FunAdvice on Entrepreneurship: Jeremy Goodrich
September 9, 2008 by akemi · 4 Comments
Darren Rowse closed his interview saying, “Baby steps first.”
It was interesting to learn that the famous Mr. ProBlogger started as a humble amateur geek. Of course, we all start from zero, but when we see someone successful, we often forget that. His advice was quite common sense, but I think that is the whole point. Don’t wait for the big secret to reveal itself to you. Get started, even on a small scale. (Photo by leefotos)
This week, there was a comment that I had to delete because it was rude not just to me but to one of the interview guests of the series. It claimed that I better interview “real entrepreneurs” Not sure what she means – I have not interviewed Bill Gates yet, but my guests are those who have built profitable businesses that resonate with who they are. (It is an honor system – I ask, and I trust the interviewees’ response.)
So we continue this Interview With Successful Entrepreneurs series to hear from a young man who has started a bunch of online businesses – some successful and some not. Jeremy Goodrich runs FunAdvice, a popular online Q&A community, and SEO consultation company Asenyo.
1. Tell us a bit about your business and why you started it.
Asenyo.com is a boutique SEO consulting company I co-founded with my wife & business parter of the last eight years. I say eight because it’s been that long since we started our first business in college together and over the years, we’ve sold two of them.
Today, we are profitable and successful in our SEO consulting business, last year, clients of ours were acquired for more than $500 million, which was truly exceptional. In our spare time, we’re nurturing FunAdvice.com, which we’re going to transition to eventually to further reduce our working hours & focus more on living life, rather than working, even if it’s working for ourselves.
The main reason I started FunAdvice was I wanted a community site. Back in 2003, my business partner, Ericson Smith & I, had been working together for a few years, however, we’d never tried a community based site. So given our mutual experience having fun on community sites like WebmasterWorld and Slashdot.org, we put one together.
FunAdvice initially focused on relationship advice – the first five categories were love, sex, marriage, relationships, and dating. We thought that, as relationships are an issue that we all have to deal with in our lives, it made sense to us to focus in on that narrow field. Eventually, we realized our mistake, as people want to be able to ask questions in various aspects of their lives at the one site they frequent. So we now have wide range of categories.
2. What were the three biggest challenges when you were starting off as a new entrepreneur?
The biggest one for me personally was developing the confidence in my skills to push hard enough to bring the business together. In the first few businesses I helped start after an initial success, I’d get shy about looking for new business, which is key to growth. And as a result of my shyness, I didn’t network enough nor ask colleagues enough for assistance on how I should put things together, which would have helped a great deal. For example, my first consulting company imploded in 2001 less than three months after I started it, directly as a result of not constantly being on the lookout for new sales, and being shy about getting referrals.
Second to that, I’d say experience. Some people seem to have a knack for doing it right the first time, and for me, every business I’ve started has taught me unique things. In many ways, starting different businesses to solve different problems has helped me hone and refine an approach to growing an idea into a business which is difficult for a lot of people I talk to that haven’t made the leap to striking out on their own.
Time management has also been an issue for me, while it’s gotten better over the years, I never believe I’m using my time online, at work or doing business as efficiently and as effectively as possible. For example, when I first started out full time on my latest business, I was working sixty plus hours a week, as was my wife & business partner, Widhadh. However, now between us our schedule has shrunk to forty hours a week, each, which is much more tolerable. It’s not that we’re getting less done, it’s that we’re making better use of the time we spend on business tasks. In the next year, I hope to get done what I do now in thirty hours a week.
3. And how did you work through these challenges?
My own personal self confidence improved through a lot of speaking, networking and continued outreach. At my last full time job in 2005, I setup as part of my job several speaking engagements for other staff members to attend. Developing and hosting a talk on my area of expertise wasn’t a requirement for my position, however, it helped a lot with building my confidence to help reach out to people. Since then as a consultant in my company, I’ve been consistently training client staff, holding training sessions and doing more to manage my contacts through email and phone calls. Your network is your biggest asset and anything you can do to increase that network adds to your bottom line as an entrepreneur.
