As part of our ongoing Young Entrepreneur Interview Series, we are lucky to have secured an interview with the founder and chairman of HostGator , Brent Oxley. From growing his company from a one-person operation in his college dorm room, to now hosting sites for over 225,000 customers, Brent really has a fascinating entrepreneurial story , and a lot of information to offer young entrepreneurs looking to have the kind of success he has had. Enjoy the interview, then be sure to share your thoughts in the comments! Brent Oxley Founder of HostGator.com Twitter: @hostgator You’ve had quite an entrepreneurial journey from your teen years through today. What are the three most important lessons you’ve learned along the way? The best way to finding success is by forging ahead through failure. If my previous business ventures hadn’t failed I wouldn’t have ever of founded HostGator. Had my past relationships not failed, I wouldn’t have been blessed with my beautiful wife Jessica who I’m happily married to. Reputation is everything in business! The honest approach in the beginning will most likely cost you money, but for the long run, it will never stop paying dividends. You have to be adaptable to anything life throws at you. You will be hurt by some of those who you love and trust most in life and business. HostGator has seen strong, steady growth for quite some time now. At what point did you realize you had hit on something big? I’ve never had that single defining moment where I stepped back from it all and have said “wow”. There have been some really cool moments along the journey in which I’ve taken a short pause such as dropping out of college, ranking 21st on the Inc 5000, Michael Dell personally emailing me, and many more. How have you gone about getting investors for your businesses (if applicable)? Please talk about some things you’ve learned in this regard. HostGator has never had an investor other than being 100% owned by myself. I started HostGator in my college dorm room with about $2,000 in my bank account. I’ve since grown it one customer at a time from reinvesting most of what it profits. I’ve spoken to many investors over the years that have done nothing but wasted my time and in turn have slowed down our growth. They will lie to you, have too many strings attached, and will always try to lowball you, no matter how much you stress what you’re looking for is firm and not to waste your time. What three pieces of advice would you give young entrepreneurs interested in starting a new business? NEVER have a partner. If you can’t find a way to do it alone your plan is doomed from the very beginning. NEVER use credit unless it’s paid off in full every month and you are getting cash back rewards. And last to invest every penny and every second of time back into your business. This starts with living with your parents or a friend, switching to a cheaper cell phone carrier, downgrading vehicles, etc. The more you sacrifice in the beginning the greater your riches will be sooner than later. Do you believe there is a formula for being a successful entrepreneur? I believe becoming a successful entrepreneur is all about one’s state of mind. Very few people are able or willing to accept responsibility for the decisions they make and/or the cards life has given them. You can either sit around complaining and coming up with excuses, or you can go do something about it. How do you define success? I define success as being able to achieve your goals while finding happiness in the process. HostGator's Houston Office
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It tends to be less expensive to cut out the middleman in business transactions. The same applies to purchasing, which, for a starting entrepreneur or business venture can already be costly enough. Buying directly from China enables businesses to obtain parts and raw materials in bulk for less money. Do your research; check out the companies selling what it is you need, and look at their sample products. For a full catalog and a detailed description of the product(s), you will need to ask the company for complete product specs—they will not provide this over the internet. China manufacturers are educated and know their business, but their English may be limited and their websites tend to be basic. Do not let this deter you. Treat them with the same respect you would a local company. Communication with China companies might be slow, as they prefer to deal with businesses they believe are worth their time. Prove yourself worthy of buying direct by adding a signature to your email with your company information so they can check you out and see that you’re legit. Having a webpage will also increase the likelihood of a response. Before proceeding with a sale, secure a shipping account with FedEx, UPS, DHL or TNT. Check out sites like Alibaba, Made-In-China, or Global Sources to see what is available for purchase and get an idea of pricing. Global Sources has a YouTube video detailing what buyers should know when conducting business with China suppliers and manufacturers.
