Where are you; where have you been; where are you going?

[Fanatik]

I'm curious as to everyone's current situation. Are you a new entrep.? Have you owned various business; built them; bought them; sold them; etc? Are you a grad student, looking for the big break? High school student looking for extra income? Are you internet based; brick and mortar; both? Day job plus side business? Or is your business(es) keeping you afloat financially?

Where do you want to be? What are your dreams? Wealth, riches? House and car(s)? Family or life-long bachelor(ette)?

[criniit]

I own several business all of them service none on the web. I am an entrepreneur major under grad student at college. Hoping to make it big with my next project I am planning, but looking for seed money right now.

[Gaulkin]

17 years old : Wholesaling properties to investors for a fee.
18 years old: Junk removal startup (recently sold), hired by advertising firm in Cali, stocks.
19 years old: Blog startup in progress, still with advertising company and stocks.
20 years old: Still 19, blog and stocks, when i graduate ill go into real estate full time.

I attend Florida International University studying accounting.

[Fanatik]

Nice responses so far. Solid foundation, for sure. Gaulkin, did you or have you found your age to be a factor in any business dealings? I was in the same situation; at age 15, I owned a car audio business, but I wouldn't dare tell my suppliers or customers my age. As I got older, it seemed a lot easier to 'put myself out there', so to speak. It just felt funny, being 15,16,17 y/o and designing a car audio setup for a 30 y/o customer living 2,000 miles away.

Also, what kind of trading do you do? I'm somewhat new to the stock market, and I play the penny stocks quite a bit. So far I've turned a good profit, but it's so volatile right now that I've stayed away for a bit.

[Gaulkin]

Well i had a partner that was much older then me when i would do wholesale deals so it worked out fine. They also showed me the way of real estate investing and gave me alot of connections. I trade mid cap growth stocks but i dont trade like a normal investor. I go in with all my money on one stock and use margin at the same time. Right now i own PBR which is a Brazilian oil company thats cheap and just found a huge oil field in the atlantic.

[richkid]

I have started a few online business' and fell in love with blogging, currently blogging at StandOutBlogger.com. And also in the planning stage of importing a product into Australia - with the hope of becoming the exclusive distributor.

[GhostFac3]

17: Went to college and figured out what I wanted to do with my life (be a entrepreneur).
18: Opened a Food Delivery Service for my area with $10,000.
19: Had to close because of lack of operating cash (was "stolen") learned a lot in the process and wouldn't trade that experience for anything. Began work on a online publication start-up that I continue to work on.
20: I'm still 19, in college (Auburn University in Alabama studying French International Business with a concentration in Entrepreneurship/Family Business and studying Spanish (yea I got a double major )), 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)


I hear FIU is nice Gaulkin, I have a friend who just transferred from there and I'm considering going there if I decide to pursue my International MBA

[Gaulkin]

17: Went to college and figured out what I wanted to do with my life (be a entrepreneur).
18: Opened a Food Delivery Service for my area with $10,000.
19: Had to close because of lack of operating cash (was "stolen") learned a lot in the process and wouldn't trade that experience for anything. Began work on a online publication start-up that I continue to work on.
20: I'm still 19, in college (Auburn University in Alabama studying French International Business with a concentration in Entrepreneurship/Family Business and studying Spanish (yea I got a double major )), 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)


I hear FIU is nice Gaulkin, I have a friend who just transferred from there and I'm considering going there if I decide to pursue my International MBA

Let me know if you come down to FIU and we can get together, maybe do a little business.

[BizGuy]

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

[aaron-123]

Well, I am a graphic designer and work for several fashion magazines. I want to be a travel freelancer, go to the outside world and do the design at the same time. I know it is not so easy, but I will try.

[x3xsolxdierx3x]

Duffle-Bag Depot is my first company. Iv'e pursued it for numerous reasons, but, underlying it all, is intense passion and dedication. Iv'e worked very hard for several months at developing the groundwork for the company. Unfortunately, what I lack in financial backing, I'm trying to make up in creative ingenuity.....trying to let my focus and visions guide me. While it's come a long way already, with solid undertones, Iv'e set realistic goals for myself in numerous areas of this company.

[jasaunders]

Let's see, I'll try not to go on too long...

