Archive for the 'Entrepreneurial' Category
There’s always the weekly garage sales to dig through, but if you are after some higher quality furniture, antiques, or collectibles, this Money magazine article about estate sales suggests another option. Estate sales are similar to garage sales, except the process is more formal and many times everything in the entire house is marked with a price tag. You walk in, snoop around, and pick up what you want. Everything often must be sold within the 1-3 day sale. It’s usually after a death, but there might be a number of other causes.
The article has a bunch of good tips, including:
- Call head to find out what specific items are available beforehand, so you can do your homework.
- Arrive either really early to get the best selection, or really late for the best haggling.
- Bring tools like a big tote bag, bubble wrap, a flashlight.
- Use the internet or phone-a-friend to prices things instantly while browsing.
To find a sale, there are newspaper classified ads, Craigslist, and local liquidator firms. There’s also EstateSales.net, which if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area there is a sale of the contents of four model homes Friday-Sunday in Discover Bay. (Wonder if this indicates good or bad news?) I like the idea of good furniture at steep discounts! I hope it’s better organized than this picture from another listing in the area:
Also, I found that it’s actually better to use the “Find Companies” section of EstateSales.net and look for local liquidator firms; they usually provide a link to their websites. I have found several estates sales which are only listed on the individual firm websites. Anyhow, although I don’t think I’d be a good antique flipper on eBay, I still think it would be interesting to go to one of these. Anyone have any good stories?
Posted in Entrepreneurial | 8 Comments »
Thanks for all the diverse and interesting insights on teaching kids about money, I learned quite a few things myself. As I was trying to think back and remember what I personally learned - or wish I learned - about money in 6th grade, a couple of amusing stories came to mind. They may not be all that helpful to young folks (quite possibly the opposite), but I’ll share them anyway since I am curious to see if others had similar experiences.
Flips and Underage Gambling
The allure of gambling knows no age limit. For those that haven’t heard of it - I have no idea how widespread it was - “Flips” is a simple game where first one person flips a coin, and then the second participant flips another coin of the same type. If the coins match, either both heads or both tails, then the 2nd person wins both coins. If the 2nd coin does not match, the 1st person wins both coins. Quarters seemed to be the coin of choice. For a while I was regularly losing or winning a few dollars each day playing Flips, which was a lot of money to me at the time.
The main idea was for the 2nd person to be able to control Heads or Tails, with each us having a secret flipping “method” much like craps players have when throwing dice. As the game got more and more popular, people would start to create their own cheats. One kid brought a double-sided quarter with heads on both sides to school. He was promptly beat up and the quarter was stolen, never to be found again. After that, we started to check coins. 
In addition, the more adventurous kids would even play with dollar bills, and people quickly found that folding the bills a certain way would help the bill land on a certain side. Lots of new ground rules were made up on the fly.
Lessons learned? During a particularly bad losing streak, I was unable to eat lunch for a couple days. I stopped playing cold turkey. What did I learn? Gambling is a rush, but that’s not always a good thing. Someone else is always trying to gain an edge, fair or unfair. Don’t bet what you can’t afford to lose.
Pre-teen Candy Mogul
My second memory was of a 12-year old entrepreneur. Chip was a kind of a big kid, he looked like he had been held back a grade once and could have easily been the school bully. Instead, he sold us candy. I remember in particular he sold Charms Blow-Pops for 25¢ each and Crybaby Extra-Sour Gum and Atomic Fireballs at 10¢ each. I was a regular customer, as was most of our school. His backpack was 80% candy and 20% books.
I remember thinking he was pretty smart back then, but as an adult I am even more impressed.
- He had a monopoly. Who else could sell candy directly to kids at school? Competition is also rare when you weigh 20lbs more than everyone else. Besides, it was against the rules, and I was too scared to try and pull something like that off.
