Marshall was a winner of the Underground scholarship the first year it was done, and has gone to a very successful entrepreneurial journey.

Marshall is really a product innovator, so we talked about his process for coming up with product ideas, the pre-launch process, and successfully running multiple brands at once. We also talked a bit about Marshall’s entrepreneurial journey, his successes, and his failures and lessons along the way.

My biggest takeaways from the interview include…

• Idea generation often has to be intentional at first, before it becomes natural. Marshall started by sitting down and consciously thinking of ideas, then eventually it became a natural process of innovation.
• Having an older business partner and mentor can go a long way in creating greater success as a young entrepreneur. Combine your young energy and creativity with their experience, resources, and wisdom.
• Most times, things won’t work the first time around. Maybe not even the first 5 times. This is normal, and you have to keep trying, keep pushing forward, and you’ll eventually get it right.
• While you can build a successful business from any circumstances, having freedom of location allows you to think and act more clearly, and be a more effective entrepreneur.
• As long as you build proper systems and automate the process, you can launch multiple unrelated physical products in different niches successfully without dedicated CEO’s or Product Managers for each.
• If working on multiple brands, even if unrelated, having a larger Umbrella brand (for Marshall this is NeedWant) helps build long term momentum and recognition in the marketplace.

The Google Hangout unfortunately cut out Marshall’s video at the beginning, so the recording is mostly just audio. You can listen below, and read the accompanying interview transcript.

Transcription

Dmitriy: I’m here with Marshall Haas, he’s 23 years old, a serial entrepreneur and product guy, he already develops lots of really unique stuff, he was a scholarship recipient for Underground, the first year we ever did the scholarship program and has before and since been a successful entrepreneur and has built really cool stuff over the last few years.

So welcome Marshall, thank you for taking the time today.

Marshall: Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Dmitriy: Absolutely. So, I checked out your personal site in the needwant.com and it looks like you build a lot of like really unique products for unique market places almost like category creators.

So the first question would be, what’s your process for idea generation and then testing for market viability.

Marshall: Sure. I used to just sit down and literally try to have ideas, like as weird as it sounds, almost like trying to practice it and then like know what it’s just like, it’s always on my mind.

Looking for different problems that you know may have a solution but isn’t very elegant or with the bedding thing, like it was just personal frustration and like productizing a solution. So yeah, it’s all good place nowadays it’s just like more of like day to day like a natural thing. I don’t know which thought process starts to go in that direction when I have free time. So yeah, I don’t know it all, a good place.

Dmitriy: Cool. So now it’s like you solve the old problems and bring that to the market place?

Marshall: Yeah, I think so. Sometimes it’s our own problems, sometimes it’s others, there’s a gap in the marketplace and this could be really cool. I think the best solutions like smartbeddings is one of my favorite and like that one of course like a personal frustration and I understand the problem so I could figure best one to design a solution for it.

Dmitriy: Okay. So now that you have multiple ventures, or multiple products, did you end up starting like multiple things at once or did you start one and then once you’re like, “okay this one’s nice and neatly buttoned up, start the next”. Do you have a science to it? Or is it just like, you’re inspired and you go start something?

Marshall: Sure. Like most people, I can have like entrepreneurial A.D.D., I’ve heard that term a lot. So I used to just like go all over the place, it’s like “oh this is interesting” but I’m still like you know, well into this a year into this other thing, like I need to put my time into. So I think like over the last years, I got a little more disciplined. Like okay this is a cool idea but let’s put this on the shelf until we like really locked down a process on this one and get it rolling. So it’s like, I definitely became more disciplined about it and now it’s definitely like “alright let’s lock down going for needwant example like let’s lock down smartbedding, like keep production rolling, everything we need to get that set-up and then work on the next thing”. And sometimes whenever, there’s like downtime waiting on manufacturing or whatever we’ll do a little bit on the next thing. But yeah, I’ll definitely try to be way more disciplined with that with the last year because it’s definitely true, like when you start bouncing around things start to suffer.

Dmitriy: Yeah, you lose focus a little bit.

Marshall: Yeah, absolutely.

Dmitriy: So then on that note, right now and in the near future do you run all of the companies with yourself and your business partner or all of the projects and products or do you guys find operator CEOs for the individual subsets or companies?

Marshall: Yeah. So with Needwant it’s definitely Jon and myself. We’re 50-50 partners and we’ve never really looked at hiring someone else to like run the day to day. Also I don’t think we ever will; with physical products and you have that process down and you can now resell. So it’s not like a lot of day to day that needs to – basically what I’m trying to say is that you can automate a lot. It’s really worthless bringing in a CEO type for each product unless they’re much, much bigger.

Unofficially, I’m CEO and he’s much better with the product than me. Like he definitely I would say has a lot better ideas than I do. And I think he tends to spend a lot of his time to think up different ideas. So yeah, we’re a good fit. Like we definitely have a lot of the same skill sets. We’re both like super product focused. I’m focusing more on the business growth ideas and he’s working on like making product better. And there’s a lot of overlap as well but yeah I think that it’s going to be just the two of us working on it long term.

Dmitriy: Cool. Awesome. How much do you think finding the right business partner has played a role in your success so far for the last few years? And then going forward?

Marshall: I think it’s huge. The first thing I tried was with my cousin who was like my brother. And like whatever that was the first thing and it crashed and burned because probably we were both really inexperienced. So nothing against him. Yeah, I had a lot of business partners and you know I think you can make things work like you know people that aren’t the greatest ever but it’s definitely huge finding the right people. And thinking about that I would just start working on things by myself and just never really make any assumptions like “oh, I need a co-founder” at some point. And it just , you know, you meet different people, you start making things putting them out to the world. Meeting other cool people that are doing other interesting things. And sometimes they’re like a good fit and you both like a place where you both starting something up that it make sense to you to bring them in. And that’s how things happened with Jon and I. Yeah so super important obviously.

Dmitriy: Cool. Both you and Jon have exited before you started working together through some sort of a previous start-up company – so you tell me a little bit about that and then how that played a role in what you do now.

Marshall: Sure. So, Jon co-founded dailybooth which was like pre-Instagram, like it was this picture sharing platform, where like you use mostly, I think actually only the webcam. And like you take a picture daily was the idea then you could like respond with pictures. And it was like really interesting community of just pictures like going back and forth and like they make their income…. raise much money. Like Ashton Kutcher is an investor and stuff like that. like their pretty big. And then they were like aqua hired by Airbnb couple years ago, maybe like two years ago or maybe a year i’m not really sure. And then he left just prior actually and went off and started just like thinking out with different tons of different stuff. And then I was working on this company called Absorbed and it was like project management software with like a roll your own takes so the idea was like you know everyone needs something different so we built out this like very modular system where it’s like okay if I need these features I can grab them ànd build my own project management app to suit what I do versus an architect or an event planner. And so that was the first company where I raised a little bit of money, raise like 110k. I started with myself and then actually had a technical co-founder join me while I was in Chile for a start-up Chile. And actually the first product is like ultimately failed. We was not getting enough attraction, and we still own some money in the bank and the idea was like we can either double down on this original thing like totally redesign it or like let’s try something new. And this is a much longer story but basically I got connected with Andrew Wilkinson of Metalab. He and I started keeping in touch. I basically pitched him on doing like a 50-50 joint venture and the idea was like “hey we got some cash in the bank still and we can pair on way and let’s build a product together and let’s lunch under metalab. And it was like cool, awesome, that’s great but like you guys need to come up here for two months here in the Victoria, B.C. And so we did that and then all the while the idea was still it’s like a joint venture between two companies building new products, so like we’re still independent, they’re independent. And then while we’re up there, two months working together it just became very clear, they really liked us. And Andrew made an offer to press to join them and you know it’s good. I’ve always been a fan of Metalab so we obviously took the deal. So I’m actually still with them. Like I’m a partner with them now. So I’m like bouncing my time between Metalab and Needwant stuffs. So that’s getting way out of myself, that’s the start between Jon and I, and those two companies.

Dmitriy: Yeah for sure. It sounds like you know you probably learned a lot through all of those experiences that allowed you to build your own.

Marshall: Yeah absolutely.

Dmitriy: How much of a factor do you think, or how important do you think it is to have that flexible lifestyle where you feel like ok while I’m living here, I’m gonna move to Chile to work on a start-up and go up to Victoria. That’s obviously pretty cool how much of a factor do you think that plays in being able to have that agile lifestyle for an entrepreneurial success?

Marshall: Yeah, I mean, I just think it depends on your personality like some people need, you know, structure and like routine day to day. And I’m actually getting to that point now where it’s like I want, I wanted to just, like for a while I don’t know where I will be, I just wanna be in two months or six months or whatever or where I’m gonna be living. And that gets old but I think for several years like it’s awesome, like I’m super laid back. And I think I have the right personality where like I can thrive in those situations where it’s like, oh, this is exciting, like I’m gonna be somewhere new. So, yeah, I mean totally important but at the same time like, it does get old after you know, a while, like you want to be based somewhere, right?

Marshall: But yeah like having the freedom to do that is definitely a huge perk and I think like it helps with, you know, it all trickles down like being happy, likes helps you have good ideas, and like treat people correctly and think clearly like when you operating your business. That happiness comes from freedom of location and will help you I think thrive in whatever you’re doing.

Dmitriy: Cool. Awesome. So, some of your products launched at the other store and pre-launched, do you have any good tips for preparing for launch and how to market yourself during pre-launch so as to have a successful product launch?

Marshall: Sure. It’s like with physical products, we have definitely found, we were just like foreign lever kick starter, I think just that whole crowd funding platform and like concepts, like really, like helps kick things off where it’s like a very big bang like it’s theres a time limit on, like your customer’s being like ‘Oh i want this thing, I wanna be in the first run of it.’ And there’s like you know yeah, okay, you have 30 days or 60 days or 15 days or whatever the limit is to like get behind this thing, and like you know, hand over your credit card. So, I think that helps a lot, like we definitely just really embrace that model. And like you know, if you launch something and it just doesn’t do well like, you don’t have that much money right? Like, you know, we, I think costs is like 5K and be ready to launch your own kickstarter for the last thing we did. And if like, not enough people like it, we obviously would have been out like the 4 whatever 50k and have nothing to market it. Yeah, so with physical products like we definitely just embrace that crowdfunding model and as far as like, you know, different thing is ran now, like you know we’ve put up a coming soon page super early, I mean as soon as we like have the idea that like we’re gonna do this thing and you put up some sort of page with collecting e-mail. And like that definitely help a lot like having that pre-launch. And like now, you know fortunate time like good networking friends that have audiences similar to ours that you know we can just buddies, nothing like super formal that we can hit them up to help us just get the word out. So, it’s super dirty, the whole process isn’t super fun, it’s super messy. Like every time we’re gonna launch something but yeah, there are definitely some things that we’ve been able to repeat and like ok, this works, you know. What the next thing we’ll do, we’ll apply work with the thing after that. Yeah.