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I spent a week this August in Northern Michigan and watched as my wife and daughter fished. For me personally – I just take them off the hook and watch as my “girls” do their thing. As I sat their doing my favorite hobby, thinking about entrepreneurship, I pulled out my iphone and made some notes. It was the genesis of yet another blog post. I hope you enjoy it. Oh and lest you wonder, that Pike was 32 pounds and 4 feet long. We had to bolt the darn fish to the deck to keep from tipping. Gloves — it was really slippery. Taste – the pike patties were excellent even my 4 year old daughter thought so. 1) It’s easier to land a fish if you know what kind you’re going after. 2) I’d rather fish in a stocked pond than a big ocean. 3) If you use the same old approach as everyone else you’ll get the same results as everyone else. That’s not always bad but it may take a long time to land a trophy. 4) If you want to land the big fish you gotta work harder and smarter than the others angling for the same prize. 5) Flashy and loud works some time but never as well as being there when they need you. 6) The more times you try the more times you stand to win. 7) Preparation may not always mean you’ll do better than the next guy but it sure improves your odds. Not just experience but learning from your experience greatly improves your odds at success. 9) Sometimes you’re the fish, sometimes you’re the worm. 10) If you tangle the line you can always re-measure and start again. 11) Learning from those that have come before you greatly decreases your learning curve. 12) Sometimes surviving is as much about a pan full of small guys as a trophy. They both fill your belly. 13) Beginners luck is one thing but catching enough to eat every day is the true sign of expertise. Follow YE Business Coach Dan Nichols – @yecoach
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I had a cool opportunity to touch base with Daven Michaels who has created a really cool company helping entrepreneurs with their virtual assistant hassles. I’ve personally used a VA or 2 in the past and found the same experience Daven found before he launched his business. I got great service for a couple days and then they fell off my radar screen completely. Not only does his company train the VA for you, but you get to interview your Virtual Assistant to be sure you’re the right fit. Think of all the things you spend your time on that sap your entrepreneurial creative juices including but not limited to; Facebook, Twitter, Emails, Calling Clients, Data Mining, Customer Service, Web Design, Blogging, Research, Establishing JV’s and the list goes on… I am going to be hiring a virtual assistant in the weeks to come. To me it’s a no brainer as to where I should go to do that – 123Employee! ALSO, from a technical perspective I had a first. My guest shows up as half a person… Daven is actually a complete person despite the video wherein he shows up only half way. Geez… we may have to re-shoot this video (once I get time — yeah… right). Watch as Daven shares his entrepreneurial journey, why he knew the niche for virtual assistants was growing and why he knew he could be the guy with the right solution to afford-ably help all of us entrepreneurs. Now with 350 plus employees he is on a mission and we can all benefit from his success. NOTE: A Special Offer for YoungEntrepreneur.com’s audience including the cool bonuses and freebies Daven spoke of – follow the link > Here Virtual Assistant Information – How To Hire & Where to Start from YECoach on Vimeo . Remember if you want to learn more go here – Virtual Assistant Info
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For most of us, the concept of launching into a business venture with little or no capital, and trusting to our instincts, and the ability to work miracles on little or no budget, sounds like madness. To the entrepreneur, however, it sounds perfectly reasonable. In fact, every day, around the world, millions of entrepreneurs decide to go for it – even though they don’t have multimillion dollar backers. If you can’t find funding for your business, or if you’d rather go it alone, and build your company from the ground up the hard way (sounds crazy again, but many people do) then you’re going to have to learn to bootstrap! What Is Bootstrapping? Most seasoned entrepreneurs out there will know exactly what the term bootstrapping means. It’s the process of building a business from the ground up, with no outside funding. The term comes from an old story about Baron Munchausen, who used