I learned about Jenna Lou Dauer through Rochester’s Post-Bulletin. Jenna was a high school student who started a business out of her home because she was bored and was looking for something to do.

“I was in high school and just bored so I started sewing. I ended up with so much stuff I didn’t know what to do with it.”

The 20 year old has now spent the past two years selling her handmade products online. It’s been so successful that she quit her job and is taking a leave of absence from college to focus on her business.

Most of Jenna’s sales come through Etsy.com, a website that allows people to sell their handmade creations.

“Etsy does a good job of promoting and helping you. I learned a lot of what I need online. Etsy has a lot of resources and forums. I had a million questions, and there are a lot of people who were willing to share and help.”

Jenna says that the key to success in selling your products online is to create a reputation for excellent customer service: “When you’re dealing online there are so many things that can be confused. You have to really communicate well with people, be patient and polite. I communicate with people all over the world. Just meeting different people is fun.”

Jenna now divides her day up with four hours of making products and four to six hours of managing the business. It’s been so successful that she is now expanding her business to sell designed patterns for products instead of the finished products themselves. “Those are selling like crazy. I want to get more into that. I’m really enjoying being a designer more than the manufacturing.”

How does Etsy compare to eBay?: “People go to eBay to get something cheap and quick. And eBay’s listing and selling fees are ridiculous. You can’t compete with cheap imports. With Etsy, people are going there because they want to have a connection with who made what they’re buying. They’re willing to pay a little more for something they know is handmade.”

To avoid having too much inventory and spending time working on making products people might not want, Jenna shows a catalog of the products she can make along with the available fabrics and then only creates them when she gets an order. “I can’t have 150 of everything made all the time. This way I can make it based on what they want.”

Running a business from home can be challenging but Jenna has managed to stay focused: “When we were looking for a house, that was my one requirement, that I had a room for my business. It’s overflowing, but I keep it in one room. You have to keep yourself motivated and on track. It’s too easy to go in the kitchen for a snack and sit down in front of the TV or something.”

Fahad Hassan was a 21 year old Virginia Tech student who lost interest in his business degree and was not motivated by the material being covered in his classes. He watched the movie “Pay It Forward” and was inspired to start his own online business (check out our list of Top 10 Movies For Entrepreneurs for more motivation!).

He frequently used a diary to write down motivational notes and personal messages. He envisioned creating a company that would include social networking elements that Facebook and MySpace are popular for but also mix in course management software to help students with their studies.

Fahad launched his business and immediately began looking for venture capital. He received negative feedback from one of the first VC’s he approached, John Burke from True Ventures: “He only saw his product from a user standpoint. There was no business model. How is he going to make money around this? How is he going to get professors to sign up? How is he going to get universities to switch horses midstream?’”

Fahad continued on though and was able to secure $500,000 through a private investor, Scott Birnbaum, who came on board because “I saw an opportunity to help him navigate the difficulties of building a company. It’s a roller-coaster ride. You start out and get pumped about your idea. You do research and you realize there are probably five or 10 people out there doing the same thing.”
Scott’s company, Epok, gave Fahad six of its employees to build a test site. Fahad quickly got into disputes with his programmers insisting on features that were time consuming and complicated to create. According to one developer, “You’ve got to have certain processes in place. He didn’t always know what it would take to put something together. What should I expect from someone who’s never done this before?”

Fahad’s thoughts? “A lot of it was impatience on my part. I wanted to catch up in terms of the product and the market share. In the early days the biggest problem was with my team. They would be telling me we need to do this and that and maybe a more experienced CEO would have understood the balancing act better.”

Fahad’s team finally put a demo site online and got a group of students using it and filling out their profiles. He also recruited professors to post course materials and schedules. But Fahad was running out of money. If he wanted more advertisers he would need more traffic and he needed more money to expand the functionality of his site.

Fahad went to talk to a host of venture capitalists - everyone said no. “They want to know how you’re going to make them money and how quickly. It’s a little frustrating that they don’t really care about my vision.”