Dmitriy: Cool. How do you see the next 2 or 3 years playing out for you? Will you keep focusing on everything you have on the table now or do you envision possibly new ideas, new products, new campaigns coming at the play?

Marshall: Yeah, so I think like now I can say with certainty like I’m gonna be doing in Metalab like helping in like being a partner there like helping with software business and physical products through need what, you know, with Metalab I’m sure we’ll have a new product. I know we’ll have new products coming out in the next few years. It is all through that business at the same you need warrant and for Jon and I,I think we’re gonna bootstrap this thing to long-term and you know, there will definitely be new products but still under you know you need one. I think that’s just gonna the next 20-year plan, I think it’s a to be a part of those two companies and do the longterm like I definitely found exactly what I wanna do, splitting time between, like two different businesses like software, B2B software like consumer physical products but I think that like it scratches all the issues that I have as far as like you know, attention and I think I’ll never get bored doing this for the next 20 or 30 years.

Dmitriy: Cool. So you got to cater your entrepreneurial A.D.D. and still stay focused on something you know, so you got both like the certainty and uncertainty within one spear. Awesome.

Marshall: Yeah. Totally. There is definitely a lot of benefit now, like I always knew this but now I’m like seeing it first hand and to like building everything under one brand like you know ten years from now, people are gonna be like “Oh yeah, that physical product company Needwant’. It is like starting something from scratch, like you’re literally starting from nothing, like with every single product launch that we do, we got an existing customer base or fan base to like we market things to and not just like that’s so huge like that and it’s just easier when you’re launching new things. Yeah.

Dmitriy: Cool. That’s awesome, literally allows you to still keep doing new stuffs but really build momentum for the long term within one company.

Marshall: Exactly. Exactly. Awesome.

Dmitriy: You’ve had a lot of different experiences, my question to you would be about a mentor or something, firstly who have you had as your mentors or other figures you’ve looked up to and then what’s the best advice that you’ve ever been given personally?

Marshall: That advice one is hard, I actually haven’t sat down and like you know it’s the best advice for certain situations. As far as like one person, like I definitely always, I never really had like a formal mentor, like one guy that is like 10 or 20 years ahead of me that you know, I can always go to. It’s just been like a lot of different people that I’ve been fortunate enough to like question about one specific thing I could reach out to. And, so that’s of course, been huge like getting advice from like this giant pool of experts that I could get for knowledge or whatever questions, you know, I consider friends. I think Andrew, the founder and CEO of Metalab, he’s like 5 years older than me so, we’re not actually that far apart but he’s definitely had way more success than I have. I’m his partner now with things like I would consider, like if there was one mentor that I have, I would say it’s him. Like, just being in business with him, he’s further ahead of me. I would definitely say that it’s a roundtable of people.

Dmitriy: Cool. Awesome. And then to flip that, what advice would you give to, let’s say your younger self 5 years ago or to somebody that’s just starting in the business today that’s maybe around that age like 18 or possibly early 20’s?

Marshall: I think, there’s always this heed of uncertainty of doing things, like the back of my mind, there are tons of things like crashed and burned and failed, over and over, right? Like you tried something and didn’t work, and like I think and this applies to most things, and I think people know this in the back of their mind.This is like what keeps you from going and like, if you just keep trying things and like, really genuinely try and learn from what didn’t work last time, like whatever it was like we needed better marketing or a bigger audience to launch to or the product was shed or whatever it was. If you do it long enough, like you stay in the game long enough, and genuinely learn from your mistakes, like you will eventually figure it out; you only need to be right one time and so you’re gonna be right eventually if you stay in it.

Dmitriy: Right.

Marshall: I would just tell myself ‘Hang on buddy, like you’ll figure it out eventually’. Right? Like yeah, so like it’s frustrating because people figured it out sooner or later than others, like some people their first thing is like hitting it out in the park and others, and is like stories of whatever case like so many years of trying and eventually got it. And it’s like late age.

Marshall: So yeah, that’s frustrating to sit by and watch. I had a buddy that like had no interest in business and like the first thing he did was made good money from and it was a nice business to support his lifestyle. That’s frustrating to watch, you know, when you have been trying different things for like 5 years or whatever but like, eventually, I can just promise anyone that eventually, you’ll figure it out.

Dmitriy: Awesome. That’s perfect. Alright, well, I think we’re all set for the day. This is really, really great content. I actually got some good notes myself. It’s really inspiring, what you’re doing at this age so far, and it’s exciting to see what you’ll do the next 5 years and beyond. And it’s clear that you’re gonna keep tinkering and building new stuff and I’m really excited to watch.

The post Interview With Marshall Haas Of NeedWant appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

In this interview Sasha shares his Six Conversion Principles, some great tactics and examples, and his biggest life and business lessons from a year of trials and tribulations. Expect to get a lot of tactical nuggets on how to improve your website’s conversions, along with some inspiration and insight into the entrepreneurial roller coaster.

Sasha was a scholarship recipient for Underground Online Seminar 8, which gives scholarship opportunities to young entrepreneurs 13 – 23. If you’re a young entrepreneur 23 and under, apply by Friday, January 10th 5pm EST for your chance to win a ticket (or streaming scholarship).

Biggest takeaways from the interview with Sasha:

The 6 Conversion Principles:

1. Increase Your Value Proposition. Really evaluate your offer and make sure it matches what your customers are looking for. Posing this question to yourself can result in a series of small or big changes that boost your conversion.
2. Increase Relevance. Write specifically to your audience; the more narrow you can get, the more successful you are in converting your audience. Even if you are selling the same product, you can sell it differently to different audiences, making your campaign efforts convert much better.
3. Build Trust. Whether through personalized copy, or through social media credibility, professional design, or media mentions, increasing your visitors’ trust boosts your conversions.
4. Amplify Desire. You can amplify desire for your product without changing the product, offer, or value proposition at all. From great photography to product display and packaging, there are many things that you can do to amplify desire for your product and boost your conversions.
5. Eliminate Friction. In addition to adding elements to your site to boost conversions, you should also look at what you can remove to eliminate friction. Too many pages, too many fields on a form, or even a multi-step checkout process are all great examples of friction you can eliminate on your site. Make it easy for people to do business with you.
6. Add Ethical Urgency. Create urgency to take action now, but do so in a way that doesn’t violate the trust building principle or your integrity. For example, a physical product can sell out and you can create urgency around this, while an ebook ‘selling out’ just creates mistrust among your customers.

Biggest lessons from Sasha’s recent entrepreneurial roller coaster:

Lesson #1: What Is Not Sustainable Cannot Be Sustained. Take a good look at your business model and delivery process. Don’t oversell unless you can deliver, as it can lead to stress, poor trust, and ultimately implosion of your company through over growth. Build sustainable operations that deliver value, then sell that value, rather than focusing purely on sales and short term revenue.

Lesson #2: Work With Integrity, Even When It’s Easier Not To. Sasha went through a lot the past year – enough for many young entrepreneurs to just walk away, quit, maybe start over. But he followed through on his promises, was honest with his customers about his challenges, and ultimately made it out of the temporary struggle stronger than ever. Not just in his reputation, but also in his personal confidence, entrepreneurial ability, and future.

Enjoy the video interview, with transcription below.

Transcription:

Dmitriy: When we met at Underground 8, you were going kinda in two directions, one was the product route where you were developing some information products and training and the other was the higher end like B2B services, so sounds like you have taken more of the service direction, so what drove you to make that decision and tell me a little bit about how it’s been going since.

Sasha: Sure thing. Yeah as you said, I started off with a product and with a bit of promotion, I sold a few grand of it which isn’t very much and then I just got few, from that I got opportunities to do consulting and implementing services and that just snowballed and I just followed every revenue and then the product just kind of went on the backburner, while the
marketing agency has been growing in the first six months, we’re really amazing from zero to 300k in the first six months which was great.

So with the product not really working and the agency taking off, I decided well let’s just focus on networks and let’s just scale that up.

Dmitriy: How have you guys been able to get high end corporate clients, especially as a newer agency?

Sasha: At first by exhausting all our personal resources, our personal contacts, who do we know, who can we get up there, we didn’t really have any big name people we could put on and so that was the start.

With that, we did advertising on google adwords and I’ve really got the majority of our leads that way; about 2 or 3 percent of leads were from big clients and yeah we were just able to sell them all on to the service. The other thing that i’ve realized is that sometimes, you know selling isn’t that difficult. I had put I guess roadblocks on myself, mental barriers on selling where I thought I had to have this in place, and this in place, and this in place, until someone would listen to me or you know be willing to buy? What I found is, to make things really simple, just speak to your prospect, find out what they want, so focus on the outcome, and then just talk about what can we do to help them achieve that outcome. And you know you might, you might get objections throughout the process but you know that’s not a bad thing, just people doing their due diligence and wanted to make sure you are what you say you are. Just being able to handle objections is enough in saying that once you have more client logos you can show in your site, case studies and things like that, you just make things much easier and the sales process just becomes short of because you already have inbuilt trust.

Dmitriy: Yeah, but it sounds like for you even you built that credibility, it’s awesome that you guys were able to go out and say you generate a bunch of leads, put together sales process even without having, you know all those past testimonials and credibility in the first place, and then build all of that through, just through lead generation sales, really the kind of service that you guys sell that you are implementing for yourselves.

Sasha: A hundred percent. And the other reason why it was pretty straightforward is it is because it was a new market, there were very very few competitors, I think we’re the only in Australia that were doing this at the time when we first launched. So, because there’s no really competitions who really understand conversion optimization as clearly as we did, when people called us up, “Oh my God! You guys are speaking our language, this is what we want you know, we want more conversions, and…

And so now, as more and more conversion agencies are popping – up and more digital and marketing agencies starting to offer conversion like services, all that means is it’s not enough to just say we convert, we do conversion optimization, would you like some, we now have got to show how we’re different, how we’re better, and now being unique and demonstrating proof plays a more of an important role in it.