his own bootstraps to pull himself up – similar to the self sufficient nature of the bootstrapping entrepreneur. Why Is Bootstrapping a Good Idea? When you first start dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur, chances are you are imagining hordes of financiers battering down your door to offer you money. That’s unlikely to happen, but even if it did, it would not come without a price. You see, when you accept funding, whether it’s from an angel investor, a venture capital firm or a traditional bank, they’re going to want to have some say on how things are done. That means less autonomy for you, the entrepreneur, to build the business you’ve been dreaming about. With all that money at your disposal, you’re also unlikely to ever learn the true innovation, invention and budgeting that a real entrepreneur needs to understand in order to keep a business going when times are tough. Make no mistake, it’s a fact of life, and of business, that sometime, things will go bad. If you bootstrapped your business into being, rather than accepting funding from the outset, you will already have the skills to navigate tough times, and come out looking great! Bootstrapping Impresses Investors All ideals and romanticism aside, however, chances are, at some point, your business will need funding. If you, the entrepreneur, can stand in front of potential investors, and show them exactly how you built your business from the ground up, with no outside aid, you’re far more likely to impress them than if you’d simply used other people’s money to create your company. Going to a group of potential investors having bootstrapped your business into success only proves to them that you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur, and that you can do the same with their money. Nothing is more likely to make them take a risk than that! How to Bootstrap If you can’t find funding for your business, or don’t want any, then you’re probably going to need to bootstrap. Here’s how: Start small. We’d all like to take on big contracts, open fancy stores and drive a luxury car. However, when you bootstrap, you have to start small, and work your way up. Choose manageable first goals, and achieve them. Then use those profits to fund the next, bigger project, and so on, until you reach your long term goal. Learn to cut costs. Entrepreneurs who bootstrap their businesses are the masters of cheap. They find cheaper ways to do anything, whether it’s taking the subway to a meeting, or hiring equipment rather than buying it. Bottom line? There’s a cheaper way to do anything. Find it. Get creative. Bootstrapping successfully requires you to find creative ways to make the money you need to start your business. Sell something; offer a separate service on the side to make extra money, freelance for a while in parallel to your business, or pawn something if you have to. When entrepreneurs bootstrap, anything goes! Understand that when it comes to bootstrapping, determination is everything. It’s not easy. Often it’s not fun. But if you keep at it, there’s no chance you won’t make something of it. Famous Bootstrappers Of course, you may be feeling a little down in the dumps about having to bootstrap. If other entrepreneurs can get funding, why can’t you? Don’t be. There have been plenty of people out there who have made their fortunes using just such a strategy. One of those is the famous entrepreneur and author, Guy Kawasaki. Then there is Bill Gates, who started Microsoft with very little money, and of course, the boys at Google. In fact, some of the world’s best known brands, and most successful companies, were founded with little more than a good idea, and the will to succeed. All the more proof that you don’t need lots of money to be an entrepreneur – you just have to be willing to take that first step into the unknown. As a successful, under-30 serial entrepreneur, Gary Whitehill’s game-changing endeavors have been featured on television and in magazines and newspapers across the nation. Read more about Gary here .
