Follow-Up To "HighSchool Students Learn Profitable Lessons"

Hi all,

After responding to Dien's post below- it occurred to me that the follwing true story about my own early entrepreneurial experiences might encourage parents and adults to help the children they come in contact with. Just like in the "Parade of Life" as Gordon so aptly puts it, we are all at different stages - and maybe, just maybe stepping out of your normal spot for a few minutes will help you see a child who needs you.

A True Story

When I was 14 I started my first business. I recruited kids from the neighborhood, we posted flyers around at grocery stores offering to clean yards, rake leaves, mow grass and do odd jobs.

I kept a crew of 5 kids busy all summer.

I wish someone would have explained to me how I could have grown that little summer business so that I could have socked away money for college. But no one did.

My parents are good people. My mother's a teacher and my father worked for the State as an inspector. But neither were in least bit interested in being an 'entrepreneur'.

They never encouraged me to develop any entrepreneurial skills I was starting to exhibit. That's OK. I don't blame them at all...they just didn't know.

At age 18 (around 1976) I started a second business. I was really into art and painting and one day my brother, who had just had his first child, asked me if I could paint a picture of 'Big Bird' from the Sesame Street children's show on his new daughter's bedroom wall.

I did, and it came out great! It looked incredibly realistic and was propotioned perfectly. His daughter (my neice) loved it!

The logical thing for me to do, I thought, was to put a classified ad in the local paper and offer to paint children's bedrooms walls with their favorite cartoon character. It was a smashing success. I filled my summer with more work than I could handle. I didn't do it again, after that summer.

I wish somone would have explained to me how I could have grown that little business into a 'real' business...it could have started something great! But no one did. Not one ounce of encouragement or advice from anyone I knew.

A year later (I was about 19) I started my third business. I created a children's toy that looked like a duck that had a long stick attached to its back that you held and pushed it in front of you like a baby stroller. The duck had 'wheels' so t could roll and little rubber webbed like feet attached to the wheels so that when it rolled forward it 'flapped, flopped, flapped, flopped' and waddled just like a real duck.

It was a big hit. I sold them wholesale to a gift shop in the area. I started to sell them as far away as Cape Cod (I was in Upstate NY). I was told later that one was sold to the Chief Medical Officer at Walter Reed Hospital and he used it in his office as a relief from stress.

I wish somone would have explained to me how I could have grown that little business into a 'real' business...it could have started something great! But no one did. Not one ounce of encouragement or advice from anyone I knew.

I got interested in having too much fun and eventually the business died.

A few years later (I was about 21) I started my fourth business. My brother was my partner on this one. We started a little publication called 'CARS'. It had articles, classifieds for selling used cars and ads from car dealers in our area. We typeset, wrote the articles, pasted it up and had it printed at a local printer on newsprint- 10,000 copies a week. We were making good money from the ad revenue.

Then, my brother's daughter (the niece I mentioned earlier) got sick...real sick and needed to see specialists in Albany- about 2.5 hours from where we lived. He couldn't keep up with the demands of having a regular job and running the paper and taking his daughter to the specialists. Without the two of us, I didn't think I could meet the demanding schedule.

I wish somone would have explained to me how I could have grown that little publishing business into a 'really' big business...it could have started something great! But no one did. Not one ounce of encouragement or advice from anyone I knew.

A few years later, after college, I got married. Then you know- got responsibilities too.

I now have four children, two homes, private schools for my 2 older sons and more. But I quit a $50,000 a year job to start my sixth business (I started my fifth when I was about 27, but it really was unremarkeable and not worth mentioning).

Did I take leave of my senses or win the lottery or somonething that gave me enough courage to leave a secure $50,000 a year job with good benefits to start another business when I had already failed five times previously?

Was I completely out of my mind to risk my children's future and possibly even my marrige?

Or did I finally hit paydirt?

I started my sixth business 100% on the Internet in February 1998. By November 1999 I had enough cash to quit my job.

Now, I'm not going to tell you that it's been easy- it's been a lot of work. But it's been darn fun work...the kind of work that gets you excited to get up every morning.

I'm finally living my dream- working for myself.

I discovered two things that has made all the difference.

One, the Internet does more than help people communicate - it creates markets.

Second, if you want to find the key to making money on the Internet you have to look backwards in history- not forward.

Weird huh? I am totally serious. There is a lot of money to be made on the Internet- but you have to really understand these two ideas-

* The Internet creates natural markets;and
*To make money on the Internet you have to look back in time- not to the future.

So that's HOW it's different. Now why.

Many marketing professionals and entrpreneurs have already defined the Internet as simply a new form of television or radio...the prospect (that's you) sits back while they (that's them) deliver their speil and hope you buy something.

OK, who am I to question their authority? Who am I to have a completely different view of the Internet?

I don't have a Harvard MBA. In fact I quit college in my third year.

I'm not a marketing professional.

I'm not famous.

I'm just a guy.

A guy with a vision.

Oh yeah, did I mention, I also make my living 100% on the Internet and support 4 kids and a wife and two homes.

But that's it. I'm truly nobody special.

So why should you listen to a word I say?

Because I'm just like you...I'm so like you I could be YOU!

I'm pretty normal in every respect- but I did it- I started a business on the Internet and it's working.

Remember that when I was starting all my businesses I never had anyone to help me...show me how to grow what I started...or show me another way?

I turned out to be the person I wish had helped me.

My only regret is that I wish I had a mentor that could have saved me 23 years- and told me how to have my own business, and really make it work, at age 20. But- it's not too late...I happy.

What young person can you deliver this message to today?

LOL :-)

- Dave


How I Teach Others To Be Independant

Dave ~

As a rule I don't post on many forums, but I do "lurk" on quite a few of them. Many of them carry a sit-com qualitiy and could make a TV writer rich! (If they don't strike!)

With all of the tapes I listen to, books I read, sites I visit that involve some type of either sales and marketing or motivational overtones... Your post above could be a foreward to most books.

Nicely done Dave...

Success and Regards... Mike

Hi Dave,

That was an excellent post! And I also loved the story of your 14 year old (further down the forum) too!

Like you, I didn't really learn anything about entrepreneurship from my parents, because this is not their area of expertise. (They both have mainly worked in education.)

However, they did teach me about what they knew, and for that I'm quite grateful. :)

One thing your post shows is that there are MANY opportunities out there not currently being exploited by others....

Most successful businesses seem to fall into one of two categories....

There are the high volume, low margin type businesses. These are the discounters, they want to sell lots of stuff to you at a low cost, and make their money on volume. Supermarkets follow this model, and any kind of mass-production company tends to follow this business model too. Online, this is the kind of strategy Amazon.com seems to follow....

The other approach is the low volume, high margin type of business. These are the "niche" markets, such as you mention on your web site. The idea here is that the market for the product is smaller, but the business can still thrive because it works on higher margins. That is, there are fewer customers, but the profit-per-customer is higher....

This second approach is ALL OVER THE PLACE in successful businesses on the internet. The internet seems to be a natural place for niche businesses, like mail-order is too....

The reason why is because you could open up a specialty store to provide gourmet hot sauces (for example) in your area, but there may not be enough people enthusiastic about gourmet hot sauces there to make the business viable....

However, if you start a mail-order business or internet business selling gourmet hot sauces, you'll probably be able to find enough people for your business to thrive! (An example of a successful and profitable business which does this is www.hothothot.com ....)

Thanks Dave, I really enjoyed your posts, and your site looks like a great place too.... :)

- Dien Rice