Dmitriy: So initially, you’re almost a category creator in the marketing agency world and now there so many people popping up in your category, you’re kind of creating a new level of differentiation.

Sasha: Yeah, I mean we went there first in the world, that in Australia we were definitely were, but we still marketed overseas. So, more of our clients were actually from America and the UK and Canada and then in Australia, so that’s really cool too. We initially have a global market from day one.

Dmitriy: Yeah, like instantly international business. That’s what so cool about you know building a business these days, there’s literally no barrier for that kind of growth.

Sasha: Yes.

Dmitriy: Then I guess a little more of a tactical question, and I know this obviously depends on a little bit on your specific style and the market but what are your top let’s say three conversion tips for a website right now or any kind of general principles that you can share with anybody who’s listening.

Sasha: Sure thing. So in terms of tips, we literally have hundreds of different techniques and strategies that we can apply. We also have a six core conversion principle model which basically encompasses all those hundreds of tactics, and six principles, right?

So I’ll go over those in a second, and when you understand all those six principles and you personally come up with your own creative ideas, on how to improve your conversions because what we do is what we say in our logo, “We do what beyond just practice”, and we do things more than just changing the color of your call to action by then or moving a few things around.

Conversion optimization to us is really thinking big picture and really it really encompasses pretty much all the different marketing you can do, you know, under that umbrella. So it’s a very wide scope we have and it’s about identifying what changes to your marketing and your business will increase the conversion the most. So, that’s how we look at it, and so for instance, so i’ll run in to the 6 principles:

Conversion Principle #1: Increase your value proposition.

Your value proposition is essentially the value your product creates. The value means different things to different people and different markets. To keep it really simple, in the electronics appliances market for instance, TVs whatever online, it’s all about costs, if we had 2 Samsung 45” LED TVs, exact same model and one retailer is selling it for $1000 and another retailer is selling it for $995, it’s only $5 difference for these guys but it’s the exact same TV and shipping is very undoubtful so, in this instance, you know pretty much everyone will go to the $5 cheaper TV ‘cause it’s lowest price market. Now, not all industries are about lowest price markets.

Value can be demonstrated through other means, so at first I suggest you think about what is value to my target market, so think about that for you. It could be your personal brand and reputation, it could be the result you’ve achieve for other people’s outcomes, and it could be like the average of all the results that you’ve achieved if you consistently show better results and achieving whatever you’re selling then the next time then you got an advantage in terms of proposition of being better, it’s just giving the best. It’s about being one step better than the competition.

Sometimes, value isn’t that more features, that more power, that more speed, sometimes, less is more when it comes to value. For instance, a few years ago, when the Flip Cam first came out, it was like, do you remember this? The Flip Cam?

Dmitriy: Yep. Absolutely. Yeah, it was all about less feature, just a super quick thing you just whip it out, you film something and then you just plug it into your laptop and you got quick video editor you can upload it.

Sasha: Exactly. And prior to that, they are already selling Panasonic, you know big bulky video cameras, all these features, optical zoom and this and that. The people didn’t want that, you know, there’s a market, we want less, we just want just get easy film, plug-in to the computer, done. And so, Flip whatever the companies out there made this camera really simple, and yeah it sold like hotcakes because to the market at that time, that was the value, something that’s quick and easy and simple.

So, get clear, my recommendations is that get really clear on what value is to your market, to your audience, think how you can do it better.

Dmitriy: So basically, under principle #1, adjusting value proposition, might have been adjusting operations wise was internally as far as how you deliver. Cool.

Sasha: Exactly, here’s a good reason example, Amazon very recently introduced an ad. They are going to introduce that 30 minute shipping with drones. And so that’s increasing value proposition for shipping, you know, faster shipping, also is a tangible outcome value proposition is really not far behind it.

And essentially with the proposition what we wanna focus on is innovation maybe that’s what it should be called, innovation. ‘Cause it’s making your product and service better and delivering more value to your customers and that’s time for innovation.

Conversion Principle #2: Increase Relevance

Sasha: Increase relevance. Relevance is basically how you communicates and if you have different target markets. Let’s say for iPads their target market was pretty much everyone that if they communicate it in special wires for instance and the Mac store, let’s say physical and somebody comes in and they shop in around and thinking I wanna buy an iPad, they’re not sure yet and the actual salesperson, let’s say it’s a kid, like a 15 year old teenager boy comes in and just looking around he’s on the fans club and the salesperson comes out to say, “Hey! How can I help you.” and goes on people you know like that. So for this salesperson to be relevant to this guy, he should think what this 15 year old kid care about like you know, all the games he can do, you know, how he can launch social media network, just like, it’s God! You know snapshot and just talk about all things just relevant to a teenage boy or find apps whatever and to tell just “Yes, yes that’s exactly what I want.” he bought it. And now later a mother, you know comes in with her 2 kids and says, “I wanna buy an iPad or I’m thinking on buying an iPad” so the salesperson to her, you know to be relevant he needs to say things which will appeal to her like, say or what did she lack on cake recipes or bored when I’m cooking and he press the apps and hear about the latest news you know blah blah blah, fashion magazines, all the stuff like so the salesperson just shows pages relevant to that on what she wants.

Dmitriy: So basically that’s the same thing for people on your website when you’re already thinking about who’s your audiences and being super relevant to what they doing.

Sasha: Exactly, and there are many ways to do but a really simple one that’s easy to implement in getting results from is by having a segmentation survey on your homepage. So, first thing you do is select an audience; you know it could be by age groups, it could be male or female, it could be by the level of experience at a certain topic or whatever, and then you can now have one question, a multiple questions and then you send them down the funnel and create a totally relevant experience depending on who they are and where they are at. And people look up and, “Oh my God, you get me” which will result in higher conversions.

Dmitriy: That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s so cool and makes a lot of sense rather than selling the same product to the, to a larger audience the same way every time really narrowing down a funnel based on a turning base than who your market is. Awesome!

Sasha: Yeah, and another why is you probably know with landing pages, so you could do in adwords, advertise, Facebook advertising, the more relevant your landing pages to your ad and to your keyword people were searching for, the higher the conversion will be.

So, if we’re selling office chairs, and we have all sorts of office chairs from the cheapest ones to the most expensive ones. Let’s say it’s a google search type in a cheap office chair you want to if that’s really selling you own your landing page says, “Hey we have cheap office chairs.” And you know post a picture of your office chairs and explain why you have the cheapest, good quality and whatever you want and until we saw some top high office chairs or Hermanela office chair you show by landing page the Hermanela office chair and try to talk about your cheap office chairs because that’s not going to appeal to that person to offer a high-end office chair. So the more tied you are to what people want the better.

Dmitriy: Awesome!

Sasha: Thinking big picture, relevance comes in your actual marketing and the position of your business maybe how business should be positioned at a particular segment and i’ve been trying reach so many people, so we look at a really big picture well not just what’s going on, on your website.

Conversion Principle #3: Build Trust

Sasha: Alright, build trust. If people don’t trust you then how can they buy, right? So, to trust has to show in many different ways from one really obvious one, the design with your site. If your design like looks you know cheap and outdated and looked really bad that’s gonna hurt trust. Paradoxically, if people already know you like they know your brand then that’s okay. It doesn’t really matter how your website looks.

For example, if you have come up from an idea for an offer and you wanted to send it to your list, you cannot like use you know, simplest website, the most ugliest thing in the world right? But, you just say, “Hey guys! I got this idea who’s interested?”, ’cause people sense they know you, they like you or they trust you, they don’t care how it looks, it doesn’t matter. And so, you keep that in mind you gotta understand that you exist in relationship whether it’s a person or could be with a brand you’re presenting, its company, design is one thing, or possible from the design is obviously you know it’s a way better. At the end of the day you can test it but a good design, it generally converts most of the time, also obvious stuff and more testimonials, adding credibility just like big clients that you have worked pr credible associations you’re part of in which boosts your credibility, all these things could use trust and heaps of different things it could be social proof you know, having a big Facebook following so people say, “Oh there’s already thousand of people trust these guys, it must be good”, something like that.

And for instance, if you have Facebook page use things like ten followers and having them on your site and people might be bit reluctant and think these guys must be brand new, who are these guys no one knows about them, so it can hurt trust. So if you go to a site and you show in your Facebook likebox, a very few people you know liking you or following you, then you are actually doing yourself a disservice by showing it there.

Conversion Principle #4: Amplify Desire

Sasha: Amplify desire, so, what can we do to really make the people desire what you have without changing the product just that by showing it in a different light. For instance, let’s go back to office chair example and if we’re selling like, we have a picture or a photograph of the chair. If the picture is done on a shoot-camera phone and it’s kinda dark and it’s blurry and has a bad angle. It doesn’t look like great. Then, you have very well hurt conversions. If however, the photo is done in a professional photo studio, it looked amazing, you know, had the colors and everything. It just makes me go, “Wow, that’s incredible. It looks so great!”, and that amplifies the desire. And if the product is just exactly the same, just by putting it in a different light, it can make people want it more or less. So, you to think what can you do to make your product look better and it could be the design of your product packaging itself, it could be the design of your actual product.

I’m not here to give you a top ten list of recommendations and so okay do these things and get more conversions. I really want to empower you to understand what makes a website conversion go up or down in real time. So, you have the power to come to like a matrix and see what you need to do at any given time and which principle is holding back your conversions the most, so you know what to focus on. ‘Cause there’s thousands of things that we could do, that’s about getting clear on what will make the biggest impact. And other thing to keep in mind is, two years ago I wrote a book, which includes blueprints which has underage principles, a lot of tactics listed, see those ideas as well. So, for anyone interested just email me at [email protected] and I can send you more facts.

Principle #5: Eliminate Friction

Sasha: It sounds obvious, right? If there is friction on your sites, then, it’s gonna slow down your conversions. You wanna make things really simple, effortless, you don’t want people to think, you want them to click, and skim, ‘yup, yup, i like, great!’ done.

The more friction you have, the harder it is for people to convert, so this can mean your website being slow. You wanna increase your website load speed. It could mean, reducing your checkout process, you may have 5-6 steps in your checkout, I’ve seen this. And reduce that down to a simplified checkout process that helps. It could be about eliminating phone fills you don’t actually need. I mean, so many people are, this massive prongs within they share they don’t even need, but they include it anyway just I don’t know why. So, the more simple you can make it, the more streamlined, the better.