- Smart pricing. He chose simple pricing, and at about the same price as 7-11 convenience stores. He even gave discounts for bulk purchases - instead of 10¢ each, you could get 3 for 25¢. Instead of 25¢ each, you could get 5 for $1. Even us slower folks could figure out that was a better deal.
- Smart buying. I even recall running into him at Sam’s Club buying candy. I would guess that’s as close to wholesale as you can get as a 6th grader. This also meant that his parents were in on the scheme, or even encouraged it?! Ethicists would go nuts.
Running rough numbers in my head, I would say he maintained a 100% profit margin markup on all his candy. That gum couldn’t have cost more than 5 cents apiece. He probably made around $10-$20 a day in net profit, tax free! Sure, this was probably illegal in various ways - no business license, on school grounds, too young, non-existent tax reporting - but I like to imagine Chip as the CEO of some huge multi-national corporation now.
Is it bad that both of these stories involve illicit activities?
Posted in Entrepreneurial | 37 Comments »
The virtual phone service GrandCentral has been invite-only beta for several months. But now the blog service Blogger (also owned by Google) is offering users free memberships. But hey, the special sign-up link works for everyone! Not really a loophole, since Blogger accounts are also free, but it does mean that it is now effectively open to everyone to wants to try it out.
To quickly summarize, GrandCentral offers you a free local US phone number from 47 states which can forward to any other US number. You also get free voicemail along with several other nifty features. I tried to explore the many possible uses of GrandCentral in this post. Here are a few of them:
- Have one permanent, central number for everything.
- Create an extra number for your side business, for any other reason you might think of.
- Avoid long distance charges, by getting a new number in a new area code.
- Combine with T-Mobile MyFaves or AllTel Circle for more free calling.
- Use it to allow people to call you via your website, without revealing your phone number.
Again, details are here. I’ve still been using GrandCentral as a separate business line. Although it doesn’t get used heavily, it does give me the ability to pre-screen calls to my business, or simply forward to a professional voicemail recording.
Posted in Deals & Offers, Entrepreneurial | 68 Comments »
Reader’s Digest has an article titled Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires. The “secrets” aren’t exactly groundbreaking:
- Set your sights on where you’re going
- Educate yourself
- Passion pays off
- Grow your money
- No guts, no glory
- Stop spending
… but I always enjoy reading such stories anyway. In addition, sprinkled throughout the article are several interesting quotes which hit home for me.
They are motivated by freedom
What motivates them isn’t material possessions but the choices that money can bring: “For the rich, it’s not about getting more stuff. It’s about having the freedom to make almost any decision you want,” says T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. Wealth means you can send your child to any school or quit a job you don’t like.
Most did not start out rich
The reality is that 80 percent of Americans worth at least $5 million grew up in middle-class or lesser households.
They have a passion for what they do
According to research by Thomas J. Stanley, author of The Millionaire Mind, over 80 percent of millionaires say they never would have been successful if their vocation wasn’t something they cared about.
They don’t flaunt their wealth
But many modern millionaires live in middle-class neighborhoods, work full-time and shop in discount stores like the rest of us. […] According to the 2007 Annual Survey of Affluence & Wealth in America, some of the richest people “spend their money with a middle-class mind-set.” They clip coupons, wait for sales and buy luxury items at a discount.
All of these characteristics are ones that I aspire to have!
The idea that “millionaires are all around you but you just don’t notice them” reminds me of the popular book The Millionaire Next Door. In fact, Stanley above was a co-author. (Sadly, the other author Danko now speaks at get-rich-quick seminars.) The book has been bashed at times as being statistically flawed and simply telling people what they want to hear. Perhaps, but I think there is more than a little truth behind it as well.
Posted in Entrepreneurial, Frugal Living | 9 Comments »
Remember when you got your first paycheck and wondered why it was so small? All 16-year-olds hate FICA.