In terms of experience, starting eight different internet businesses has taught me a lot. The form filing of setting up the company through to employee, contractor and IP related issues, nothing helps to get you a well rounded education like walking through the various processes yourself. While I don’t consider myself an expert in building a business, I am confident that I know bits and pieces of most of the common business processes by way of doing. The second thing I’ve done is read a lot. First I read tons of classic marketing books, PR books, presentation books and now I read more management, leadership and varied theme business books to broaden my knowledge base. Even if the case studies in most works aren’t internet companies, there is still a lot to learn that can be directly applied to your online venture.
To get better at time management, I’ve started to segment out my work day into different buckets, generally started to “take the evening off” as in, work till 5 and not return to the computer, and switched to a Mac portable, as well as bought an iPhone. It’s the first PDA I’ve really gotten mileage out of, and the Mac just seems to work better, faster, than my two year old XP machine. Scheduling meetings and “work” on a calendar is also very helpful. By allotting time in advance to various tasks, I can see how my week is going very clearly, and it forces me to schedule things further out, rather than add “just one” extra meeting to an already full work week.
4. What is the best part of being an entrepreneur for you?
The best part of being an entrepreneur for me is knowing the work you do is fulfilling a dream you had and seeing the changes in people’s lives. Making money is nice but I think that creating a business has inherent obligations such as community development, social activism and generally making a positive impact on society as a whole. Too often, I think businesses are excited about making a profit with little or not thought to their social obligations such as leaving the world a better place than that which they found. To me, it’s the chance to both succeed in financial terms and social terms which embodies the entrepreneurial spirit.
5. Any advice for people who dream to have their own business and yet find it hard to make the leap?
If you can, start small and do it part time while you still have a day job. Yes, I know, it’s hard and time consuming to do it that way, however if it’s an exciting opportunity to you then it should be possible to find the time to get things started. Even if you only work on it three to five hours a week, you can get things rolling enough before you take the full time plunge to make sure that the idea is solid, you know what you’re going to do in the market, you know where to start, and you have a three to six month plan.
I’m personally not a fan of formal business plans or mission statements, however it is useful to know what you’re going to spend your time on daily before you take the plunge. That way if you do get things up and running, you’re not scared of the unknown and it is a routine from day one.
Also have in mind goals, milestones and a basic cash flow plan, so you know what targets you have to hit in sales to stay in business, which is ultimately how you have the runway to hit the product or service milestones that you make.
My takeaway
I think once you start your own business, you get in the flow of things, and starting the next is not that much of a wonder. Yet starting eight businesses is amazing, and I admire his courage and energy.
It’s a lot to compete against big bro sites like Yahoo Answers. I checked FunAdvice, and seems like he carved out a niche and a nice friendly atmosphere that are attractive to many.
My best wishes to Jeremy. (Considering his age, I can’t help wondering how many more businesses he will be starting in this life . . .)
Paving The Way For Online Entrepreneurs: Darren Rowse
August 11, 2008 by akemi · 16 Comments
Today’s guest for the Interview With Successful Entrepreneurs series needs no introduction to bloggers and online entrepreneurs. Darren Rowse, the ProBlogger, has been offering advise to bloggers for years. Check how a true geek (of course this is a compliment) developed his business in an organic way.
1. Tell us a bit about your business and why you started it.
Over the last 6 years I’ve taken blogging from something that was purely a hobby into something that is now quite a large business.
I run two personal blogs (ProBlogger.net and Digital-Photography-School.com), have written a book on blogging (probloggerbook.com) and co-founded a blog network by the name of b5media (b5media.com).
As I said above – blogging started out as a hobby for me and it was something that gradually grew into a part time job and then a full time business (and beyond). I didn’t set out to make money from blogging – in many ways it just happened.