Dmitriy: Your site doesn’t really have much of a navigation and stuff kind of following that principle of eliminating friction?

Sasha: Yeah, totally. If you’re look on the site right now, it is in absolute face hold aside. I’ve purposely done that because as a side note, I’m actually rebranding, I did have a business partner I brought on a while ago, and some things happened and now like, I guess we had a legal dispute but long story short, rather than try and battling, battle him for the name, I’m just going to make a new brand. We will be pivoting going down an even better direction and there’s so much to be learned from that in itself, from like what’s been going on in last 9 months with that stuff. Like I’ve been in the business for six years now doing my own stuff and the last 3-5 months

Dmitriy: You’re 24, right? So that’s starting from 18 to 24?

Sasha: Yeah.

Sasha: Yeah. And, the last 6, 9 months as I’ve been really, really, really, really tough time with the stuff that’s been going on, you know, it’s actually what’s making me, it actually what’s, I’ve learned so much more in this last 6, 9 months and I had for the whole 6 years of doing this stuff. So grateful like that shit situation happened, I’ve now grown an unbelievable relationship with clients with internal systems and processes that phenomenally better. Everything is much in my confidence and skill set as an entrepreneur is much better like everything is just unbelievable. I’m going to make a wild pause this one day and that’s really distill the lessons and what-nots and that’s I’ll leave when that comes out because that’s gonna be awesome. Like I learned so much from it. It made me a lot stronger. And, one thing I realized is for a long time, 2xConversion cause I think it’s really a great name, it’s like my baby, I was really emotional and attached to it, and I might still end up getting it depending on how and what my lawyer does and works out and have that really, I don’t care. I know that the success of my company moving forward where I’ve gone where I’ve wanted to go; it’s not gonna be determined by the name.

Dmitriy: Cool. So, i actually don’t know any of that comment this, so I actually wanna come back and hear more so let’s quickly cover number 6 and then i wanna hear about some of your lessons from the past a year ago and the years before.

Conversion Principle #6: Add Ethical Urgency

Sasha: A lot of websites add urgency, ‘How are we gonna sell out? Is there only 10 copies remaining in some e-book?’ We all laugh, we’re not supposed to. And that’s not going to sell out.

Dmitriy: You’re not going to print more digital e-books. Yeah.

Sasha: Yeah. Exactly. So, instantly you say that. You know, most of our clients aren’t really into that because it’s more companies and more low-standard businesses. Actually, 99, no a 100% we don’t work with any internet marketers…

Dmitriy: Actually that’s cool because you were able to apply a lot of the Internet marketing strategies and principles and the stuff you learned from that industry, really ethically to more traditional large companies which have a lot of money, which have a lot of huge customer base but aren’t necessarily tweaking things maximally like people on the internal marketing industry do.

Sasha: Yeah, exactly. And that’s one of the lessons I learned you know, i started off in the Internet marketing like years ago and make information products and things like that and bring in hope inside a community, but then I realized thinking of myself as an internet marketer is actually restricting myself.

What really empowered me and set me through was thinking of myself as an entrepreneur. So, rather than trying to be like Frank Kern, or any of the top internet marketers these days, I changed my approach to how I can be like Richard Branson, Donald Trump, these likes of people? And that mindset is what really helps my business grow a lot. So, whether you’re into marketing, you know, that’s your industry, that’s cool but I want you to think of yourself as an entrepreneur that is serving that category.

Dmitriy: That’s awesome, so, would you say that that kind of shift in your own personal perception of yourself has had a huge impact on how you operate, how you do business?

Sasha: Yeah. I started wearing suits now. (laughs). I’m just kidding. Yeah, totally, like you know, like just really thinking bigger picture and starting the Inc 500, Inc 5000 list seriously, I’m looking at those things as unrealistic anymore.

And, what can I create? What can I innovate? What can I bring to the world? That’s when you innovate it and how can I join those lists.

Dmitriy: Cool, so tell me a little bit more of your past. Your past year, you mentioned that you probably learned more lessons from the past like 9 months or so, the past year than a lot of your business experience before that.

Without going into like crazy dramatic stories what would you say like the top 2 or 3 things that you learned that you could take away from it that if you wish you could have gone back like told that younger version of yourself of you talking an entrepreneur now that sharing that information would really make a difference.

Sasha: Sure, I’m just gonna spit it up what comes to my head. No particular order ‘cause like I haven’t thought about prioritizing lessons, so let’s start off with sustainability: what is not sustainable cannot be sustained.

Lesson: what is not sustainable cannot be sustained.

So I’ll explain. We were getting more and more clients everyday. Adding a new clients, sometimes adding 1 client a day, sometimes 2. And it’s really exciting starting and everything is growing really fast, the problem is our operational delivery wasn’t growing at the same rates. As our sales were up here, but our operational capacity was here. And the sales increase like this but operational was just increasing slowly. So, as you can imagine fast forward a few months, and how we all got these client projects past deadline, over budgets, things not working and just so much stress, everything has to come on hold. And all these projects where we had all this revenue now start becoming losses and things go down, and by chasing the short term revenue at the expense of sustainability, you’re always going to lose money in the long-term.

Just not having enough experience in managing a service-based business and understanding the operational capacity and having the right systems in place to manage work flow and this and this. So, there’s a point where I had 25 projects – I was responsible for and just not enough time or resources so you implement them.

So, that put me in between a rock and a hard place, and I suddenly felt the pain of that, from projects, you know losing money on projects, so many problems and pain from it so, rather than give up, I learned from it and then we put sales and marketing on hold and really fixed operations. And, so I spent months learning project management, agile development, all this stuff, what we could do, how do you get to this practice, what is the best way that this stuff is being done now? And then creating an implement team, this systems, getting the right people onto the team, getting the right people off the team so that we have a team, the capacity that we can deliver on. So, when the client says ‘Hey, I want this.’, I can check what we can work on and then I can confidently say whether we can or can’t do that. Only make promises you can keep and at the start, if you don’t have much experience in it, it’s a longer day out that you’re fighting till you’re making it. What I recommend is ask those who have done it before and get their feedback and advice on it and how they may help you make systems or tell you what you need to know so you’re not just guessing and hoping everything will be okay, you actually understand what is involved and how it will all look.

Dmitriy: I was just going to say I can totally relate to the story of over-selling and trying to deliver and going back to trying to say how are we gonna fix the actual delivery process so that the time you’re making a lot more sales again, it can be sustainable and actually be a growing business for it’s just shuffling money around.

Sasha: Yeah, exactly.

Dmitriy: Yeah, go on, your second big point there.

Lesson #2: Integrity.

S: Integrity. Very simple, you know, you hear all the time but really understanding it is so important. You know, when things went down and my business partner basically took a whole bunch of money he wasn’t meant to and caused a lot of things which made the company into a 100k of debt just to fix that. He just abandoned everything saying “Fuck the clients, who cares? I’m out of it”. Yeah. I could have done the same and just walk off and replace the company but being constantly screwed over, I was not prepared to do that. I realized, okay, I’m between rock in a hard place, all these improper projects which are resting on me now, my responsibility, not for a second, I would not consider screwing my clients. Something I have promised to them, I’m going to deliver. If I can’t, then I would refund. And, so, I told my clients of the situation, I explained what was going on, I was totally transparent with them and no one got angry, everybody understood. A lot of my clients were entrepreneurs and business people, and you know it happened to them. So they were totally cool with it and actually very supportive. You know, they gave me extended deadlines and reduced work load. They really made the work more easier. That’s what you hear about being totally transparent and active integrity. You know, doing the right things by your clients, by your family, whoever it is. Integrity in essence is not mine, it’s caping your word, and it’s doing the right thing. It’s not screwing people up and so, it comes back in ten fold by acting integrity even when I didn’t have the resources, I didn’t have the energy, I didn’t have the emotional capacity like to do the relations with so much going on.

But, also during this time by the way, my Dad got diagnosed with cancer, my dog of thirteen years passed away. It was like 2013 was the worst year ever year for me. And, it was just, yeah, it was really tough but I got a lot of support from my friends, business associates and mentors, and I just kept going through it one day at a time. I was at a seminar put on by a young entrepreneur group Entourage, which are quite popular in Australia and there’s this woman and she said basically as an entrepreneur, there are several times, there would be a few times when you’ll find yourself in bed with the sheets over your head thinking oh my God, I’m going bankrupt, everything is fucked, this is terrible, what am I going to do, entirely overwhelmed. And she goes, this happens to everyone, and I was like, Oh my God! that was me a few days ago!

Dmitriy: Yeah. That’s normal.

Sasha: Yeah. Exactly. And I realized, business is such an emotional rollercoaster…. the biggest highs and biggest lows, and just keeps going and going and going. So, the goal is trying to be most stable and what’s good is the more, like when you have things like super lows and get through it, it makes you stronger, it builds your character so next time you experience a problem or stress, like you’ll be much more numbed to it. Like you’ll see that it’s a problem you need to deal with but wouldn’t really affect you emotionally, just like ‘Oh yeah, we got to deal with that. Oh yeah, we got to see him, okay, whatever.’ You know, it’s just not big deal, it’s just what you do.

So, by going through a really tough time, once you come out of it like I’m just stronger for it, emotionally, in every way which helps me with everything else I do in business and in my life… it helps in sales, it helps me in leading my team, helps me with just about everything.

No matter how bad things are, don’t screw people over, always do the right thing by people and without expectations you know that it will help you better, it will but don’t rely on that. Just do the right thing because it’s the right thing. That’s it. Very simple but really really important.

Dmitriy: Awesome. I think we will end this with that. Sasha, that was an incredible interview, honestly, like so much more than I have expected. Building that integrity in at the very beginning so that when you’re going through those struggles, it makes it not necessarily easier, but more possible.

The post Interview With Sasha Gilberg of 2XC appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

I was inspired to create BizChair.com through my fascination with selling things on  the internet.  Before selling office chairs, I would sell Pokemon cards and other things on eBay.  Over the summer, I worked with my step-father and saw how simple the business model that he was involved in worked.  I was able to capitalize that business model and use it to sell office chairs online.  I started with $500 advertising and $100 for website hosting and I designed the original site myself.  I was 14 at the time it was created. 

You are just 20 years old and in 2006 your revenues were $24 Million.  What are your ambitions for BizChair.com now?

