Great thread Fanatik, here is my mini-entrepreneur synopsis!
My brother and I started our first business selling these little dipper-doo play airplanes at various festivals as kids (ages 9-11).
Then in high school we imported some kids magic box sets. We mastered the tricks and trained some other workers to do the same. We rented the busy mall kiosks around our city and WOWED the kids during the holiday season resulting in us selling over 100k in magic sets (we sold out before Xmas!) in less than 6 weeks.
During final couple of years of high school we bought several car audio items from a wholesale company in New York. We had a photographer take photos of each of our products and we designed a nice little catalogue of each item with their own item number and of course a handsome mark-up. We printed about 500 of these (in full color digital, which was relatively new technology back in the early 90s) and started handing them out to kids who recently purchased their first car or planning on purchasing one soon within our school.
Of course we had to have an amazing show room (which was our own brand new cars with the BEST sound systems in the school). Our cars had amazing boom boxes and I remember being able to bounce pennies off the roof (yes, that was COOL back then!
) I also remember that we were the first kids to have cell phones in 1992, back then they were HUGE, they called them TRANSPORTABLES (seriously, they were in a velcro like container with a phone cord attached), I remember buying these phones and paying $900 per phone! Bottom line: We sold a ton of stereo equipment/boom boxes etc. and we quickly realized, we LOVE Entrepreneurship!
After graduating, both my brother and I had the potential to take advantage of Scholarships but it was too late, we were bit by the Entrepreneurial BUG and we were sticking to it!
It was only weeks after graduation and we started combing through our local newspapers buy/sell business section classifieds. We found a pool hall that was in an up and coming neighborhood but struggling to make a name for itself. It was 5500 sq feet with 14 high end pool tables and one snooker table and still plenty of space for other ideas! We gave the current owner a low-ball offer, we could see he had enough!
We took our money that we made from our previous ventures and before we knew it, my brother and I were shooting pool in our own business and sleeping on the couch...in our own business!
Yes, A LOT of long days/nights went into re-building this soon-to-be gold mine. We overhauled the layout and built a small cafe serving snacks, fancy coffee, sandwiches etc. and also built a stage for live local jazz bands to play while our clients played billiards!
Something was missing! Yes, the BAR! Cha-ching! We had some contractors come in and build us an amazing cherry wood bar where people could sit and enjoy a beer or a glass of wine. The liquor license was a HUGE ordeal but we eventually got it after about 4 months of perseverance.
Playing Pool + Listening to live Jazz + a nice cappuccino or glass of wine + great staff + good clients + a heck of a creative marketing campaign = BIG SUCCESS! We were lined up every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night! We had an offer from another Entrepreneur on our 12th month of ownership. We sold it and moved onto the next!
We then did some traveling and found ourselves in Seoul, Korea!
Before we knew it, we had a translator with us at a local fashion accessory manufacturer and we decided to get a photographer to put another cataloge together for us, this time WOMENS FASHION ACCESSORIES!
We left Seoul Korea with suitcases full of samples and then got our printed cataloge completed upon our return. We have a good eye for fashion and think our samples were quite impressive!
We did not waste anytime and started looking for trade shows. We booked a table at the Jacob Javitz Center in New York for the yearly FASHION ACCESSORY trade show which is where a lot of the retailers went to find new items for their stores. We were a hit! By the end of the show we had orders for almost 85k in accessories. This is where we learned how to import a half container load of accessories from Seoul Korea, in a hurry! Our office quickly turned into a mini packaging assembly line. We had some great helpers!
We continued doing other shows around Canada/USA and things were good while they lasted (until it was a lot easier to order items online). It was a good and profitable run but we decided to move on to something new as we started to see sales dropping and we were quite honestly tired of the dozens of long trips to Seoul.
We found ourselves combing the same buy/sell business section of our local paper and there it was, another business we knew NOTHING about! (Must be something in an Entrepreneurs blood that really makes you excited to jump into a new venture that you know nothing about!
)
Same recipe as above but a totally different industry: We had just purchased our first printing and graphics company. Very small but had huge potential. We head hunted a few managers from another local printing company and they liked what we had to offer. We worked our butts off and built a thriving little business. We hit the pavement ourselves and picked up some great new accounts and provided superior customer service, quick turnaround, affordable pricing and a quality product. We hired a business broker to list our company on the 11th month of ownership and it sold just over the 1 year mark!
During our last few months with the printing biz we started working on sample layouts and media kits for a new business: PUBLISHING MAGAZINES!
The new owners had their own staff which meant that we had a great team of unemployed graphic designers. Now what? We explored the publishing route and launched a small niche market publication. Started at 16 pages and as we learned the market and carved our own path it quickly grew in popularity. We had great writers and of course some awesome graphic designers.
Well, you all will be pleased to hear that five years have passed and we are still in the publishing business! Its been great! We started three magazines and sold one in 2007 and still own the two others which are full color, glossy magazines that are 100 pages and jam packed with happy advertisers. We now have 2 offices and have plans to open a few new markets. We also have plans to set up a few fellow motivated entrepreneurs with the recipe for success in the publishing biz to open up magazines in their areas. We are finalizing our distributors package but should have something ready after the summer.
Wow, this is becoming a long post!
PS. Due to all of the people asking us about Entrepreneurship and saying that there is no where to go for answers, we answered back in 1999 and launched this site you are reading this on right now,
Young Entrepreneur Forums - An entrepreneurial and small business site was BORN!
We have also volunteered some of our time to the Junior Achievement association which enabled us to get back into the grade 11 and 12 high school Entrepreneur/Marketing classes and tell our stories! This was great to see how many Young Entrepreneurs are super motivated to work for themselves! This inspired my bro and I to write our first book which is going to press this summer!
Here at YE, we are always open to your ideas, suggestions on what you would like to see in our new 3.0 launch. We have already started and working on something that I am sure you will all love! If you have any thoughts, PM me!
All the best in your biz ventures!
Adam Toren
Where are you; where have you been; where are you going?
)), still working towards my online publication and also plan on moving into Real Estate (Development to be exact which I am researching heavily now to move towards doing a medium size project in my city that would include a community center and offices for the city departments that need them... This WILL happen and hopefully before I graduate)
Serial Entrepreneur