2. What were the three biggest challenges when you were starting off as a new entrepreneur?
There have been many challenges along the way but here are the first three that come to mind:
First of all – as I didn’t set out to do anything entrepreneurial (it was very much an accidental thing) I guess the first challenge for me was simply to recognize the opportunity to take what I was doing as a hobby into something beyond that.
Secondly I found (and still find) it challenging to work out the business side of things. My first love with my business is that I’m a communicator, I’m a creative thinker and I’m a bit of a dreamer. These things certainly help to grow a business but to take it to the next level you also need to be an administrator, strategic thinker and good negotiator. I’m learning these skills but they don’t come naturally for me.
Thirdly, I work in a ‘virtual’ world where I rarely get to meet face to face with most of the people that I work closely with. At b5media it took over a year after starting our business for us to meet as founders as we were living in different parts of the world. Communication, team building, strategic planning etc are all difficult when you’re in different time zones and far away from one another.
3. And how did you work through these challenges?
A lot of it comes down to persistence. Over time I managed to see the opportunity with blogging the more that I did it – as I’ve forced myself to do the things I don’t necessarily have experience in I’ve learned new skills and in time we’ve managed to work out systems and define roles at b5 that don’t need face to face interaction.
4. What is the best part of being an entrepreneur for you?
There’s a real freedom in working for yourself and setting the course for your own work. I love this aspect of what I do.
5. Any advice for people who dream to have their own business and yet find it hard to make the leap?
Three things:
1. Find something that you’d happily do for free and invest into that. That way if it doesn’t turn out at least you’ve been doing something that is meaningful to you.
2. Stick at it and work hard. I’m yet to meet a successful entrepreneur who had everything fall into their lap.
3. Baby steps first – I know some people are wildly successful by giving up everything else to build up a new business but I found that having a backup plan (I worked other jobs while starting out) and other things to fall back on enabled me to take my time and build something of quality over time. Don’t throw everything away when you start out – but build upon what you already have and let it grow naturally.
My takeaway
As a business owner whose clients come mostly through the internet, I just can’t thank enough for the advance of technology – a totally technologically challenged person like myself can have multiple websites and take clients worldwide! Amazing, and quite unimaginable just 15 or even 10 years ago.
The ability to recognize the opportunities is critical. I’m guessing so many people just sleep on their gold mine. As some other interview guests have indicated (like Jason and Laura), realizing your gift and taking it seriously takes courage. Seeing the problems as business opportunities takes proactive thinking. I think Darren’s case is yet another proof for this!
I also want to point out — if you haven’t read the About page of ProBlogger, go check it out. He is spiritual. I’m sure this has been his source of power.
Thank you, Darren.
Power of Two: James Chartrand and Harrison McLeod
July 14, 2008 by akemi · 29 Comments
Welcome to the Interview With Successful Entrepreneurs series! This is where we learn the startup secrets from those who actually took the leap. Before becoming entrepreneurs, they were professionals and managers, or college students, just like you. From there, they made the changes. . .
Milestone in this Interview With Successful Entrepreneurs series
This is the 10th post of the series! I’m so grateful for all the interview guests who so gracefully took the time to do this with me.
Today’s guests are the gorgeous duo from Men With Pens. What is remarkable is they each have special roles in the team that make the pair far more than the sum of the two. Thinking back, I have already interviewed two pairs of entrepreneurs, Kim & Jason, who are married couple, and Skip & Yasmine, who started off as a solo entrepreneur and college intern. Further, Monica, Naomi, and Laura each have their partners in business. Is two better than one to succeed as entrepreneurs? Read on.
1. Tell us a bit about your business and why you started it.
James: Our business offers full-service web presence to individuals, the self-employed and businesses that want to get online. We provide website creation, design services, content writing services, WordPress installation and setup services… If it’s written or needs to look good, we’re the guys for the job. In short, we help people earn a living through the web. Feels good to do that.
Harry: We started our business years ago out of strict need. James had left his job and faced a long, hard winter with no income and two children to feed. I suggested poking around online for work. He found it, and within three months, I left my full-time job to step into working in our own business.
