Re: Young Entrepreneur Challenge!

List the name of your company and website.
Anoge - Cost-Effective Instant Website Solutions

1. What ignited the spark in you to start a new business venture or to make significant changes in an existing business?
I'm currently in university and I'm considering my options after graduation. My mother was an entrepreneur her whole life so I know the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur. I've compared that to the work experience I've had (an office job during my gap year) and that's how I know that the life of an entrepreneur is what I want.

2. What is your definition of success and has your company achieved it?
I just recently launched my small business. I'm still marketing it right now so I can only define my definition of success: being able to afford luxuries in life that most people can't due to a successful business (NOT inheritance).

3. To what do you attribute your company’s recent achievements?
Search Engine Optimization / Internet Marketing (and traditional methods of marketing of course).

4. How important have good employees and team members been to your success?
Relatively important. They help speed up the marketing process.

5. What three pieces of advice would you give to high school or college students who want to become entrepreneurs?
1 - If you don't have an idea of what you want to do, don't get into it yet. Focus on your education meanwhile, at least until you know exactly what you want to do.
2 - If you have a big idea but you lack start-up capital (i.e. the only thing you have is that idea), SAVE MONEY until you can at least afford setting up the foundation of that business idea. Do not look for investors, thinking that they will fund 100% of the project. Because if it's a million-dollar idea, you will most likely not earn a penny from it (i.e. you run the risk of these investors stealing your idea).
3 - Avoid "partnering" with people you don't know. A 50/50 split might sound good in the beginning but distribution of labour is a tricky thing. Rather than partnering with people - employ them!

6. What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?
Underestimating tasks and overestimating profits have been my biggest challenges (I wouldn't really call them 'failures' though). I've learnt that it's a whole lot better to overestimate tasks, and to underestimate the profits.

7. Describe/outline your typical day?
I am a web designer/developer but I am also a webmaster of numerous sites. So a typical day for me would be like this:
- I wake up early in the morning (before sunrise), have breakfast while I watch a 30-minute comedy.
- Further optimize my websites for an hour or two.
- Moderate my web directories & check to see if any payments have been received for featured links.
- If there's any web design work to be done, I'll do it until lunch and continue after lunch (until around 3pm).
- After 3pm I tend to visit business forums that I'm a member of. Do a bit of reading/learning/posting.
- Continue doing any additional work I have, e.g. SEO or web design.
- Chat with friends online, watch tv shows and then go to bed.

That's what my typical day is like!

8. Where did your organizations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it?
My start up capital is from both my personal savings and online jobs. But since my business is mainly about providing web services, the start-up capital wasn't much to begin with.

9. What stops you from throwing in the towel and giving up when you are frustrated?
I love what I do, it's my passion and I wouldn't want to do anything else. When people are doing stuff they don't want to do, it's easy for them to be frustrated, and the more frustrated they are the more closer they get to giving up. But when people are doing something they want to do; frustrations just makes them want to try even harder and that's what it's like for me.

10. Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur?
I believe that there's a certain attitude one must maintain in order to become successful. The only pattern or formula is to walk the walk and never give up.

11. Who has influenced you most and been your greatest inspiration?
My mum! Her entrepreneur lifestyle has given me childhood memories (and luxuries) that I'll never forget. In fact, it's the kind of life I'd love to be able to give my future children. So I guess I'm doing all this for my mum, and my future family.

12. What book has inspired you the most?
I don't read books, haha. I've heard stories about the very successful entrepreneurs, I've listened to entrepreneur-related audio books but I can't really say that they've inspired me (or perhaps they've collectively inspired me?). They all have their different methods of achieving success, so I'm going to follow my own path on this one.

13. How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
I focus on internet marketing more than anything, I feel it's important to compete in this aspect. But the most successful method for me has been social networking (face-to-face). People want to see who they're dealing with and if you look like you can be trusted they'll most likely give you a chance.

14. In one word, characterize your life as an entrepreneur.
Right now, I'm going to have to say: "Newbie".

15. Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
I admire successful domainers most. Domainers work really hard, they take huge risks and if it pays off, they earn A LOT. You know what they say: big risks; big rewards!

16. How do you achieve balance in your life? Or do you?
Noooo! My biggest problem is time management. I tend to focus on my entrepreneurial goals and my studies suffer. I'm trying really hard to keep the boat afloat though. Let's keep our fingers crossed on this one.

17. Where you see yourself and your business in 5 years? 10 years?
In 5 years, I could either be successful or I'd still be working hard at marketing everything and making a name for myself. Mainly because I JUST launched, so I expect the typical bumpy road for about 2 years or so. In 10 years, I expect success.

18. What’s your exit strategy?
Business evaluation.

19. If we could introduce you to anyone, who would it be and why? (you never know who we know!)
Anyone who's willing to give me a free MBA course or someone who's willing to give me a free 'successful entrepreneur'-related book.

20. If you were conducting this interview, what question would you ask?
- List the disadvantages entrepreneurs experience over 9-5ers.