Wizards of home shopping TV

At QVC, Dan Zawacki is famously referred to as "Dan the Lobster Man."

Dan Zawacki's small business story begins 26 years ago when he was dreaming up new holiday gift ideas for his 80 business clients.

"I was working at Honeywell, and I wanted to impress my customers," he said. "I loved lobsters. I thought: 'Why not?'"

So Zawacki bought 80 live lobsters, put each in a bag with a stick of butter and his business card, and delivered every package. His clients loved them. From that, Zawacki was inspired to start Lobster Gram, a live lobster home-delivery business, as a side gig.

Soon after, his boss at Honeywell heard Zawacki advertising the lobster business on a Chicago radio station when he should have been at work. Zawacki was fired and Lobster Gram became his full-time job.

And a chance meeting in 1996 with QVC buyers in New York catapulted Lobster Gram into the national spotlight. QVC put Zawacki and his lobsters on air that same year and was a hit.

"I was so nervous, but I got the TV bug after that," he said. Today, Lobster Gram is among QVC's top 500 vendors. "We're on air 60 to 70 times a year. Sometimes we ship up to 3,000 lobsters a day," he said.

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