Even though it’s not included when we talk about marginal tax rates, all employees have to pay 6.2% of their gross income to Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare. (Double that for self-employed folks.) However, there is a limit for Social Security - the tax only applies to the first $97,500 of wages for 2007 ($6,045), no matter how many different sources it came from. The problem is, your employers have no idea what you’re making at your other jobs, or when you reach that cap.
I came across this WSJ article which tells you how to get any overpaid amount refunded back to you at filing time. Keep in mind it’s using cap values for 2006.
If you worked for two or more employers and had too much withheld, you can claim the excess as a credit.
Here’s a hypothetical example supplied by the IRS: Suppose you’re married and file jointly. Your spouse didn’t have any income last year. You worked for a company that paid you $58,000 during 2006 and withheld $3,596 (6.2% of $58,000) in Social Security tax. You also worked for another employer who paid you $47,000 and withheld $2,914 of Social Security tax (6.2% of $47,000).
Thus, the Social Security tax withheld totaled $6,510. That’s $669.60 more than you actually owe ($6,510 minus $5,840.40). So you’re entitled to a credit of $669.60. Enter it on Form 1040, line 67, or on Form 1040A, line 43.
I would assume that TurboTax or similar would catch this, but it’s definitely worth double-checking.
I was also trying to find online if you could direct your employer to stop withholding Social Security taxes if you “know” you’re over the limit already, but it seems like you can’t. They just keep withholding as if that was your only job. But what you can do is change your total tax withholding values (increase exemptions, etc.) in order to counteract this overpayment and reduce your future refund.
Posted in Entrepreneurial, Taxes | 32 Comments »
The StartupNation Home-Based 100 is a list of the 100 “best” home-based business. More specifically, it’s composed of ten Top-10 lists in these categories: Best Financial Performers, Most Innovative, Highest Vote Getters, Boomers Back In Business, Greenest, Yummiest, Wackiest, Grungiest, Worldiest, and Most Slacker-Friendly.
Many of the businesses seem to be based on an practical idea extended from their existing jobs. Others are hobbies or passions that grew into a profitable venture. Here are some of that I found most interesting to me:
The Welcome Committee. This company will personally greet new homeowners, introducing them to the community and also local advertisers who sponsor them (and I guess the gift baskets).
“Newcomers spend more in the first 6 months than established residents spend in 5 years. In total, newcomers spend approximately $100 billion on move-related goods and services annually. Newcomers have no shopping loyalties in their new community and are eager to receive information for products and services they need.”
Lesson: Target a specific situation where people spend unusually large amounts of money. An existing example is weddings.
No Throw. Kids like to throw their bottles. “We have designed a velcro strap that will fit tightly around and hold onto children’s bottles and sippy cups. The NoThrow’s leash styled handle can be slipped over any seat belt that is attached your child’s car seat, stroller, bike seat, high chair, baby-backpack, you name it!.” Yes, it’s sounds so simple it’s funny. But they just got picked up by Walgreens, so they’re probably laughing all the way to the bank…
Lesson: Cute, useful things for children are a huge market. We aren’t even parents and we just bought 3 different kids toys/gifts within the last week. Baby showers, 1st birthdays, 2nd birthdays…
Whiner and Diner. These guys make raised wooden pet bowls and pet beds. “The products are hand-crafted in the U.S. from recycled wooden wine crates of prestigious European and Californian vineyards.”
Lesson: Okay, I know this may sound useless to a lot of people, even some animal lovers. I think they look very nice. (Of course, I put my dog’s bowl over a big roll of duct tape to raise it up…) But I really do think high-end pet products are a great idea for a home business. You need a unique product that can’t be mass-produced and with a large profit margin to make it worthwhile.
Posted in Entrepreneurial | 6 Comments »
She grew up in a working-class household near Detroit, with divorced parents who argued about unpaid bills. At 14 years old, she had to ask her mom to buy an $8 domain name for her. Today, at 17, she owns her own 2-story house and is head of a company that earned over $1 million in revenue in 2006, with even more projected for 2007.