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It’s been amazing to watch the evolution of the Internet over the last couple of decades. What started out as a way to share information progressed to e-mail and games. Then came online shopping, which has grown into a multi-billion dollar business. It wasn’t long before more people saw the potential of Internet commerce, and began to get more creative with the online businesses they started. These are just a few young entrepreneurs who are using the Internet to build successful businesses. Matthew Inman The Oatmeal.com At just 27, Matt Inman has proved that a successful online business doesn’t need to include a staff. He’s making a name for himself on his own, and doing quite well at it. In 2007, he designed an online dating site with no outside help, and he did it in 66.5 hours. The result was Mingle2 . He promoted the site, and in just four months, it was the number one Google result for “online dating,” beating out dating sites that had been around longer, such as Match.com and eHarmony. In July of that year, Matt sold the site to a competing company, JustSayHi, which allowed Matt to move on to an endeavour he really enjoys—creating comics. Matt is also known as The Oatmeal, and his eponymous website, launched in July 2009, receives millions of page views every month. He creates comics based on his own life experiences and observations, like “What It’s Like to Own an Apple Product,” and sometimes just from unconventional ideas he has, like “6 Reasons to Ride a Polar Bear to Work.” Matt has progressed from asking visitors to buy him a cup of coffee via a PayPal donation link, to turning his comics into posters, prints, and other merchandise, and selling them in a store on the site. Earlier this year, he was approached by Andrews McMeel, the same company that has published books of comics such as Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, and The Far Side. Matt is now working on his own book, due this fall. [Photo credit: Randy Stewart ] Rob Kalin Founder, Etsy.com Five years ago, Rob Kalin was a 25-year-old high school dropout, trying to make a living from his small Brooklyn apartment by designing and selling furniture. He thought the best way to accomplish this would be online. But when hours of searching revealed there was no site geared toward his handcrafted creations, he decided to build one , and Etsy was born. In addition to allowing artisans a space to sell their handmade wares, Etsy provides a community where people can share their business and design challenges, and support each other’s work. To get things going, Rob designed the site and wrote all the copy himself. He asked two people from New York University to set up the servers to support the site, and one of his furniture customers provided $50,000 in startup capital. The investment paid off many times over. Today, Etsy is used by a quarter of a million artisans and crafters, who sell millions of items to millions of registered members. Nearly 25,000 orders are processed on a daily basis by Etsy’s 65 employees, generating a 3.5 percent commission on each sale. In 2007, Etsy’s sales totalled $26 million. Last year, that number more than tripled to $87.5 million. In 2009, Rob stepped down as CEO, and hired Maria Thomas, a National Public Radio digital media executive to succeed him. He stays on as chairman and chief creative officer while he pursues his latest venture, Parachutes, Inc., a company dedicated to changing how people teach and learn. [Photo credit: TCDisrupt ] Neil Patel Founder, CrazyEgg.com and KISSMetrics.com Neil has been an entrepreneur for about eleven years now, since his first year of high school when he began selling burned CDs, bootleg movies, and cable black boxes to his fellow students and their parents. After a short time, he realized there wasn’t much profit in being a pirate, and turned his attention to legitimate endeavours. He’s had some failures along the way, but has used those as learning experiences in his successful ventures. One of those lessons, after six month of pitching a company to uninterested venture capitalists, was that to make something profitable, he’d have to do the work himself. That first profitable company was CrazyEgg, an Internet marketing data firm that helps web publishers learn what their visitors are interested in by displaying click patterns on maps which overlay the site’s pages. From this information, publishers can improve areas that don’t get much attention, and maintain the ones that do. Once CrazyEgg got off the ground, Neil went on to create KISSMetrics, which provides similar data, but through more interactive means, like popups that actually ask site visitors why they’re there, and whether they found what they were looking for. Neil also makes it his mission to share what he’s learned with other entrepreneurs via his straight-talking site, Quick Sprout , which proclaims Neil as “kind of a big deal.” It’s not immodesty when it’s true. [Photo credit: Sean Dreilinger ] Shawn Hessinger is the blogger and lead moderator at BizSugar , a social networking site and community serving small businesses.