In 2007 our revenues grew to $38 million.  This year our goal is to reach $50 – $54 million in sales.  We have very ambitious sales goals and are expanding our wholesale and retail programs aggressively.  By maintaining our position as a market leader, we are able to focus on our growth and continue to expand our business with an excellent selection of products and customer service. 

Tell me, what does a 20 year old entrepreneur spend his money on?

I like to think that I live a relatively modest lifestyle.  My one splurge was a 2008 Range Rover Supercharged.  Other than that, I don’t spend much money (other than for college tuition).  I enjoy trading stocks with what money I have left. 

You have over 75 Employees, What do your employees think about working for someone so young?

I think most employees think that it is “cool” to have a young boss.  We have a more relaxed work environment and it is not as stressful.  Employees are also less intimidated with a younger boss and are more likely to come to me with ideas and their true feelings which ultimately help the company. 

I understand that you study business at Emory University and at present your stepfather oversees day-to-day operations – seems like a very good arrangement to me. Tell me, how does the THEORY of business compare with the practical side of business that you have experienced creating BizChair.com?

It’s a great arrangement–but don’t think that I don’t spend any time working while I’m at school!  Much of the theory that I’m learning deals more with aspects that I don’t really know.  For example, I never knew how to properly read and create a balance sheet or income statement  or how to create pro-forma financial statements.  These are all things that I’ve come across while in school those have helped me ultimately run the company better.  Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be taking the entrepreneurship class!

I first came across you on the INC.com Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30 feature. I was very impressed. Tell me what has the feedback been about this feature? How did INC.com “discover” you? Has it created any new openings / opportunities for you?

This brought great publicity to the company.  I had been featured on CNN about a year and a half ago, but this was a welcomed increase in publicity for the company’s sake.  The publicity has been a domino effect—stemming from an article in Emory’s school newspaper.  The Atlanta Journal Constitution picked up the article and then CNN saw that one.  Presumably INC saw the CNN segment and so on.  The increased media coverage has brought many customers as well as new business opportunities such as investments and board opportunities.

If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started. What business related advice would you give yourself?

Wow, wouldn’t that be nice.  Most likely it would be to expand our product selection faster than we did.  We really stayed in the office chair market for a while before expanding into office furniture and home furniture as well as some other segments.  If we had done that faster, we could have cemented a larger position as a market leader. 

Do you think that entrepreneurialism is something that is in your blood? Or is it something that can be learned? 

I think it’s a bit of both.  You have to have the desire to succeed and take risks to get there–It’s not for everyone.  I love the excitement and the future growth prospects as well as watching the company grow and prosper.  You have to have ambitious goals. 

Is there anyone that you look up to and model yourself on?

Instead of one person, I’d rather model myself from various, successful entrepreneurs and business people and blend them together.  Some of them include the “Google Guys” (Larry and Sergey), Steve Jobs, and Warren Buffet.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Always have a backup plan in case something goes wrong—because it will.

What advice would you give to a Young Entrepreneuer setting up their first business?

Don’t’ be afraid to take risks.  It’s your first business and you have your whole life to succeed.  Make sure they are calculated and not careless risks. 

What are your plans for the future? Do you believe in goals (for example anything that you want to do before age 30)?

Immediate plans are to finish college and come and work full-time at BizChair.  I believe in goals, but if you were to ask me what my goals were just 7 years ago, I don’t think I would have said anything like I have now.  I’m just trying to make this business the best that it can be and 10 years is a long time away!

The post Interview With Sean Belnick – Making $50,000,000 A Year Selling Business Chairs appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

1) Tell us about your main project, Mashable? Why did you launch Mashable? Where are you at now with Mashable?
I launched Mashable in 2005 to get up to speed with all the new services launching on the web.  I wanted to launch my own startup and needed to conduct research; very soon, Mashable itself became my startup.

2) I think Mashable is a great name – what are the origins of the name? What does it mean to you?

“Mashable” comes from the “mashups” trend.  In recent years, people have been combining pieces of the web in interesting ways; you might want to plot photos from your Flickr account on Google Maps, for instance.  You might also want to combine music, videos and text from different services.  Whenever you combine parts of the web like this, it’s called a “mashup”.  These days, virtually everything on the web is remixable…Mashable, in other words.

3) Have you had any particular challenges running such a successful website like Mashable so young?

Not really.  The biggest challenge for a blogger is finding the energy to keep going – luckily, young people have plenty of that.

4) Mashable describes itself as The Social Networking Blog. In your opinion what are the next big steps / hot trends for social networking?

There are two huge trends going forward: aggregation and mobile social networking.  Aggregation is bringing together all your social networks: you might have a Facebook profile, a MySpace page, photos on Flickr, videos on YouTube and other fragments distributed around the web.  A new breed of services is trying to bring those parts together to make our online lives easier. 

Mobile social networking speaks for itself: people are now sending constant updates to their friends using services like Twitter, while web-based social networks like Facebook and MySpace can be used from mobile devices.  This will lead to a lot more overlap between social networking on the web and in real life: you can upload photos to a web profile the second you take them, or add a new friend to your Facebook network moments after you meet in the real world.  And let’s not forget live video streaming from mobile phones: you can now watch events live, as they happen, thanks to services like Qik.com.

5) You are well known for high quality content – do you have any tips for quality blog posts and also for recruiting writers?

Generally we like writers who can take complex ideas and explain them in simple terms: we hire people who have deep knowledge combined with good language skills.

6) If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started, what business related advice would you give yourself?

Work smarter, not harder.

7) Do you think that entrepreneurialism is something that is in your blood? Or is it something that can be learned?

I’m sure it can be learned, but for a lot of entrepreneurs it seems to come from their character or early, early experiences.  Personally, I’m just not good at obeying authority figures.

9) Do you have any favourite business related, webmaster or personal development related books that you can recommend to other entrepreneurs?

No, I never remember what I read; I remember experiences.  I find it best to dive right in and learn the hard way.

12) If the Internet had not existed – what do you think you would be doing?

I’d possibly be studying law or politics. 

13) What do you like best about the Internet?

The unlimited opportunities.

14) What do you like least about the Internet?

Spam.

15) Have you any plans (personal or business) that you can share with us about your future plans / goals / lifetime goals?

Oh, I’m not plotting a lifelong course just yet; there are too many opportunities right now to take just one path.

–Pete

The post Interview With Pete Cashmore – Founder of Mashable appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

First off – can we have a little background information on you Matthew – Where you live? How old you are? (if you don’t mind answering) What motivates you? What inspires you?

I live in San Francisco and I’m 24 years old. I’m motivated by working with great people towards and democratizing publishing on the web.

1) Many of us are WordPress users but can you give us some of the  early history of WordPress and how it has evolved so quickly to become the leading blogging software?

Early WordPress was very slow, the software was very basic but from the beginning we tried to focus on the user experience. But it wasn’t a quick evolution at all, it’s taken 5 years to get where we are now!

2) If you were starting a Project like WordPress again, is there anything in particular that you would do differently?

I would try to centralize more of the add-ons like plugins and themes earlier on. We do it now but we were very tardy on it.

3) Tell us about Automattic Inc – just about everyone has heard of WordPress, but not so many people know about Automattic and the many other software projects it is involved in.

Automattic is a company I created to pursue some of the more commercial interests around the WordPress ecosystem, such as offering services like stats and anti-spam and providing WordPress hosting on WordPress.com.

4) Do you have any suggestions / resources you can recommend young programmers / developers who are working with open sourse?

Two books I’d recommend:

Producing Open Source Software by Karl Fogel
Open Sources 2.0 by Chris DiBona

Between those two you’ll learn everything you need to know about running, participating in, and using Open Source.

5) What do you consider the best opportunity / language for young web developers to be getting involved in right now.

Learn Python and do your project in PHP.

6) What is next for WordPress? What next for Blogging Software? What kind of organisation do you feel WordPress / Automattic will be 10 years from now?

WordPress is coming up on its 2.7 release, which I think will provide a solid foundation for our growth in both user-base and feature set in the coming years.

I hope that in 10 years WordPress will be ubiquitous on the web, quietly and invisibly running a large portion of content on the web.

For Automattic I hope that we continue to scale elegantly, both on the people side and the infrastructure side.

7) Do you have any suggestions for coping with set-backs, negative experiences?

There’s nothing magic I think – sometimes things are rough and it’s just not easy. The two things are remember to keep perspective, the world is a big place and many of the things we think are real problems are actually results of things we’re lucky to be experiencing at all.

Second, load this link a few times:

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?random

Always makes me smile.

8) Do you have any favourite business related or personal development related books that you can recommend to other entrepreneurs?

Recently I’ve enjoyed:

* Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation by Edward
Chancellor
* The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas
Taleb
* The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig
* Leaders & Followers by Dick Ruch

9) What is the best advice you have ever been given?

There’s no such thing as a wrong note, and to focus on people first.

10) Have you any plans (personal or business) that you can share with us about your future plans / goals / lifetime goals?

Right now I’m trying to catch up with uploading all the photos I’ve taken in 2008 and spend some more time with the piano and sax over the holidays.

The post Interview With Matthew Mullenweg – The Founder of WordPress appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

Ryan is the founder and CEO of iContact, email marketing and surveying software. Ryan’s entrepreneur career started at just 11 years old when he offered a computer service for $5 a hour, now 24 he expects his business to turn over $25 million this year! I got the pleasure of meeting Ryan last month in Washington at a Internet Marketing seminar and he was a very talented young man with lots to share so make sure to read this interview guys!

First off – can we have a little background information on you Ryan – Where you live? How old you are? (if you don’t mind answering) What motivates you? What inspires you?

As for my personal background, I’m originally from Pennsylvania but grew up in Bradenton, Florida. When I was 18, I came to Chapel Hill to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and majored in economics. Right now, I’m 24, and still live in Chapel Hill. I currently work full-time as the CEO for iContact in Durham, NC, which I co-founded in 2003 with my friend and business partner Aaron Houghton. I’m also very passionate about giving back to my community, and currently serve on the board of several humanitarian organizations. What keeps me inspired is the fact that I’ve played a big role in creating 150 jobs. I get so much energy from being around our team. Being an entrepreneur is truly my passion. I love it, but the experience is what I can only imagine raising a real child would be like. What one has to sacrifice, to give, to devote to the effort is immense.

1) What gave you the idea to start iContact ?

When I was 11, I started helping senior citizens in Florida learn computer skills for like $5 per session one summer. I kept building my client base for a few summers and by 8th grade, I had made over $400. I learned basic HTML and web site development, which would prove to be very useful down the road.