Who is she? Ashley Qualls, owner of WhateverLife.com, a MySpace-related website that get over 7 million unique visitors each month. That’s more than Oprah.com and CBS.com. She’s had a multi-page profile done in Fast Company magazine and has been written up in other local publications. I actually saw her story highlighted briefly while watching CNN.
This piqued my interest - I mean, she seems like a good web designer with decent graphic design skills. But good designers are everywhere now, she had to do something special in making her millions. What was it?
She piggy-backed onto the next big thing
Without MySpace, this whole thing might not have happened. I mean, I still do not understand the appeal of MySpace. It’s cluttered. Music plays automatically when you visit someone’s page. The blogging platform is confusing. Who wants to read 100 people saying “Thanks for the add!” or linking to the same 10 blinking images over and over?
She took the initiative with her hobby, and let it grow
The whole thing just started out when she made a few custom MySpace layouts for her friends, and exploded from there. But she could have easily have said “Nah, I’m bored. Let’s go to the mall.” after making one or two. But instead she made layouts for everyone in her high school, and then she took it online.
She knows exactly what her target audience wants. It’s like the movie Big with Tom Hanks, when the 12-year old kid becomes vice-president of a toy company.
She took a risk and went full-time
She actually dropped out of high school during her sophomore year, instead going the GED route and attending community college now.
She’s still thinking big
She’s not just stuck making MySpace layouts forever, either. For one, her templates are compatible with many other social-networking sites besides MySpace. Recently, she hired developers to create an application that lets her users build their own stylized websites. She has an online magazine up and running. Next up, she plans on selling cell-phone wallpapers at $1.99 a pop, so people can extend their custom themes to their phones. She’s the Teen Martha Stewart.
Overall, I would say the best lesson to take from Ashley’s story is that she caught the MySpace wave early and ran with it. I would have totally missed it. Anyone want to tell me what the next big thing will be?
Posted in Entrepreneurial | 26 Comments »
I hear the term ‘passive income’ thrown around a lot. But what does it really mean? Is anything that you earn outside your day job considered passive income? Let’s look at some popular things that are associated with the term.
Dividend Income From Stocks
First, one must come up with money to buy a share of a dividend-yielding stock. That probably took some work. But what’s so special about a dividend? There are two components of return from stocks - share appreciation and dividends. All other things held equal, when a stock gives off a dividend, the share price drops commensurately. For example, if the share price was $100 and it gave off a $1 dividend, the share price would then be $99. So it’s not like the $1 came out of thin air.
If you had 100 shares of a $1 stock, you could simply sell $1 and get $1 of cash and $99 of stock as well. In fact, sometime dividends are simply paid in the form of more shares of stock. The way I see it, if you think dividends are passive income, then you should treat any increase in share price as passive income as well. Coupon payments from bonds and interest from savings accounts would be in the same group.
I personally prefer to simply call all these things investment income and keep it separate, as learning about investments is more of a requirement nowadays, as opposed to an optional entrepreneurial venture like the other activities below.
Creative Works - Songs, Books, Patents
Let’s say you compose a song, or write a book. Every time someone plays your song, or buys your book, you will get a small fee. But what if you spent 1,000 hours writing that book, and you only earn a $100 each year from royalties? Is that really passive? Sounds like a lot of research and hard work to me. On the other hand, the Beatles will be making millions for their great-great-great grandchildren. When does it cross over to becoming passive?
Take blogging for example. You spend hours writing, reading, commenting, dealing with spam. Divide your advertising revenue by the hours spent, and if you’re really lucky, you’ll be above minimum wage. And then there still ain’t anything passive about it!
Real Estate Rental Property, Vending Machines, Car Washes
Another group with similar characteristics… You put up a relatively large sum of money upfront to pay for the rental property, vending machines, or car wash property and equipment, and after that you make money from rent, selling soda/snacks, and water/soap, respectively. But there is still work to be done. If you don’t manage your properties, restock your supplies, or maintain your equipment, things start falling apart fast. Even if you do all these things, there will always be the occasional breakdown or emergency to give you headaches.
