I had the chance to interview SunBug Solar, one of their green loan pioneers and see how these loans work in real life and how the green businesses are expanding month by month:

Cristian: Hi Cheney, welcome on www.entrepreneurship-interviews.com. You’re running a green business. What is it about?
Cheney: Solar energy for residents and small business.

Cristian: Where is the business located and what’s the typical customer?
Cheney: The business is Somerville, sunny Somerville that is and our typical customer is a home owner interested in:

a. saving money

b. energy independence or

c. doing the right thing in regards to the environment.

Actually, our customers usually represent a blend of the above ‘typical’ customer profiles, but if I had to describe our customers, id describe them that way. In addition, our typical customer owns their own house or business. The political will and subsequent laws/mechanics are not in place yet to enable non-property owners to take advantage of solar power

Cristian: How did you come up with the idea?
Cheney: Its not an idea so much as an emerging market place. Energy has been a cornerstone of our economy for a long time, and solar power is simply an alternative energy source to oil, but one which is gain traction as the issues around oil get worse and worse.

Cristian: Is it complicated to start a green business nowadays? And are green businesses sure to succeed because of the green movement or the same rules apply as for any other business?
Cheney: It is never easy to start a business. New businesses are stressful, time consuming, and the best thought out business plan is useless and outdated as soon as the business starts. There is nothing about the green movement that makes this business easier or more certain than any other. In fact, similar to the music business, there are more people interested in getting into it because they are passionate about it, so it quickly becomes crowded. So, the same rules apply. New businesses are tough.

Cristian: Why should families and businesses implement solar systems? What are the benefits?
Cheney: there are tons of benefits. There are financial benefits – your energy price is know and stable vs the energy price of most alternatives – your energy source is clean – our home will increase in value etc.

Cristian: Are there any downsides?
Cheney: Sure. Solar systems are expensive. And some people think they are ugly.

Cristian: What is the average cost of implementing a solar energy system for an average US house?
Cheney: Electric systems average 30-40thousand dollars. Much of that money is returned in the form of rebates and tax credits, but the upfront cash outlay is in that neighborhood. Thermal systems are less expensive (and effect a smaller portion of your utility bills), maybe in the neighborhood of 10k

Cristian: And from your estimations, what is the typical amortization timeframe?
Cheney: Good word. Most people ask what the payback is. The lifespan of a solar electric system is north of 30 years so we do our return calculations based on 30 years, and we generally think of it as an investment with a return – and those returns can be anywhere between 8 and 20%. And, ironically, the largest factor affecting those returns isn’t where you are in the country or how much sun you get, the largest factor is the current price of electricity, which is very high in New England, and how much you predict that price to escalate in the coming years.

Cristian: To clearly show the benefits of going green, what would be the average monthly savings on energy for a family house?
Cheney: We target 90% of a customer electric bill. Sometime it’s less because of limited roof space or finances, but usually we can get to 90% of the electric utility bill. Now, the size of that bill varies dramatically based on the house size. The department of energy has good data on average electric utility consumption

Cristian: Is it complicated to install a solar system on an already build house?
Cheney: No. The paperwork is hard – rebate, utility interconnection, permitting – but the actual installation isn’t that hard. It’s specialized, but not that hard.

Cristian: How different is to run a green business from running a typical business?
Cheney: It’s not different, other than customers are typically very excited about their purchase, so customer interaction is generally very satisfying

Cristian: Are there any incentives from the local authorities?
Cheney: There are. And they are constantly changing. I’m not even going to mention them because they will change before I finish this interview. That’s part of the problem. Businesses need stable, predictable incentives to make appropriate investments, without that stability, real business momentum won’t happen. I hope the regulators and lawmakers, who are well meaning, understand this as they continue to develop incentive programs.

Cristian: How did the crisis affect the green businesses? Are people thinking about green as a way to cut costs?
Cheney: Yup. But the sticker price is too big for a knee jerk reaction. It’s a researched purchase and investment in your home, so the crisis doesn’t really affect our business.

Cristian: You have recently taken an inventory loan from ACCION USA – a non-profit microfinance organization that offers a green loan program. How did you find about them?
Cheney: We found Accion through a referral from Dorchester Bay EDC in a SBA (small business association) loan search
We pushed on a bunch of doors and the Accion door opened. They were very helpful, and spent the time necessary to understand our business

Cristian: Is it complicated to apply for a loan as a green business? What was the process in your case?
Cheney: It was less complicated than expected; the process was really about getting the necessary things to Accion so they could understand the nature of the business, and about the personal guarantee.

