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It began on a card table at a flea market. Thirty years later, the Any Mountain chain of outdoor sports-equipment stores is one of the biggest in the country. In spite of that growth, owner Eldon "Bud" Hoffman still patrols the floors of his Bay Area stores, tweaking a display of ski boots here, chatting with a customer there.
"I'm married to the business," he says.
With his company expecting $30 million in revenue this year, life is a far cry from when Mr, Hoffman was paying $70 a month to live in a converted garage, trying to cobble together enough money to become a businessman.
"I really wanted to get into the ski business but I had no money," he recalls.
He learned that a small ski retailer he had worked for as a store manager was auctioning off its inventory after filing for bankruptcy.
But by the time he bid - winning by $4 over the next bidder - there wasn't much left.
"Old bankrupt merchandise like used ski boots from rentals, old poles, arrow shafts - oddball stuff," he says. Mr. Hoffman sold the items at flea markets and then sold his car and got a loan from his father to get the cash he needed to open his first store in a prune orchard in Cupertino.
"My plan was to do $150,000 in sales as a median number," he says recalling the first year. Business didn't go according to plan, however.
"Thank God it snowed that year," he says, "We did nearly $650,000 the very first year."
Business in the early...