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As I shared in last week’s post , I recently had dinner with Ankur Jain , founder of the Kairos Society of collegiate entrepreneurs and son of business mogul Naveen Jain , and we got to talking about young entrepreneurs and what it means to create real change. Inspired by our conversation, I’d like to introduce you to five young entrepreneurs making moves each in their own way, but with a shared passion and drive embodied by our generation. 1. Ascension Aircraft Jamail Larkins, 25 Augusta www.ascensionaircraft.com Jamail Larkins had his career mapped out since he first took flight at age 12. After earning a degree in aviation business administration, he channeled his love of flying into business. At age 15, he had developed Larkins Enterprises to pay for his flying lessons, selling flight books and videos to local pilots. He continues to run this company, though his larger success is now Ascension Aircraft, which is an aircraft sales and leasing company. Started in 2006, his four-person business is profitable, and despite economic hardships, he expects revenue to increase. I’m looking forward to seeing Jamail fly to new heights as he pursues his passion in air travel and business. 2. Carbon Nanoprobes Brian Ruby, 25 Pike Malvern, PA www.cnprobes.com Brian Ruby started developing business ideas during his internship at IBM when he was 15, working in the nanotechnology division. During his time there, he was introduced to a pharmaceutical company working on an HIV vaccine. When he learned there was no way to take photos of the vaccine, he created a tip for the end of imaging equipment that allows you to capture of the smallest particles. Founded in his dorm room in 2003, it has and has since branched out with funds from various investors. Now with nine employees, his equipment is sold to universities, semiconductor firms, and material sciences companies. Awesome work, Brian! 3. IdeaPaint John Goscha, 25, Jeff Avallon, 25 and Morgen Newman, 25 Cambridge, MA www.ideapaint.com John, Jeff and Morgen developed their design of idea paint when prices kept them from buying whiteboards for brainstorming while in college. (Side note: in the earliest stages of my own businesses, white boards were vital to our success). Their product can turn a wall into a dry-erase board for cheaper than actually buying and installing whiteboards. After some trial and energy, the three men found a lab who could manufacture their product how they had imagined it. The team is currently marketing the product towards designers and architects, so far seeing the paint used in over 6,000 locations in offices, schools and homes. They have a staff of 14, as well as 4 contracted chemists working with them. They expect to break even and become profitable in the near future. Pure genius. 4. SCVNGR Seth Priebatsch, 20 Boston www.scvngr.com Seth Priebatsch developed SCVNGR as a freshman at Princeton with two other ventures already under his belt. The program creates high-tech scavenger hunts meant to be played on cell phones. In 2008, it won Princeton’s TigerLaunch business plan competition. Today, it sees over 300 clients using the system for games and scavenger hunts, being popular with college campuses, museums, and cities promoting tourism. Prices range from $500 to $25,000 depending on the length and depth of the event. SCVNGR has 15 full time employees and continues to rapidly grow. Very clever. 5. VIVO Natural Products Michael Talve, 24 New York www.vivonaturalproducts.com Michael Talve used his time as an intern for Roll International to learn all about the market for natural products, which he used to his advantage later. In 2006, he realized an opportunity for a venture with soap that was natural and as high-quality as organic food. Michael takes the time to source these ingredients from all over the world, which are then used to create his five different varieties of bar soap. VIVO products now sell at around 200 retail stores, including Whole Foods. He expects the already profitable business to bring in a rapid increase in revenue this year. Each of these individuals has branched out into very unique markets with highly-specialized ideas. It’s an amazing time for young entrepreneurs, and I look forward to seeing what other niche products come out after taking note from these enterprising young entrepreneurs. Pete Kistler is the founder and CEO of Brand‐Yourself.com, a web platform that businesses and individuals use to grow their online reputation and promote their services across the social web. Read more about Pete here .
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Most business advice blogs tend to be full of stale, common sense puffery. My goal, as a guest blogger for Young Entrepreneur , is to apply my knowledge and experiences to the discussion of many business-changing decisions young entrepreneurs make or don’t make. Many of these practices are often considered taboo, but I plan to break them down in a contemporary and honest way. A typical managerial faux pas (coming in at a close second place to hiring your own family), is employing your friends. I’m sure almost all business owners would agree that hiring your friends only adds unnecessary complications to the already stressful and intricate management process. That being said, I recommend that you do hire your friends–but do so carefully. If you’re going to put your business, employees and customers at risk by hiring a friend, it’s important to understand how a relationship like it can affect all aspects of your business. If you are conscious of the following three factors, you may be able to maintain what I would consider the most acceptable employee-employer relationship you can have with a hired friend. 1. Qualifications If you’re friends with someone, you should automatically assume that your evaluation of their skills, potential or work ethic is completely biased. I know you think you’re not like anyone else and your friend is the exception to the rule, but you’re not and he or she is not. Once you’ve come to terms with this, you can put yourself in a position to more accurately evaluate their performance and attempt to manage them. 2. Discipline Punishing employees is hard enough. Reprimanding friends is even more difficult. Young entrepreneurs tend to have young friends–this means immaturity can ruin more than the professional side of your friendship. 3. Respect Your relationship with your friend will absolutely cause issues in the workplace. Beyond the more straightforward issues you’re bound to experience (such as suspected favoritism and discipline problems), you should be concerned about your friend’s ability to take criticism or advice from you as an employer and not as a friend. You certainly shouldn’t hire your friends, but I recommend you do, so you learn why you shouldn’t. Understanding why it doesn’t work is far more important to your business than making one or two bad HR decisions. If you’re aware of the associated risks and potential conflicts, you can minimize your exposure to the friend-related problems that every business owner experiences in these situations. I know plenty of business owners who have hired their friends and swear by the process – I consider them lucky and/or oblivious. Jared Mendelewicz is the Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of AKT Enterprises, an Orlando, FL based marketing and merchandising powerhouse. Read more about Jared here .