Right before my junior year of high school, I had this amazing experience traveling around Spain and Mexico. While I was in Mexico City, I came up with this idea for my first company, a web development firm that I named Virante. I had officially become an entrepreneur. When I was 18, I made the decision to go to UNC, and that’s where I met Aaron Houghton. He ran a company called Preation who had developed the initial technology for iContact. I saw the many advantages it had to other products we were using to do email marketing for our clients. We decided then to create a company around the product.

2) You have managed to build a company to $1 Million in sales by 21, now 24 you expect to do over $25 million in sales this year from your web business iContact, what advice would you give a entrepreneur trying to earn money from their website?

I want to sincerely emphasize that when you are becoming an entrepreneur and are about to start a company, anything is possible. You never know how far it’s going to go until you give it your maximum effort. It can sometimes take up to fiveyears to successfully start a business, so make sure you’ve got the passion and the drive to see your idea through to the end.

If you create a company without any initial monetary investment or financial backing, then you are doing something called bootstrapping. In this situation, you can expect to work 70+ hour weeks for a year or more without a salary. You also need to be very creative and learn how to improvise to extend what little cash you may have at the very beginning.

When Aaron and I were starting iContact , he told me that I should be ready to be the “Chief Executive Officer, Chief Executive Painter, and Chief Executive Janitor.” My first official office headquarters was on the 6th floor of my dorm at UNC. For a long time when iContact first began, we lived off of Ramen Noodles, and went dumpster-diving to find $50 rebates for office supplies. It’s very important to have a “whatever it takes” attitude when it comes to your company’s finances, especially if you are not initially backed by venture capital.

3) I understand that at 16 years old you set a goal to achieve $1 Million in sales by 21, What advice would you give a young entrepreneur trying to set and achieve goals young?

I believe what makes a successful entrepreneur is having a bias towards action and having strong work ethic. Having a bias toward action and taking the initiative means that a person will never become idle due to indecision. If they see a problem, they will be proactive and figure out a way to solve it, and are always looking for ways to improve the company. Having a good work ethic means that a person is able to see any issues that arise through until a solution is reached. These people will often have to multi-task and work on several different projects at once, and being able to focus to complete the tasks at hand illustrate strong work ethic.

I would absolutely encourage young entrepreneurs to type up their goals in a 1 year, 3 year, 10 year, and lifetime format, print them out, and then hang them in your office or bedroom so you see them a couple times per week. Then update them annually. This process has been extremely helpful to me.

4) You Raised $5.3 Million in Venture Capital at Age 22, how in the world did you manage to raise that capital? What advice would you give other entrepreneurs trying to raise capital for their startup.

Aaron and I managed to raise capital from having persistence and finding the right people who would take us seriously. If you have patience and examine all options of funding (whether that be angel investment, venture capital, etc.) you will find the right resources to match your business aspirations.

The advice I would give if you presently do not have the financial resources, a great piece of technology, or a good business idea, intern or get a job at a company in an industry you are interested in to start building your network or partner with someone who does have those resources.

The best advice I can give to someone trying to raise capital is to build relationships 6 to 9 months before you need them and to never send in an unreferred plan, especially via email. Rather get introduced via an entrepreneur, accountant, or attorney who has worked with the investor before and has their trust.

5) Do you think that entrepreneurialism is something that is in your blood? Or is it something that can be learned?

I believe that becoming an entrepreneur is something that involves constant education. When I started iContact, my business partner and I faced large obstacles such as financial burdens of launching a company and finding people that took our idea seriously. As an entrepreneur, it would be hard to say that working through these barriers, haven’t made me who I am today.

6) Is there anyone that you look up to and model yourself on?

Yes—a number of people:

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR/ACTIVIST ROLE MODELS
Mahatma Gandhi (The non-violent revolutionary)
Mother Theresa (The lady who cared for the sick and poor)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (The Man with a Dream)
Susan B. Anthony (Civil rights and suffrage leader)
Paul Farmer (Doctor for the Poor, Mountains Beyond Mountains)
Mohammed Yunus (Banker to the Poor)
Dennis Whittle (Founder of Global Giving)
Bill Drayton (Founder of Ashoka)
Matt Flannery (Founder of Kiva)
Jessica Jackley Flannery (Founder of Kiva)
Dan West (Founder of Heifer International)
Bernard Kouchner (Co-Founder of Doctors Without Borders)
Kerry Kennedy (Human rights activist)
Sergio Vieira de Mello (UN human rights commissioner)
Laura Arrillaga (Venture philanthropist)
Samantha Power (Human rights activist)

BUSINESS ROLE MODELS
Bill Gates (the innovator and hard-line businessman)
Jeffrey Skoll (the eBay founder and social entrepreneur innovator)
Marc Benioff (the SaaS phenomenom-maker)
Marc Andreessen (keeps hitting home runs)
Steve Jobs (he comeback kid)
Larry Page (the technologist and business innovator)
Sergey Brin (the dynamic duo part deux)
Richard Branson (loses his virginity every day)
Thomas Edison (succeeded by failing 3,635 times)
Andrew Carnegie (the library funder)
John D. Rockefeller (the competitor)
John D. MacArthur (the PBS funder)
Sam Walton (the great retailer, scaler, and SIFE founder)
Henry Ford (his ability to scale, not him per say)
Larry Ellison (his ability to sell, not him per se)
Tom Perkins (his ability to put together venture deals, not him per se)

INVESTOR ROLE MODELS
Jim Simons (the physicist billionaire hedge fund manager)
J.P. Morgan (the financial system saver)
Steve Jurvetson (the VC gadget-lover)
Warren Buffett (the smartest fundamentalist around)
Charlie Munger (Buffett’s partner)

ECONOMIST ROLE MODELS
Jeffrey Sachs (End of Poverty, Common Wealth)
Hernando De Soto (The Mystery of Capital)
George Soros (Open Society)
Milton Friedman (Capitalism and Freedom)
John Maynard Keynes (The General Theory)

JOURNALIST/AUTHOR ROLE MODELS
Tom Friedman (Lexus and The Olive Tree)
John Perkins (Economic Hitman)
Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad)
Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich)
Jim Collins (Good to Great)

POLITICAL ROLE MODELS
Abraham Lincoln (The Uniter)
Benjamin Franklin (The Inventor)
John F. Kennedy (The Dreamer)
Benazir Bhutto (The Fighter)
John McCain (The Fighter)
Barack Obama (The Changer & Inspirer)
Al Gore (The Authentic)
Bill Clinton (The World Changer)
Jimmy Carter (The Carer)
Hillary Rodham Clinton (The Courageous)
Nancy Pelosi (The Caretaker)
Mario Cuomo (The Speaker)

…And anyone who worked or is currently working to increase human prosperity, ensure an economically prosperous and sustainable world, and reduce human suffering, poverty, disease, warfare, and genocide.

7) Do you have any favorite business related or entrepreneur related books that you can recommend to other entrepreneurs?

To the aspiring entrepreneur, I would recommend these 5 books without hesitation:

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

2. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

3. The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman

4. The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs

5. Zero-to-IPO by David Smith

8) What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Have a sense of urgency. Take action today. Write down your goals and frame them. Play for the long term.

9) What advice would you give to a Young Entrepreneur setting up their first business?

As an aspiring entrepreneur, your success will depend on your work ethic, initiative and a strong desire to push your business to the next level. Here are the top 5 tips that I think will help you reach your goal:

Becoming a successful entrepreneur is not easy. You must have persistence, dedication, tenacity, and the ability to deal with adversity.

You will not be able to do everything at once. Take a long-run approach. Play life like a long-term game.
Take a proactive role in planning, goal setting, and personal evaluation.
If and when you succeed, give back to your community as an enlightened entrepreneur. We have unprecedented wealth and opportunity in this time and age, and I believe that with our combined entrepreneurial talent and resources, we can help repair our broken world.

10) Have you any plans (personal or business) that you can share with us about your future plans / goals / lifetime goals?

For the foreseeable future, I plan on staying at iContact as the full-time CEO and see where our growth can take us. We are growing at a tremendous rate: we just eclipsed 40,000 customers, and now have a team of more than 150 outstanding employees. I am proud to say that we are a leader in our industry in terms of what we offer to our customers, and in what we give back to our community. iContact donates 1 percent of our quarterly payroll to local and national non-profit organizations. Even though we are a business who wants to succeed at what we do, it is very important that we are socially responsible for the sake of our community and our world.

I believe I should take it upon myself to lead other CEOs and entrepreneurs in the direction of being responsible corporate citizens by giving back to their communities. We have the entrepreneurial talent and resources to end extreme poverty and ensure universal access to education, healthcare, and other basic necessities. I believe this generation of enlightened entrepreneurs can have a dramatic affect on these issues and help build a stronger, safer world in the process.

In the future, I hope to work as an entrepreneur, social entrepreneur, writer, investor, and public servant.

The post Interview With Ryan Allis – Founder of iContact appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

Thank you for providing us with this interview. I first met you at Yanik Silvers Underground Online Seminar in 2008 and I like just about everyone else in the room was blown away by you and your business ethos. It is a sincere pleasure to have you here on WebMakeMoney.com – the fact that a busy man like you is taking the time to help out Young Entrepreneurs is greatly appreciated.

First off – can we have a little background information on you Tony – Where you live? How old you are? What motivates you? What inspires you?

I’m 35 and grew up in the Bay Area (California), but currently live in Las Vegas. My motivation for Zappos is to build a business where culture is the number one priority. It’s important to me to build a business where money isn’t the primary motivator because in tough times, I’ve found that it isn’t enough to see it all the way through. I believe success is created by following your passion and going through the journey of redefining what success means. I think there’s something to learn from anyone no matter what their position or background, and that anyone can be inspiring somehow. I’ve been told that I have a diverse group of friends. I think that’s helped me in the business world, even if they aren’t all from the business world.

You can find Tony’s bio by clicking here!

1) You are CEO of Zappos.com – a company that I understand is approaching One Billion Dollars in turnover.  How did you come to get involved in Zappos ?

In the late ’90s, I had formed a small investment fund called Venture Frogs with Alfred, our COO/CFO. We invested in 20 or so different Internet companies and Zappos happened to be one of them. Over time, it became clear that Zappos was the most promising and the most fun. Eventually, I decided to join the company full time, and I became the CEO.