I started a web development company at 15 and that did pretty well. It was just at the beginning of the dot com craze and I got my first real experiences with well-funded startups. We did a lot of development with several well-known websites at the time, some of which were really web 2.0 sites, but ahead of their time. Most of these ended up busting right after 2000 though.

I then attended UW-Madison and majored in Electrical and Computer Engineering. I started a website that promoted drink specials at local bars and restaurants and entertainment venues. This was many years ago, many more of these sites have popped up since. We were doing really well with the website and continued expanding into related fields. Before we knew it, we were promoting local bands and throwing our own huge events, which were making considerable amounts of money. Anheuser Busch (Budweiser) got wind of us through a contact we had at the regional distributor and we signed a contract with them to expand further. From there, our website expanded, we continued throwing our own events, promoting bands, holding fundraisers for charity as well as promoting Bud Light. We were an integral part of some of their big events including the annual quarter bouncers competition in Las Vegas and the Budwesier True Music series. In addition, we promoted national events, including a Dave Mathews Band Concert and the Comedy Central Stand-up Live Tour (best show ever, RIP Mitch Hedberg). We also worked on many other projects through the three years I ran it, including a calendar project which some of you know about. By the end, we had eight employees, before we sold chunks of the business and dissolved.

During and after this, I worked on a NASA research project for two years. I had the best opportunity of my life and was able to experience 30 minutes of zero gravity aboard NASA's KC-135A Reduced Gravity Laboratory (AKA the Vomit Comit) while I tested an engineering experiment.

Following this, I worked at a telecom company, developing single board computers, processor blades and cards that routed data traffic. Basically, the stuff that goes inside cell phone tower base stations that has the ability to process and transmit enormous amounts of data. I also worked on hardware for long haul optical fiber networks.

A couple years later I returned to Chicago to pursue my MBA in Entrepreneurship, Finance and International business. I took a job doing engineering consulting type work for safety certification. I specifically dealt with products in hazardous locations (explosive atmospheres) and helped companies design products for global markets. This allowed me to meet some great people and do some traveling, as well as learn more about process improvement, international business, and lean/six sigma.

I helped startup a scrapbooking website, Modzy.com. The website was originally launched as a website where users can design their own scrapbook online by uploading pictures, adding text, and basically using photo editing directly online to make and then order their book. It has since transitioned into just an online store. I have helped with strategic partnerships with the site, including becoming the exlusive dropshipper for iVillage, the largest women's web portal. I still work on strategy and technology issues with the company, but am not involved in day to day operations.

I now work full-time in new business development. I find, evaluate and then implement new business ideas for new products or services to expand into. I do everything from feasibility and initial market research, to competitive intelligence and marketing plans, all the way through operational implementation. I am presently committed to a $100MM+ project related to environmentally friendly products and manufacturers. So I have significant knowledge in this arena and presently work with a host of industry experts in the field.

Beyond that, I am a co-founder in a brand new startup. We are only in concept development, but we have a very strong management team and a couple really big Chicago area heavyweights behind us. I will be working on this part-time until launch at the beginning of 2009, at which point I will make a decision if I will need to move to full-time.

In addition to all this good work stuff, I enjoy being active with several nonprofits. These include FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), Young Professionals of Chicago, and I'm an Associate Board Member and mentor for Scholarship Chicago. When time permits, I'll probably join some more.

I also spend a lot of my (limited) free time attending conferences, seminars and presentations on entrepreneurship, including CEO Breakfasts at the Met Club in the Sears Tower, Meet the Angels, TechCocktail, and others, including a recent two week international business seminar on marketing and technology held in Japan.

Entrepreneurship is my passion. There isn't a part of it that I am not interested in. So although I likely have more experience than most members here, there is always something I could learn. So cheers, salud, salute, kampai, lachaiem, prost, noroc, to entrepreneurship!

[michellet218]

I am a 23 yr old fashion designer wannabe trying to find connections in the fashion business, but can't find anything because Columbia, SC isn't big on fashion. School is taking way too long for me to get into the field that I'm trying to get in (fashion des.). I have to take up these crappy basic courses that i already learned in high school (ex: english, history, reading, etc...) before I can major in fashion & I've already been doing that for 4 years and I got 2-4 more yrs of that mess. That's wasting my time! basic courses are a waste of time cuz they have nothing to do w/ fashion & they already teach u that mess in HS.