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I imagine entrepreneurship as a football game where your company is on offense and your opposing defense consists of your competition, the economy, your marketing acumen, your ability to hire the right people and, most importantly, your ability to handle stress and lead a team. When growing a business, you don’t have to put on a masquerade that you are a big, tough man or woman; however you do have to instill confidence in the people whom you are leading. This gets harder with each hire that you make. Businesses, without exception, must grow. Growth is a part of the game; without forging forward, you are never going to break the defense. If a defense sees weakness in your game plan, they will exploit any and all offensive maneuvers you attempt to make. Sure, every now and then, you’ll get exposure playing on Thanksgiving, but that exposure is quickly ruined when Payton Manning throws for 400 yards and 3 touchdowns. As a business owner, when you get that Thanksgiving exposure, you make sure you win; no questions asked. If the other team smells even the smallest hint of weakness or pain in your quarterback on O-Line, the game is lost, forever. If your company does not grow and fails to take the gut-wrenching dive, you are not the team captain who is passing at 15 yards a clip. You and your company becomes more like the team that consistently calls hand-off after hand-off right up the middle. Sure, you’re bound to gain 4 yards on 3 plays, but who is that going to scare. The defense will simply adjust their linebackers for the short game, thus forcing you and your company in a spot that is not conducive to success. In all actuality, you won’t even see the field goal posts. Or, you forget about being conservative all the time and roll the dice. Take your new team and don’t be afraid to aggressively pass the ball. Of course this will leave you open to interceptions and fumbles, but it also increases your odds of putting the ball in the end zone (a.k.a. taking risks to beat your competition). If your employees sense that you are implementing the run-3-downs-out-of-4 game plan, they are going to end up on ESPN embarrassing you by asking for a trade, publicly. In entrepreneurship you want to be the New England Patriots not the Detroit Lions. Yes. Throwing a flee-flicker on first down is enough to make any coach sick, though if you don’t want to do it, get in line with the 8 – 8 teams. On a personal note, yesterday, I hired another employee. From my desk, when I turned around and looked at the guy (younger gentlemen, fresh out of NYU), I knew that I was responsible for him. I had another mouth to feed and a running back to support, thus ensuring you make him into a Mike Anderson and not allow him to get tackled by the entire D-Line upon hiking the ball. I want to make him successful and I’m prepared to do what it takes to put my team in the playoffs. As a matter of fact, today proved to be a match-up against the Steelers in the dead of December. We had a very large account on the line and I almost made a move that would have led to expensive consequences. Luckily, I was able to gain composure and make the team satisfied in my positive outlook and willingness to fight. This can be exceedingly hard at times. Though, throughout the growth of your business, you must consider yourself the quarterback and the team around you is comprised of men and women who are going to do their part, but also rely on you to provide quick and accurate passes with little fumbling after the snap. Any entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur has to be able to stomach the game of competitive business and this is the best analogy that I can use to explain it. Ken Sundheim is the founder of KAS Placement, which is a 5-year-old company with nearly 10 employees and growing at a very rapid pace. Read more about Ken here .
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