William Colgate
Introduction
As people get ready for the day, they do their usual routine, wake up, eat, shower, and brush their teeth. Yet, imagine taking one of those steps of your routine for example brushing your teeth. This is what many people had to do before the company Colgate existed. Colgate is one of the most popular toothpaste brands in the world. It is even the first toothpaste brand to function properly. Colgate is a very useful brand for the dental hygiene world, yet people don't know how Colgate came to be and about its origin. William Colgate, the creator of the company Colgate, made better versions of other people’s inventions like toothpaste. Yet, his brand has made many more things than toothpaste, for example, mouth wash, whitening kits, toothbrushes, and even bleaching kits for teeth. After using the products of Colgate many people's mouths get left with a scent of mint that makes people’s mouths feel fresh and clean for the rest of their day (Colgate-Palmolive History Timeline). William Colgate’s company wasn’t intended to be made yet, his company was made to be one of the most successful companyś in the world.
Early life
Robert Colgate and Sarah Colgate welcomed their son William Colgate to the world on January 25, 1783, in Hollingbourne, Kent, United Kingdom. William was the oldest out of his two siblings, Maria Colgate and Bowles Colgate. As William grew up he helped his father, Robert Colgate, to manufacture soap and candles, but when he moved to New York City, he became an apprentice to a soap maker. He closely watched the methods practiced by an employer from there, noting what he does to sell in addition to making soaps he learned useful lessons for his own guidance. That led him to make his own candle, starch, and soap business on Dutch street in New York City during 1806 (Challies). Upon entering his second year of business, Colgate became partners with Francis Smith, and the company became Smith and Colgate, a name it kept until 1812 when Colgate purchased Smith's share of the company and then offered a partnership to his brother, Bowles Colgate. Now called William Colgate and Company, the firm expanded its manufacturing operations to a Jersey City, New Jersey, factory in 1820; this factory produced Colgate's two major products. Afterward, he decided to try to reach his goal to be the most successful prosperous businessman in New York City (Colgate-Palmolive Company History Timeline).
Beginning of His Career
When William Colgate helped his father with making soaps and when he was an apprentice for a soap boiler in New York, it was an extraordinary amount of help for him because he got a hint/clue of what the soap and candle industry normally is (Challies). To give an instance, William started his original business, which was a candle, soap, and starch company, because he already knew most of the things to make those products by the two jobs he had in his early life (Our History: Colgate-Palmolive). While making new products, the two main merchandises that hit the record were the Windsor toilet soaps and the Pearl starch. But then in 1833, he suffered from severe damage in his heart muscle, which made a big blood clot supply to the heart area that made him to have a heart attack. This made the company’s sales go lower than it usually had gone so far, but then William started to recover from his heart attack, and more customers started to buy products. Afterward, Colgate then started to get its strive back because they started to get more and more sales each day (Colgate-Palmolive Company History Timeline).
Significance Accomplishments
William’s company had some ups and downs. There were problems in some mixture he had made while making his inventions/products, yet he has accomplished fixing them and putting them on the market. One of the first products he put on the market was soaps. He made hand soap, dish soap, detergent, toilet soaps, and lots of other types of cleaning soaps. Then he started to add other products like starch and candles; they were also a big hit but not the same amount as the cleaning soaps/cleaning products. After he launched those three products in his little shop in 1806, he decided to change the company's name to “ The Colgate’s Soap and Perfumery Works’’ (Timenote). After Colgate's partnership with his brother, he decided to launch more new products. The new product was the newly designed toilet soap. What the soap was intended for may be odd, but the customers loved the idea and in almost a week mainly everyone had the toilet soap made from William, himself. When he realized that the toilet soap that his brother and he invented/created was a big hit, he decided to change the name of his company to “William Colgate and Company”. As money kept company, their fortune grew from 1,000 to almost one million dollars together, in a couple of years. Afterward, they decided to experiment with new ingredients and peroxides. Then they soon developed a new mixture of fluoride and abrasives, which made, what we so call toothpaste. The mixture wasn’t as good as it is right now, but this is when the original ingredients were formed. William then decided to raise the prices of his products, so he could get a better profit and to get higher sales. Except his plan went upside down and the sales started to lower. Then the people started to buy other brands of soaps that were way cheaper than Colgate's items (Our History: Colgate-Palmolive).
Impact on The world
The whole dental hygiene industry has changed a lot by the company Colgate.
Before Williams company was introduced, toothpaste was not as good; most of the time people’s mouths would be left half as clean. Don't get it wrong, many people have tried to make an effective toothpaste that works, but William was the first one to successfully make a functioning paste. As people started buying more products from them and getting more popular, Colgate started to make more products than toothpaste. Some other products that are popular today made by his company are their whitening strips because people would get to see results faster than other companies that sell that product. While Colgate makes more things to sell for their company. Other businesses are making improvements to their products, by using some of William’s tactics for the perfect toothpaste (Challies). More commercials and newspapers were spread about them to promote their products. For example, in 1817 Colgate made their first advertisement in New York papers or when Palmolive started advertising, emphasizing ingredient purity and product benefits. Afterward, promotions kept coming and then the business started so big that Colgate was known all over the world (Our History: Colgate-Palmolive).
Lessons Learned From His Life
William was a very religious man throughout his life. He even became a pastor in “The First Baptist Church” in New York City. He believed that what he now possesses, was given to him by god. From time to time, he would give 10% of his earnings from his company “Colgate” to the First Baptist Church. Though he had already given 10% to the church, 10% turned to 20%, then to 30% as his company grew to be bigger and known all over the world. As William Colgate said, “You can be that person. But you must never lose sight of the fact that the soap you make has been given to you by God. Honor Him by sharing what you earn. Begin by tithing all you receive”(Challies). Throughout his life, Colgate attributed his success in business and ministry to the principles and truths taught in the Bible. William Colgate’s personality and beliefs have made him have a good company that succeeded a lot throughout time. I believe that the people who have similar traits to William Colgate can succeed too in life. Being more like William can affect me too, not by just being more friendly and kind but by setting higher expectations for myself and thinking outside of the box.