James: That’s the boring answer. We find that many people are much more interested in how we became the daring duo taking the blogosphere by storm.
Harry: It all started with creative writing and role-playing games (RPG). We met on an RPG forum and became close friends very quickly. Our skill sets were completely different and yet those skills meshed so well together that they created a strong foundation for massive potential.
We saw the opportunity for a rocking partnership, and we seized it. We haven’t looked back since.
2. What were the three biggest challenges when you were starting as new entrepreneurs?
Harry: Learning the ropes had to be number one. We had the skills and the business knowledge we needed, but we knew very little of bringing this to the virtual world. We learned many lessons the hard way, invested a ton of time to understand web working and we spent a great deal of money on self-education. It was a long, rough ride and it took a lot of dedication to make it work.
James: The problem was that most of what we found was garbage information. We were taken for a ride many times because of poor advice. That’s why we made it our vision to offer better to people so that they didn’t have to make the same mistakes we did (hence, our blog offering solid, reputable advice).
Harry: Another challenge was creating a solid system that allows us to fully share and collaborate from a distance of 3,000 miles. It isn’t easy to work together in an office that doesn’t really exist. We tapped into every resource possible to create a virtual office that lets us work side by side, no matter how far apart we are.
James: I have to say that a definite challenge I believe many people overlook is adapting to cultural differences and international business. When you look at the virtual world only from your country’s perspective, you find out quickly that there’s much more than you out there – and you need to change your ways and methods to welcome all people with their differences.
I’ll toss in a bonus challenge, too: Realizing that your life has completely changed is a huge wake-up call. Being an entrepreneur is more than just working on your own for a living. You suddenly wear many hats and you suddenly have to be an expert at everything, from salesperson to customer service representative to accountant to business CEO.
Harry: Yeah, that was a huge wake-up call for me. It’s hard to run a business and I think many people feel it’s so easy. It isn’t. Your business hours rise and your personal free time dwindles – and I think these reasons cause many new businesses to fail. People are unprepared to overcome these obstacles and aren’t ready to step into such big shoes.
3. And how did you work through these challenges?
James: I think that it’s a combination of too many factors to list here. I do know that you have to know your strengths and use them while recognizing your weaknesses and finding ways to work around them.
We’re lucky to be two people that work together, because we complement and enhance each other’s ability.
Harry: I think we’re also lucky in that we’re very different people and our personalities, strengths and weaknesses balance each other nicely. That’s important – if you don’t have balance, the whole venture becomes that much harder and you burn out quickly.
4. What is the best part of being an entrepreneur for you?
Harry: I don’t consider myself an entrepreneur at all. James is the front man with the visions. He’s out there chasing the dreams. I’m working behind the scenes to support him and help make those dreams a reality. That isn’t entrepreneur in my definition of the word. But what I do is a very important part of the business.
James: That’s true. I need him, he needs me, and when we make it work, it’s fantastic. Knowing that we are able to reach any goal we want and having the confidence to do so is the best feeling in the world.
Also, it’s extremely fulfilling to know that we can help others reach their goals. Having our business lets us reach that vision every day.
5. Any advice for people who dream to have their own business and yet find it hard to make the leap?
James: Establish a Plan B. And C. And D and all the way to Z. Never leap without a safety net, and at the same time, always be ready to seize the opportunities you have and take the plunge. There’s no such thing as failure – there is only learning experiences.
My Takeaway
Wow, partnership is attractive. I guess it can make the business a lot stronger if I can find the right partner.
I also find James’ comment on cross-cultural understanding interesting. He is English – French bilingual, and I’m English – Japanese bilingual. It makes me think maybe there are more ways I can utilize my special background that typical Americans don’t, or help people who only speak English. Not necessarily translation . . . something bigger . . .
Are you a solo entrepreneur or do you have a partner? If you are looking to start a business, do you intend to go by yourself or do you want to find a partner?