2) Zappos sells footwear – with approaching a billion dollars in revenues, that is a lot of customers. What has allowed you to grow to such a large business while at the same time retaining an excellent reputation for service?

The #1 driver of our growth has been through repeat customers and word of mouth. We focus on having the best customer service, but ultimately, our#1 priority is company culture. Our belief is that if you get the culture right, then most of the other stuff, like great customer service and building a great brand, will happen naturally on its own.

3) Can you share some of the biggest lessons you have learned personally and as a business as Zappos.com has grown? If you were to start again, what might you do differently?

Something I’ve learned over the years is that it’s a good idea to hire people more slowly and fire those that are harming the culture more quickly. In general, I think mistakes are fine as long as we learn from them and do our best not to repeat them. I wouldn’t necessarily do anything differently, but I would try to do everything faster.

4) What next for Zappos? Where do you see the business in say 5 years time?

We’ve already begun to expand into other categories like apparel, accessories, and even electronics. In 2008, we did over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales, primarily in footwear.  Apparel is four times the size of the footwear market, so we’d like to get customers to think of Zappos not just for shoes, but for clothes and other things as well.

5) Zappos is about fashion – how do you / your team keep on top of fashion trends? How do you predict how many of a particular style you will sell for example?

We have a dedicated team of buyers that stays on top of the latest trends in fashion and style.

6) Do you have any recommended strategies for getting customers who buy once to come back and buy from you again – other than of course good service?

It really is service and delivering “wow” through service that keeps our repeat customers returning. Our merchandising team also maintains a constant inflow of new products to ensure that inventory stays fresh and in line with what our customers want.

7) I have been reading your guide to Twitter , It seems everyone is now very excited about Twitter – but what excited you about it so much and made you an early adopter of Twitter.

I first started using Twitter in March 2007 at the SXSW Interactive conference. While at the conference, I found it was a great way to find out what was going on during the day at the conference as well as figuring out what parties to go to at night. After the conference, I introduced it to my friends in Vegas (where I live now) as well as my friends in San Francisco (where I used to live). I found it was a great way to find out what was going on and for meeting up with friends in Vegas. I also found that it was a great way to keep in touch and feel connected to my friends in San Francisco. After using it with just my close friends for about a year, I realized how much Twitter had allowed me to form more personal connections with everyone, so we decided to introduce it to Zappos as a way of growing our company culture. We’ve found that it’s been great for building more personal connections with both employees and customers.

8) Do you have any suggestions for coping with set-backs, negative experiences?

I believe that ups and downs are naturally all part of the journey. If you don’t have setbacks, you probably aren’t taking enough risks.

9) How do you keep your business focus – Do you have any suggestions for entrepreneurs who are experiencing challenging times?

I’ve found that it’s helpful to focus on being the best at one (smaller)thing rather than trying to be everything to everyone.

10) Is there anyone that you look up to and model yourself on?

No, I really enjoy meeting lots of different people, both within and outside of my business circles. I think there’s something to be learned from everyone.

11) Do you have any favourite business related or web design related books that you can recommend to other entrepreneurs?

If you go to www.zapposinsights.com and click on the Suggested Reading link on the left, you’ll find the books we recommend to all of our employees, customers, partners and friends.

12) What is the best advice you have ever been given?

To never forget that the most important thing in life is the quality of life we lead.

13) You are one of the most famous Young Entrepreneurs in the world today- based on your experiences, what advice would you give to a Young Entrepreneur starting their first business today?

It’s generally better to do things fast (knowing you’ll make mistakes),than to take a long time and try to get things perfect.

14) What do you like best about the Internet?

It’s a perfect medium for instant gratification, an efficient way to connect with people and it’s always there.

15) What do you like least about the Internet?

It’s always there.

16) Have you any plans (personal or business) that you can share with us about your future plans / goals / lifetime goals?

Just to continue chasing the vision (not the money), to be real and transparent in everyday life and constantly improve on the quality of life. Find out more about Tony and Zappos at Inside Zappos – http://blogs.zappos.com

Follow Tony at http://twitter.com/zappos

The post Tony Hsieh, The Billion Dollar Interview appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

We have another great interview online for you.

Check out the: Catherine Cook of MyYearBook.com Interview

Catherine and her story is quite the inspiration – over 5 Million Members now – and still a teenager

As a teen, Catherine is a self-declared “nerd” and proud of it. She’s a varsity gymnast with a boyfriend and a 4.0 GPA who, in her dwindling spare time, attends events like the National Youth Leadership Forum in Defense, Intelligence, and Diplomacy.

WOW!

The post Catherine Cook of MyYearBook.com talks abour her online success appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

I’m pleased to introduce to you a fantastic young entrepreneur whose hugely successful and rapidly expanding business in frozen yoghurt is taking the US by storm. Meet Natasha Nelson of Yogurtini – Natasha and her popular and creative company are based in Southern California, the perfect location for an entrepreneur who best describes herself as “a true beach girl” and who is constantly inspired by the youthful and creative culture of the south west’s famous beaches.

Natasha and the company are a persistent advocate for good ingredients and good causes, including helping out in the Haiti earthquake. She also took care of her terminally ill mother in Arizona and still found time to work at night. Honored in the  “Top 35 entrepreneurs under 35” by the Arizona Republic & AZ Magazine in March 2010, a keen traveler and always pushing forward with a drive to learn, innovate and lead the market.

Natasha Nelson is one of the most inspiring female entrepreneurs we have ever interviewed at WebMakeMoney.com and I just love her tip for coping with setbacks:

Get up, dry your tears, move forward, lose the baggage and learn from your mistakes

Enjoy the interview and let us have your comments.

Michael

I have always been an entrepreneur since I was a child. I think it is in my blood, my mom was also an entrepreneur. I love creating a business that focuses on something I am passionate and excited about, watching it grow and working with my staff to create fun and motivating projects for everyone. Business can be an art. One friend calls me the “business artist”. I love that!

I can’t honestly say that money doesn’t motivate me, but not for all the reasons people may think. I just returned from Haiti after the earthquake with 40 doctors, nurses and EMT’s. After a trip like that your heart changes. Money can go a long way in a third world country, especially after a disaster. My sister and I have a heart for Haiti, Sudan and many parts of Africa. Yogurtini has worked with the community and many philanthropic companies and raised thousands of dollars from everything to Parkinsons research to raising funds for prosthetics for an ASU student who lost her leg in Haiti when a building collapsed on her, she now is rock climbing with her new prosthetic.

I’m always inspired by my sister’s perfectly cool blend of funky style with a combination of being the brainiest and having the keenest street smarts that would be completely obscure to any stranger that meets her…and most importantly, God’s grace when you know you have really messed up.

Natasha Nelson Interview – Yogurtini Founder Inspires Young Entrepreneurs

1) You founded self-serving frozen yogurt company Yogurtini – what drew you to this unusual niche market?

My sister and I have been frozen yogurt fanatics since we were kids. We were both living in CA but in different cities, we were always visiting different yogurt shops and texting each other when we would find a new flavor we liked. When we would return home to Arizona to visit family and friends we were not satisfied with the choices we had. We had the same idea at the same time, which we often do. So, I wrote up a business plan, we started researching, became yogurt experts after a year and Yogurtini was launched.

2) Yogurtini is expanding across the U.S. – with a healthy profit. What has allowed you to grow so quickly in such a short space of time?

We were surprised how quickly we were profitable. It always comes down to having the best yogurt in town, we hear it over and over. After 944 Magazine readers voted us “Best place to chill”, College Affair voted us “Best Sweet Spot” and we were nominated in The Phoenix New Times for “Best Frozen Yogurt” we knew we had hit the mark. Our reputation was spreading like wildfire and within a few months we had many offers from investors who saw potential in our business and people asking about franchising. After about 9 months of going through the franchise registration process we have hit the ground running.

3) What next for Yogurtini? Where do you see the business in say 5 years time?

Our franchising program has started off so well I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see us with 100-300 stores in the next five years nationally. We have the team, inspiration and personal drive to make this happen.

4) Yogurtini is about fun and eating. I notice that there’s also a big focus on healthy eating. How do you and your team keep on top of fashion trends in this industry?

I’ve always considered myself a newshound and no one can beat me at Trivial Pursuit’s Pop Culture edition. I read the Wall Street Journal and Teen Vogue. Been doing it since I was 14 and my mom got me a subscription for both.

I also keep my nose in the yogurt gossip and believe we have created some of the trends that some of the other larger shops are following us on. My sister has made some amazing flavors partnering up with companies like Sambazon who brought the Acai’ berry from the Ambazon. Soon after, we saw Acai’ yogurt being offered by our competitors. We have a few new things up our sleeves as well, which I can’t share with you yet! We also like to get CRAZY. Sriracha hot sauce and yogurt covered pop rocks are two of our most popular toppings…you aren’t gonna find that at TCBY, Red Mango or Pinkberry.

5) Do you have any recommended strategies for getting customers who buy once to come back and buy from you again – other than of course good service?

Yogurtini is almost a lifestyle. Our brand reflects the lifestyle of those who want to eat healthy, have fun, want to create their own treat and most of all get away into a fun environment for a few minutes, enjoy your yogurt and listen to some great tunes. When you find a favorite, you keep coming back.

6) How does your physical shop market itself online? I see you’re a Twitter and Facebook user; how important is it to use these sites to reach your audience?

If you aren’t using Facebook and Twitter you are way behind. Our “Twitter Tuesdays” have become somewhat infamous at our Tempe location near Arizona State University students. I am always working on the next online marketing tool. Study, study, study.

7) Do you have any suggestions for coping with set-backs, negative experiences?

Get up, dry your tears, move forward, lose the baggage and learn from your mistakes; and my personal favorite “fake it ‘til you make it”. All easier said than done…but sounds good, huh? That is what I try to do.

8 ) How do you keep your business focus – Do you have any suggestions for entrepreneurs who are experiencing challenging times?

It’s not easy for me right now, just like everyone else. I have a lot of distractions in my personal and professional world. I don’t rush what I don’t have to; I work when I have the motivation and that next “big idea”. Sometimes I am not able to focus for a week…then the next week I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea and I can’t stop working on it for a month. Is that manic? I don’t know if it’s healthy but it works for me. I have worked for myself for almost seven years now. I think a lot of entrepreneurs go through that. Most of my friends and family work for themselves, so I’m surrounded by other entrepreneurs with similar experiences.

9) What people do you look up to and model yourself on?