The good news is that Scott Birnbaum has agreed to continue to fund the company until it gets a sizable investor. The site currently has 3,000 users and gets 200,000 page views per month. In order to be successful, they are going to need to grow by leaps and bounds - and quickly. According to Fahad, “if we’re not at 150,000 users by the end of the year, we’re in trouble.”

To learn more about Dayalert, check out http://www.daylert.com/.

What do you think Fahad’s chances of success are?

Here is a great young entrepreneur success story that will inspire you to get your own business going! Meet Artin Afsharjavan.

When Artin was 13 years old he received $100 as a birthday gift and decided to put it towards starting his first business. He used the money to get into the soft drink vending machine industry. $20 was used for his first month’s lease payment and $80 was used to buy the drinks.

The business took off and six years later the serial entrepreneur owns an investment company, a fine dining Persian restaurant, a limousine company, apartment buildings in Virginia, and gas stations in Florida.

He graduated from high school when he was 16 and was one of the first advertisers on Google Adwords. He has also started other companies, some of which he has sold including an online marketing company that he sold to a private investor in 2004.

Not resting on his laurels, Artin still finds the time to improve his education and is taking his degree in corporate finance from John Hopkins university.

Not bad for a 19 year old entrepreneur!

His next step is trying to buy Moby Dick’s House of Kabob, a quick service chain with 13 locations. He has offered $8 million in cash for the chain and has plans to expand it across the eastern United States.

‘‘Moby Dick’s current owners have done a good job, establishing a fantastic brand and growing the chain to its present size. With our capital resources and their management, we can expand rapidly.”

Moby Dick’s, meanwhile, has no intention of selling. According to owner Mike Daryoush: ‘‘We are doing great and plan to open our 14th restaurant [this] week. That one will be in Virginia. We also have an expansion plan in this area beyond that.”

Who knows if this deal will work out but I wouldn’t rule Artin out!

Antonette Hoffman-Robinson is the 23 year old founder of Boobie Bib, a new product for nursing mothers.

Antonette is a new mother who found herself at home with extra time on her hands. While reading through magazines she learned about work at home moms who were making millions creating products and selling their inventions.

‘‘I knew I wanted to start my own business. It just took me having a child and finding something I’m so passionate about.”

She began her new business by sewing slings with colorful patterns that mothers could use while breastfeeding. Her original products were called “Boobie Bags”. She sold them to local mothers, changed the name to “Boobe Bibs” and created a website www.theboobiebib.com.

The website was noticed by a local retail store who then decided they would carry Antonette’s new product line.

Now Antonette is considering what the best way to expand will be. ‘‘I’m on the fence about whether I want to have it manufactured or start hiring some work-at-home moms who are great at sewing. It’s not odd that I’m doing this at 23.”

All it took was that magazine article to get her started on her entrepreneurial path.

What got you motivated to start your business?

Evan Carmichael

“It sounds crazy,” says Chris DeWolfe, “but even in the first plan that I wrote up, I mentioned AOL, Yahoo! and Hotmail, knowing we would be big. And it’s crazy to think that it happened.”

Together, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson have over 200 million “friends” and chances are you might be one of them. The two buddies are the brains behind MySpace.com, the online networking site that has taken the world by storm.

The second venture for the pair, DeWolfe and Anderson’s first company was sold for several million dollars.

Now, MySpace.com, which allows members to create interactive profiles, blogs, and post just about anything they want, is the sixth most popular website in the world, and the third most popular in the U.S.

I’m a big fan on a show called The Hour. It’s a Canadian-based, late night talk show geared towards a younger audience and is hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos. The show takes a different take on the news through the lens of George and company. While news shows cover the issues of the day, The Hour dissects the issues within the issues.

George interviewed Tom Anderson on The Hour about the success of MySpace and I thought it would be worth sharing with you as a motivational tool of what is possible when you start your own business. You can check it out on YouTube at http://youtube.com/watch?v=-yWpnto-hqQ - the total clip is eight and a half minutes and worth the watch!