I know how to draw really really well (sketching clothing designs) but my sewing skills are half good, half not. Can't find anyone that will help me get noticed by my wonderful and fascinating drawing skills. I'm really motivated, hardworking, and dedicated to my dream. This has been my dream for 13 years. I thought I found people in the past that'll help me, but they put my hopes up and then smacked my hopes to the ground by pulling shady & hurtful stunts. So I'm learning from my mistakes, but opportunities still aren't coming to me. I'm thnking about an at home tailoring business, but I want to learn a lil more sewing b4 I can do that. I'm also thnking about an at home fashion illustration business where I can sketch clothing to my clients(ex:wedding/prom dresses,etc..) & they get someone to sew it for them, but that just don't sound right (read my other posts about this).

I'm running out of ideas!! I've tried getting noticed in other ways, but I'll be here all day telling them all. I would like for someone to just give me a chance to show them what I can do, and how hardworking I'll be. Just because I don't have a degree or professional experience in fashion yet, doesn't mean that I'm not good. I have 13 years of personal experience (drawing, reading model & fashion magazines & online articles about fashion, watching style network, fashion television, learning about diff. types of everyday styles of the seasons, etc...) and 2.5 yrs working in retail clothing stores. I guess you can say the clothing store is professional experience???It would be great if I could get a celebrity to wear an outfit designed by me on the red carpet, or if I bumped into Beyonce, J-Lo, Mariah Carey, etc... one day & they just happen to see my drawings fall out of my hand. But I doubt if that'll happen. but you never know!! if anyone knows what I can do to become more successful, please let me know. I'm an entrepreneur/business woman in the making! And please read my other posts, I would seriously appreciate it!

[Fanatik]

BizGuy, EXCELLENT post! Thank you for bringing YE online for all of us to get together and share ideas, theories, and knowledge about something we all love.

My story began at age 14. I've been a semi-computer geek most of my life, and at 14 years old, I browsed the web on my old 56k modem (HAHA!), looking for bad websites to turn-around. I contacted one gentleman who owned a car audio store in North Carolina. His website looked horrible, so I offered to re-vamp it for him. We agreed on $1,000 and he'd give me his complete dealer price sheet on all of his car audio products. I finished the site in a couple of weeks with full e-commerce capability.

So I sat there with plenty of car audio products at my disposal, and began selling around the neighborhood to my brother's friends (he's 2 years older than I). I figured, HEY - why I don't setup a business for myself online? So there I was at age 15, with my first business (Audio Fanatik), selling to the local community and online. I then made a few more connections, and decided to brand out into car performance products, as this was when the 'street racing' revolution really started to spin-up.

I figured I backed myself in a corner by naming my business AUDIO Fanatik, so I created Racing Fanatik to sell car performance/styling products. I kept these businesses alive well into college. At age 19, I decided to leave college and join the US Air Force. I sold the businesses as well, made a nice little cushion for myself, and off I went into the wild blue yonder.

After basic training, 7 months at technical training, and my move to my first duty station in Japan, I found out the businesses went under. So, I got the rights back and developed the businesses again, along with Fanatik Networks LLC. Being stationed in Japan helped IMMENSELY! with knowing the new and up-and-coming products, as well as understanding their way of doing business.

After coming back from Japan and selling all the businesses, I started an HID-specialty business, called BuyXenon. I had not a clue about HID's, but I learned fast and soon made a killing selling HID's online and in the community. I sold that business in December, 2007.

I knew a lot about the HID industry, and the more I learned, the more I realized how educated people needed to be before buying them. I started HIDreview, and sold that a few months later as well.

Now close to age 25, myself and my business partner, along with a soon-to-be CTO, are developing a new business, which will be launched soon. The business idea and concept are so revolutionary, that I've been invited to speak at the SEMA conference in November. We'll be unveiling a great new, never before seen concept, and is sure to spark a new marketing process and medium for small and mid-sized businesses.

Just re-enlisted for another 6 yrs in the world's greatest Air Force, which is a blast. Actively working on my B.S. in IT Management as well.

[jasaunders]

Fanatik, Nihongo ga Hanashimasu ka?