That is easy, my mom. She was a workaholic. I am not, but she taught me a good work ethic. There wasn’t a day she didn’t work on something while I was growing up whether it was her career, her masters degree or her other businesses she started. She had a very level head when it came to business. I try to be more like her everyday and find myself thinking “What would my mom do?” – I can’t leave out my father, he has such a great demeanor with people and engaging people in a conversation where you feel like the only person in the world he cares to listen to at that moment, there is no one who doesn’t like my father. I like to think my business partners and employees enjoy me as a person as well, if they do, I owe that to my dad.

One of my first bosses when I worked for an Advertising and PR agency deserves a shout out too, Shawn Buckley. He was young and likeable but we had a respect for him and just a wee bit of fear. I never missed a deadline working for Shawn. I also never missed a party he would throw. He taught me a lot on how to manage people without losing your temper but getting a big point across you wouldn’t ever forget. I also knew I could knock on the door and talk to him as a friend. Plus, he had class. I hope my employees and partners say that about me one day.

10) Do you have any favourite business or related books that you can recommend to other entrepreneurs?

I love to read but it’s not always the business books that inspire me. For instance, I just read one of Chelsea Handlers books and it was hilarious, it put me in the best mood. I felt creative and so motivated after that read! I read ‘Gone With the Wind’, my classic favorite I try to read every few years, and suddenly took on the spirit of Scarlet, she had gusto and a no holds barred, “I won’t take anyone’s crap attitude” – But, if I need to know about a specific subject I do my research. If I am hiring a consultant, you bet I want to speak their language and sound like I know what I am talking about. I am also a huge advocate of public relations and publicity. The best book I read on that was ‘The Fall of Advertising and Rise of PR’ by Al Ries. Every entrepreneur should read that one. I have a few other books that have helped me in the yogurt industry but those are on my secret shelf.

11) What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Personally, a prayer my father gave me during a hard time about accepting things I cannot change and changing the things I can. I believe it is called the serenity prayer. In business, my mom always repeated “don’t let them cheat you”. Maybe that was from a bad experience she had and my sister and I would roll our eyes, but we always remember she probably knows better so we check, check, check. Check your books! Check backgrounds on people you work with!

12) You’ve had a difficult 12 months out of the business. Based on your experiences, what advice would you give to a anxious Young Entrepreneur starting their first business today?

We haven’t had many difficulties to date but my best advice is to find people who will be honest with you who have experience…and use their advice. If your first business fails, try again. No one is a winner every time. Accept that before you even start.

13) What do you like best about the Internet?

It’s fast and immediate; I can create my own brand and impression I am in control of.

14) What do you like least about the Internet?

If someone posts something on your FaceBook you don’t want anyone to know about it and it goes out to all of your friends and family…also accidentally seeing all your exes with their new girlfriends, ick!

15) Have you any plans (personal or business) that you can share with us about your future plans / goals / lifetime goals?

I want Yogurtini to grow into something bigger than my family ever imagined when we first had the original idea for one shop. I want to create a business atmosphere of fun and growth with my employees. I love the team and family feel a good leader can create.

Personally, that is easy. I’m still a girl looking for true love, aren’t we all? And yes, the beach house in my secret spot in Hawaii is right underneath that. Learning, understanding and working on sustainable ways to help impoverished countries is on my list too. I currently work with Transformational Development Agency ( http://www.tdaafrica.com ) in my free time and went with them to Haiti. An entrepreneur can use their skills for empowering change globally as well. That is what I would like to be remembered for and would love to work on that with my sister in the future. Yogurtini will be the just a blip on my obituary I hope.

The post Natasha Nelson Interview | Yogurtini Founder Blazes The Way For Young Entrepreneurs appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

Hi Everyone!

Do you Tatango?

Today we have a very interesting interview for you with Derek Johnson – founder of SMS Marketing startup Tatango.com – a Test Messaging Platform that allows the thousands that use Tatango every day to keep their group connected through group SMS.

Tatango.com was born out of a gap in the market, a gap which Derek like a true entrepreneur spotted and quickly filled. Tatango.com has taken off so well that Derek dropped out of the business program at the University of Houston and launched Tatango in late 2007, initially offering the service for free. Today users pay a monthly fee of $20 to $200 depending on the number of texts sent, and now has about 10,000 registered users. (You do the math )

I think you are really going to enjoy this interview and get a lot of inspiration from it.

Derek also gave us one of the cleverest answers ever to my question: What do you like least about the Internet?

It never sleeps, I have to sleep, it’s so much better than me.

Come to think of it – he could have gave the same answer to: What do you like best about the Internet?

Enjoy the interview – I look forward to your comments.

Best Wishes

Michael

PS: Check out the answer to question 12 in particular: What advice would you give to a Young Entrepreneur starting their first business today? Very impressive answer — and Derek includes his own Cell Number as demonstration of his commitment to customer service.

Derek Johnson Interview

First – a little background information on Derek:

I’m 25 years old, and have spent most of my life in Bellingham, WA, a small city just north of Seattle. Anyone that knows me, knows I’m an extremely motivated individual, I love to build businesses, it’s my passion. What motivates me though to do what I do? I think I just like the challenge.

1) You are the founder of tatango.com, which is a group text messaging platform. What gave you the idea for this type of platform?
The idea came to me one afternoon when I was having lunch with a friend. She was in a Sorority and they were having trouble contacting all the girls in the house at the same time about meeting times, events and other urgent information. They had tried Facebook, Email and phone trees, but they had all been proved inefficient. That’s when it came to me that text messaging would be the perfect way to reach all the members of her house at the same time. Looking for a solution for my friend, I went online and couldn’t find anything that really solved this problem. A few days later, Tatango was born.

2) You have thousands of groups using Tatango all over the country, which is really impressive. Could you share some strategies for how you grew your customer base?

It’s really not rocket science how we got to where we currently are. The majority of our new Tatango groups come from referrals, so we spend a crazy amount of time making sure our current groups are happy. Seems simple enough right?

3) What is the formula for becoming a successful entrepreneur?

This is always heavily debated, but I firmly believe you are either born with the entrepreneurial mindset or aren’t, you can’t learn something like that.

4) What next for tatango.com? Where do you see the business in say 5 years time? Any other budding ideas you can share with us?

Right now we are solely focused on making Tatango the best group sms product out there. We think we have our product very close, not sure what is next though. We don’t think too far ahead into the future, we just focus on what’s going on currently and how we can do what we are doing better. Recently I have started a new company called Derek Media, which is a company that manages brands on Twitter, Facebook and blogs for our clients. You can check it out at http://www.derekmedia.net

5) Do you have any recommended strategies for getting customers to recommend you to other customers?

Most of our new clients for Tatango come from references from current users. You have to keep your customers satisfied with your service. We accomplish this by being available 24/7 to answer questions about any technical difficulties, or just general inquires about Tatango. Also, we have allowed our customers to get to know us and create a personal relationship with us by using Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and videos. If you have a great product and customers are happy with their experience then they will recommend it to people they know.

6) Does social networking play any roll in your business? If so what?

Social networking plays a huge roll in our business. We are constantly updating our Twitter status (www.twitter.com/tatango) and engaging in conversations with people interested in our product, or just anyone who has something interesting to say. We also have a Facebook fan page (http://www.facebook.com/tatango) where fans can post questions and comments and we post videos, links and pictures about what’s going on at Tatango. We have a very strong online presence and have allowed our customers to get to know us on a personal level which provides them with more confidence in our product.

7) Do you have any suggestions for coping with set-backs, negative experiences?
No matter what happens, you are probably not the first person who has gone through it. Seek out guidance from those who have gone through it before, it will save a lot of time and energy. There will always be set-backs, but you have to handle them appropriately and not let them get you off focus. There is no experience that is a negative – every experience gives you an opportunity to learn and grow.

8 ) Do you have any suggestions for entrepreneurs who are experiencing challenging times?

To be honest, when things get crazy, frustrating, or just near impossible, I never think about throwing in the towel. For me, those are the fun days! When do you get to test your skills and determination more than at those points in your business career? Those are the sort of obstacles that make what I do such a challenge and so rewarding.

9) Is there anyone that you look up to and model yourself on?

My father is my biggest role model. He has experience with both his own startups and working for large national companies. His knowledge and experiences have always been a great resource for me as a young entrepreneur. He is one of the hardest workers I know, and a brilliant entrepreneur. In many ways he has inspired me to become a young entrepreneur.

10) Do you have any favorite business related or web design related books that you can recommend to other entrepreneurs?

College sucked the joy out of reading for me, so you most likely will never find me reading a book. I think the only book I’ve read in the last two years is the “The 4 Hour Work Week”, which is a must read for any entreprenuer.

11) What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Gary Player didn’t give me this advice personally, but he said

“the harder I work, the luckier I get”.

This is so true in business and life.

12) As someone who has achieved success so young, what advice would you give to a Young Entrepreneur starting their first business today?

1.Start Small – Start small and you will be able to quickly see if you have something interesting before you look to expand.

2.Don’t Re-Invent The Wheel – No matter what problem you are experiencing or challenge you have in front of you, you aren’t the first person to ever go through it. Seek out advice or guidance from someone that has gone through the same thing you are going through, this will save you from making a lot of costly mistakes in the future.

3.Be Available – I’m the only Internet CEO I know who makes himself as available to his users as I am. The majority of our users know my personal cell phone number (206.334.4012 if they have forgot it) and they know that if they ever have a suggestion or any feedback about our website, they are able to get a hold of me. I think communicating with your users is extremely important and is the sole reason why we keep launching features that users love and our competitors copy.

13) What do you like best about the Internet?

I love how much information is available, there is never an excuse not to be able to find the information you need.

14) What do you like least about the Internet?

It never sleeps, I have to sleep, it’s so much better than me.

15) Any advice for how young entrepreneurs can bootstrap? (Not spending a ton to get something off the ground)?

Yeah, don’t waste money on stupid shit that doesn’t bring in revenue. It’s pretty simple. I remember when we were starting out, it took weeks for my employees to get me to spend the $40 to put up a Tatango sign on our front door. In my mind, the sign wasn’t bringing in business, so why spend money on it?

Related Links:

tatango.com – Group Text Messaging Done Right.

Join the thousands that use Tatango every day to keep their group connected through group SMS.

The post Derek Johnson Interview, Founder Of The Revolutionary Tatango Text Messaging Platform Reveals His Entrepreneurial Secrets appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.