My Alternative Definition For Passive Income
Now, I don’t doubt that many people make a ton of money with things like rental properties and writing books, with a relatively small amount of ongoing work. I’m still definitely interested in pursuing such activities! It should be obvious that I love making extra money on the side as much as anybody. But I don’t call anything I do passive income. I can’t really think of anything truly passive, besides maybe winning the lottery. So I suppose “passive” really just means “less work than other stuff”.
Accordingly, here’s my two requirements for me to consider labeling an activity as “passive income”:
If you only satisfy the top one, then it’s just a really well-paying job. If only satisfy the bottom one, you wouldn’t be using your time efficiently, which wouldn’t make it very passive at all. Would you agree?
Posted in Entrepreneurial | 46 Comments »
You’ve heard of YouTube, but what about Revver? It’s a video-sharing site that also shares advertising revenue with either people who upload their own videos, or simply share existing ones. The creator gets 40%, Revver gets 40%, and the sharer gets 20%. I just read in USA Today that they have now paid out $1 million out to users. These guys have made over $50,000 alone for this Diet Coke/Mentos video:
I uploaded my super-amateur Roth vs. Traditional IRA video for kicks, but it hasn’t been approved yet. I’m sure making serious money this way would be very difficult, but if you had the creativity or happened to get lucky taping something unique, this might be both fun and profitable. There are a bunch of other sites like MetaCafe that also profit-share, but they seem to be much more selective.
In the creative department: I’ve been wasting time watching a lot of HappySlip videos, which are essentially a one-woman show - she is actor (with multiple roles), writer, producer, and director. Just her, a cam, and a Mac. Highly amusing!
In the lucky department: This blogger apparently got a 300-page iPhone bill, taped it, and has made $5,000 so far.
Posted in Entrepreneurial | 11 Comments »
Recently, I got placed in charge of trying to obtain an LCD projector for a family event. Has anyone else out there had to do this? What kind of prices did you get? I found that renting an LCD projector directly from a higher-end hotel costs at least $500. An hour. Then I searched for local or online stores, and found the cost was around $200-$350 for one day. The high end was including delivery and pickup, but neither place actually would help me set things up. Finally, we worked something out with a friend of a friend.
Is it me, or is the highest ratio of renting/owning of any product? I can rent a car for $50 a day, but not an LCD projector?!
This got me thinking - wouldn’t this be a great business? You can buy a solid 3,000 lumen DLP projector for about $1,000. Basic ones start at $500. You don’t need a HD or home theater version, most people are just doing PowerPoint presentations or picture slideshows. You can also pick up a screen and stand (many places just let you use the screen they have) for another couple hundred dollars. After some quick brainstorming, here’s a rough plan of attack:
1) Set it up. Pick a name “AnyTown Speedy Projector Rental”, and put up a professional-looking website with your phone number and nice description of your equipment. Help out some friends and add some testimonials and references. Definitely put up a “Best Price Guarantee”.
If you need a business license for your area, grab one of those for $50 or so. Get a merchant account so you can accept credit cards.
2) Do cheap guerrilla marketing. List your service on Craigslist. Tell everyone you know. Put a big sign on your car. Maybe start a highly geo-targeted Google Adwords search engine advertising campaign. Contact some wedding coordinators and offer a referral fee or reciprocal marketing agreement.
3) Price aggressively and offer extras. On most days, you could simply require them to pick up the day before the event, and drop back off at your house the day after. Take their credit card information and make them sign a damage waiver stating that they will be liable for replacement. Charge… say… $100 per day (ignore the pick-up and drop-off days). In 10-11 rentals, you’ve broken even. After that, it’s all profit!
