexpensive way to do it," says Rogers. They stared Keychain for a Cure together and donate $1 of each $5 sale to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Are you a breast cancer survivor with an entrepreneurial story? Tell us about it.

Photo of Leslie Haywood courtesy of the Charleston Post & Courier
Key Chain for a Cure photo courtesy of Teresa Rogers, Charleston Portrait Photography