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Fred Hord thinks like a bride.
The owner of Alexandria, Va.-based My Glass Slipper and Myglassslipper.com has rapidly built a business on white shoes that caters to the most discriminating customers. An old hand in the bridal business, Hord grew up hanging out at his mother's bridal boutique, Hannelore's, and later worked there, honing his skills. But one can only work with their mother for so long. And so, Hord, who had already taken control of the shop's footwear department, split from the mother ship to launch Myglassslipper.com in fall '00.
"[My mother] made it what it was, and, of course, I was the young kid coming in and wanting to change everything. We fought all the time," he said. "When my mother and I agreed that I should do something different, I said, `Well, how about the shoe department?' I thought I could make a go of that."
Since then, Hord has certainly made a go of it, opening his first brick-and-mortar shop with about 150 styles in June 2001 and another store, in New York, this past January. In total, he pulled in more than $1 million in sales in 2004 and has carved himself a niche with relatively little competition. Zappos.com and Modelbride.com, along with a number of smaller sites, carry a selection...