(With the “Best Price Guarantee” you could simply ask them their lowest quote, offer 10-20% less, and charge even more than $100.)
My idea is that on weekends (when most people need it), you can also offer “professional setup” by bringing your own laptop and speaker system, and running the show yourself for an additional price. Lots of times the projector part only last for less than an hour. Maybe charge $250 for the delivery, rental, and the first 2 hours of work. This is cheaper than any other person I’ve talked to. As long as you’re pretty good with computers, you could be a one-man show.
For someone looking for ways to earn some extra cash on the side, I think this could be very viable. People are already doing it on Craigslist. You could even use it at home to watch movies when it’s not rented out. Poke holes in my idea in the comments! 
Got your own instant biz ideas? Share those too!
Posted in Entrepreneurial | 27 Comments »
Sometimes I am truly amazed by the internet. I can get an idea on a Friday night while talking with friends, go home, buy a domain name, create a website, upload it to a server, and have it live to the entire world before morning. I don’t need to buy any licenses, line up manufacturers, pick up raw materials, or hire any employees. Sure, I may have to wait a day for some DNS servers to resolve, and I will spend many more hours working on it later, but overall the instant gratification is great.
I’ve alluded in that past that part of my side business involves making websites for local clients, as well as miscellaneous websites on a variety of (mostly non-financial) topics that interest me. I get paid for the design work, as well and hosting and maintenance. Some of my own websites are profitable, and some are complete flops. But it’s fun and if you already have hosting set up for another website already, the only additional costs are my time and $9 at Godaddy (currently only $7 with coupon code ‘hash3′). To be perfectly honest, I’m not terribly good at graphic design or even web design.
Here’s the thing: I’m sure there’s some topic out there that you know about much more than the average person - venison recipes? making your own furniture? old Toyota truck? homeschooling your kids? That knowledge and passion are the most important things you need start your own website, not HTML skills.
Sorry for the rambling; I would write more, but the sun is going to rise soon and I can’t think straight anymore…
Posted in Entrepreneurial | 21 Comments »
Tired of juggling multiple phone numbers? Or just need an extra one? You should check out GrandCentral Beta, which offers all kinds of new tricks with phone calls by utilizing VoIP and the internet. First and foremost, they offer you a free local phone number from 47 states.
One Number For Everything
I think the main idea behind the name is that this free phone number will become your only phone number. This way, if you move or change jobs you can keep the same number forever, or at least for as long as you like. To entice you to do so, they add in some cool features. For example, when a person calls your GrandCentral number, you can:
- Have them call different phone numbers in order, for example home, then work, then cell phone. So people only need to know one number to reach you anywhere.
- Immediately redirect them by Caller ID to a specific phone number. Maybe certain friends just go straight to cell phone?
- If they are a known telemarketer, you can set the spam filter to not ring your phone at all.
An Extra Number For Personal or Business
The way I’ve been using the free number is as my new business phone number. This way, you have a separate business number to give out to customers, but it can ring your regular cell phone. You can know that it is a business call by setting the caller ID to display your “Biz” GrandCentral number, and answer professionally.
They even have a cool WebCall button where a customer can click on your webpage and call directly you for free.
Avoid Long Distance Charges
Added: I haven’t worried about long distance for a while now, but you could also use it to avoid long distance charges for your friends (or yourself), by getting a number in one area code and forwarding it as needed to another area code. Thanks to commenter Ross below for the tip.
Get More Free Minutes With T-Mobile MyFaves or AllTel Circle
Both T-Mobile and AllTel have plans where you get unlimited calls to and from a few select numbers. So here, you would set your “Personal” GrandCentral number as one of your favorites. Then, just tell everyone to call the GrandCentral number instead, which will redirect to your cell phone, giving you unlimited minutes! It would seem that you would lose the ability to see who’s calling, however.
They also offer store your voicemail all in one place with unlimited storage, and have a ton of other features that I’ve never used yet. You can record phone calls, switch seamlessly between your home phone and cell phone to save more minutes, screen calls by name, and more.