Another great one to watch is Steve Job’s speech at Stanford University (just over 14 minutes) - http://youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA 

What are your favorite entrepreneurial videos?

Evan Carmichael

How much are you willing to give up to launch your business? Would you say no to a full college scholarship and drop out of university?

That is exactly what Bryan Sims, CEO of Brass Magazine did. Bryan was recently voted to Business Week’s list of top entrepreneurs under 25 years of age.

His company is a magazine publisher that focuses on helping young people learn about how to manage their money. When he was 19, Bryan dropped out of college, gave up his full scholarship and focused on building Brass Magazine. I learned about Bryan through an interview with Marketplace.

“There was a lot of people that were pretty skeptical and saying, “Oh, why are you leaving school? You’re not gonna get another shot with scholarships like this . . .” and so. I mean, it was the middle of 2003, and we were trying to raise money for a company starting a lifestyle magazine out of Corvalis, Ore. So, not exactly a lot of people were investing in the idea at the time.”

Now, at the age of 24, Bryan continues to focus on building Brass Magazine into a leading financial publication for young people. Instead of offering in depth articles he provides shorter, more practical advice on topics today’s youth care about such as saving money on road trips or improving your credit score.

Talking about why he dropped out and started the company, Bryan said:

“Well, because of the fact that I’d started the company and then my dad’s working at the company. I came home from school one time and was talking with him and my mom about things, and they said that, like most parents said, “We want you to stay in school and to get a degree.”

But in the same conversation, basically said that if Brass didn’t get off the ground that they’re gonna have to file for bankruptcy, because we had, you know, put everything we had into it. So I decided to leave school, move back home with my parents and focus on getting business off the ground full-time.”

What have you given up to start your business?

Evan Carmichael

Louis Barnett is a 15 year old British entrepreneur making waves in the chocolate industry. He has a great story of turning negatives into positives and overcoming obstacles to achieving success.

When Louis was 11 years old he was diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia. He dropped out of school and began making chocolates at home.

In four years he has turned his hobby into a business, hired his parents, and won lucrative contracts which have allowed him to move to his own factory.

“I’ve always been a very foody person and conscious of where my food comes from. I’ve been doing bits of baking and making cakes with my mum since I was about four or five and really it was just one of my passions.”

Louis’ first machine made 12 oz (340 gram) chocolates which he would create one at a time and sell to family and friends.

The business quickly took off and since August his company has supplied 36,000 boxes various delis and supermarkets. Louis has also recently been nominated for a young entrepreneur of the year award.

According to his mother, Mary Barnett: “Louis has been like this right from day one, he is a hard worker and is very enthusiastic about his product.”

Evan Carmichael

Phanta Media is a Markham, Ontario based, fully integrated video production company, who specializes in effective video based communications.

The company is run by Mark Drager, a 24 year old new entrepreneur who is married and has a one year old daughter. The company was founded in December 2006 and Mark has an ambitious goal of becoming a million dollar a year business within five years.

What’s his plan to get there? Help companies increase their staff motivation, generate more leads, and speed up the sales cycle by helping their customers improve their communications with prospects, clients, and internal staff.

Capturing the audience’s attention and communicating your message is the meat and potatoes, but the secret sauce is the ability to market yourself without hitting your audience over the head with it. They also give their clients the peace of mind of knowing that their video production is grounded firmly in business objectives.

I asked Mark what his advice would be for other young entrepreneurs who are trying to build a million dollar business:

“I was told once by a mentor to “do everything yourself until it kills you” and that has worked wonders – although it means working long hard hours, and wearing many hats, it meant that I was able to bring my first fiscal year profit margins up to 93% - it also meant Phanta was able to be fully profitable and debt-free within 9 months of launch.

• Keep in contact with everyone you have ever worked closely with - because one day they can easily become a client

• If you are struggling, ask for help – other entrepreneurs, managers and even CEO’s will most likely do what they can to help you out if you are sincere and reasonable in your requests.