Will This Stay Free?
It seems like unlimited inbound calling will remain free, but I’m sure they will start charging for some of their premium features, like calling outbound. From their FAQ:
Will GrandCentral always be free?
Yes, we’re excited to say that we will always offer a free version of GrandCentral, even after beta. Our free version will include unlimited inbound minutes, unlimited voicemail (up to 30 days old), and access to all of our core features.
During beta, we’re giving everyone unlimited access to our premium features. In exchange, all we ask is that you send us your feedback (good or bad) to beta@grandcentral.com. We’ll read every comment.
Got a better idea of how to take advantage of this service? Please share in the comments.
Posted in Deals & Offers, Entrepreneurial | 32 Comments »
Here’s an interesting entrepreneurial story from this month’s SmartMoney magazine. Imagine that you work at LensCrafters making eyeglasses. You see the extremely large profit margins. You go home, buy the same equipment, and install it in your condo. You train some technicians to do most of the work. You call it EyeGlassDirect.com and start selling basic glasses with frame for $28. All while still working at LensCrafters!
I’ve been wearing glasses for over a decade, and I’ve never even thought about buying them online. The store seems to be legit, it has a 30-day unconditional exchange policy and a relatively clean Better Business Bureau report. The glasses include add-ons like UV and anti-scratch coatings that sometimes cost extra.
$28 seems like a great price for those without insurance or just looking for a basic set of glasses. I’ve always felt LensCrafters was mainly for those that had vision insurance. My current insurance only covers either contacts or glasses, so I choose to pay out-of-pocket for glasses every couple of years (and add it to my flexible spending account). I have high-index lenses, so I’ll have to dig up my old Costco receipt to see if I should try these guys next time. Anyone use them before?
Added: You can find reviews for this and other online shops at GlassyEyes. I hate it when magazines mention bloggers but don’t give out their websites.
Posted in Entrepreneurial, Frugal Living | 17 Comments »
Although many of us have thought about starting a small business, significantly less actually take the plunge. So when I read on Dennis’ Young Money Blog back in July that he had opened up his own custom Greek Apparel store, I was intrigued and have been following his adventures on and off since. Fast forward to today, and he’s attending trade shows and just spent over $20,000 on new equipment.
I wanted to learn more about his story, so I asked him for an interview. Here it is, condensed from an instant messenger chat we had:
Can you please give me a quick mini-bio of yourself?
I’m a 23-year old student at the University of Florida studying Marketing and Political Science.
So, when did you feel like you first started getting the entrepreneurial bug?
Actually, I was reading your blog a lot, as well as NevBlog.com. That got me started. I didn’t find any blogs that talked about students who didn’t have an income, so I figured I should start something. But along the way… my blog became an entrepreneurial blog too!
So no newspaper route when you were five or anything like that? 
Nope, my family was poor, so that stuff wasn’t even on our minds.
So how did you come up with the Greek store idea?
I’m in an Asian American fraternity, and I recognized that this portion of the Greek community, along with Hispanic/Latino and multicultural organizations, were growing. When you do a general search for “Greek store”, “Greek apparel”, etc. on Google, most of the sites focused on the National Interfraternity Conference (white fraternities) and Panhellenic Conference (white sororities). So I wanted to target a niche.
Did you have any experience in the clothing area beforehand?
Read the rest of this entry…
Posted in Entrepreneurial | 8 Comments »
Vistaprint always gives out 250 “free” business cards, but they have a little “made by Vistaprint” watermark stamped on the back, and you have to use one of their templates. Right now, they are offering 250 business cards with a customized logo and no watermark for “free” plus shipping. Here are the rates:
Not a bad deal for those that want to project a professional image for their small business.
Added: You can upload your own logo, but at an additional cost.
Posted in Deals & Offers, Entrepreneurial | 20 Comments »