• Get an outsider’s point of view (I hired a third party business development consultant and it was the best thing I ever did!) - 5 months into my business I realized I wasn’t on course with my original business plan, I brought in a business development coach (if you can’t afford to pay a consultant it can be anyone – as long as they are honest, hold you accountable and offer an outsider’s point of view). Since bringing them in my revenues tripled.

• Find a way to get outside of your comfort zone – for this my BD Coaches hold me accountable, but stepping out of my comfort zone is the most rewarding experience, as what used to terrify me, quickly becomes second nature and I can do the things that need to be done (like cold calling).

• Be hungry for success – when I launched my business everyone thought I was crazy because my wife was at home with a 3-month-old baby and I was the only source of income. But what that did was motivate me to succeed – I had to succeed otherwise my wife and child would have no roof over their head and no food on the table… pretty motivating.”

What is your million dollar plan?

Evan Carmichael

Ashley Qualls is a 17 year old entrepreneur behind Whateverlife.com. She runs the website from her basement in her Southgate, Michigan home and is closing in on 2.5 million visitors per month.

Last year, her business generated $1 million in revenues.

Earlier this month she had to petition to be declared an adult so she could legally sign the contracts she has with her advertisers and be able to manager her own money.

“I’m stubborn and I’m independent. I like the feeling that it’s my company, and I want to have the say-so in everything.”

She has hired her mother to be her business manager and has also employed three of her high school friends to work for her after school.

“I love it. You can create so many things. The possibilities are endless.”

The website was started in December 2004 when Ashley borrowed $8 from her mother to buy the Whateverlife.com domain listing. The initial intent was to showcase her graphics design skills and share her MySpace designs with her friends.

Without spending any money on advertising the site quickly took off as many MySpacers enjoyed her designs and used them to improve their own MySpace profiles.

The website, which gets more hits that Oprah.com, had an offer to buy for $5 million but Ashley turned it down.

Evan Carmichael

On February 8, 2007, millions of viewers tuned in to The Oprah Winfrey Show to learn about applying The Secret and the Law of Attraction. According to Oprah.com, “The concept says that the energy you put into the world—both good and bad—is exactly what comes back to you. This means you create the circumstances of your life with the choices you make every day.

According to James (one of The Secret teachers), there is scientific evidence to back up the spiritual practices and laws defined in The Secret. “Science tells us that everything is energy, and so your thoughts are energy. Your body, your cash, your car—everything you think is solid, if you put it under a high-powered microscope, it’s just a field of energy and a rate of vibration,” he says. “And so are we. So if you think you’re this meat suit running around, you have to think again.”

One way to describe this energy is by comparing it radio waves, “The frequency you give out through your thoughts and your emotions is what you have a tendency to manifest in your life,” Michael says. “Whether those thoughts and emotions are conscious or unconscious, it doesn’t matter.”

This means that if you are sending out the same negative energy over an over—whether thoughts or feelings—you will attract like energy back to you. James says that when bad things happen people might ask, “Oh, God, why me?” “Because it is you,” he says.”

I’ve recently seen a number of startups now trying to capitalize on the success of The Secret and helping people apply it to their daily lives.

One such company is Chartering Success.

The people at Chartering Success believe that success is achieved with three powerful principles:

1. Desire to create success…you already have a strong desire
2. The willingness to change and become successful… you’ve already taken the first step
3. The right tools to help you achieve the results you desire

They’ve also created 150 programs to help people apply The Secret and the Law of Attraction to everyday life. The programs range from Body Image to Financial Abundance, to Fear of Automobiles. You can either purchase one program or a subscription to the site and get access to all the programs.

Personally, I have not had much exposure to The Secret and am amazed at the tremendous popularity and growth surrounding the new industry that has been created as a result from the exposure on Oprah and other popular t.v. shows.

I would love to hear your experiences with The Secret - Have you heard of it? Has it worked for you? Would you use a service like Chartering Success?

Evan Carmichael