Cristian: What were the main advantages of ACCION USA green loan program?
Cheney: They were local and responsive!

Cristian: Talking about financing, are there any financing options for families and businesses that want to go green?
Cheney: Very few, unfortunately. Some companies and some banks are trying to figure that out. If they do, everyone will benefit, but there aren’t solutions yet (Back to the stability in the incentive program question – banks REALLY need stability)

Cristian: How do you feel about the future of the green industry? Why it’s not mainstream yet?
Cheney: Change is slow, and there is still a feeling that it’s not cost effective (it is). It takes time to change perceptions. But the cost of alternative energy continues to improve relative to fossils fuels, and the awareness continues to build. I’m looking forward to a mature industry.

Cristian: And your plans for the future?
Cheney: Ski when it snows. Play with my son. Grow this small startup business into a mid-sized stable and profitable business. Then write a symphony.

We are now working as a Media Network that conducts surveys and publishes them, we deliver news in three languages: Japanese, German and English and receive a massive amount of traffic (reaching 3 million users each month) working with revenue models like CPA, CPM, CPC and other classical advertising campaigns.

The idea behind Bloginity was simple. Our network believes in the importance of dialogue and of sharing views. We believe that everyone has the right for self-expression, freedom of thoughts and deserves to be heard. Although today we deliver more news reports then actual opinions we still make sure to deliver the same content that spark and enrich and stimulate people’s lives. I believe it adds meaning to our lives, and that’s why it should be treated with utmost care and respect.

Cristian: So it’s a classical online business. What do you need to start an online business nowadays? Do you need to be a technical person?
Daniel: It is, it’s a classical online business however we are not just a ‘blog’ or a ‘news website’ we like to refer to ourselves as an online magazine. We incorporate the same advertising tactics as if they were made for offline advertising. I think to start an online business you must be online-savvy. A few good advices I was told were Learn from others, stop thinking big, and focus your efforts.

As far for technicality goes, if you know PHP, HTML and CSS you can save a lot of money knowing exactly what needs to be fixed and how to express yourself when something needs to move elsewhere. Understanding what is a good solution for a business (using Tumblr, WordPress or Blogger) can be a very hard decision to make and people quick to think that and choose the wrong one. Doing SEO for the company is a very very important aspect and letting someone else do your SEO might backfire, it is basically like you are handing your balls to them, literally.

Cristian: You used to work as a freelancer/employee in New York. How did you decide to start your own company?
Daniel: I’ve been doing online work ever since I can remember myself. If it’s finding the latest schemes how to run bots in old Blizzard games and collaborating with online forums that create communities of traders. Every job I went to I took that talent with me, of understanding how the Internet works, of understanding that when I arrive to a website – that website is owned by someone, who probably designed it and controls the content. Nothing is ‘generic’.

While practicing SEO these past few years I managed to bring great results, which like you mentioned got me to collaborate with big industry name companies. Understanding what SEO can do for you was the best gift I could ever ask for. That’s pretty much when I started optimizing my own sites and developed affiliate skills while creating landing pages for better CR. It’s a gift, there is no say – but I truly believe that SEO people are not born doing SEO. It is something you can learn, and learn well.

Cristian: You mentioned you have 2 partners on whom you know you can rely: Brian Willett from USA and Ben Xie from Hong Kong. How important is to have skilled partners for a business?
Daniel: In the past a leader was a boss. Today’s leader must be a partner with their people; they no longer can lead solely based on positional power. Having Brian Willett and Benjamin Tse by my side is probably the best thing Bloginity Networks has ever seen. Their ability to brainstorm, put the idea together within 48 hours is unbelievable.

Brian joined us as a journalist; I noticed his skill within the first weeks. He was eager to learn about SEO, and how to optimize his content to be better. Every article he wrote was receiving 50 comments if not more. Today Brian serves as a company executive, CCO (Chief Communication Officer) he is in charge of pretty much the entire staff, every article that goes into our network, every press that goes out, he is in charge of content development and also has a say in every change to our network.

Benjamin, who read my SEO blog decided to reach out and try to optimize his very small-scaled WordPress blog. I don’t know what made me hand him my Skype name but when I saw his blog, and realized he designed it I was almost left in some sort of a awe. Within the first 48 hours him and me kicked it and started putting together mock ups of what ended up being the Bloginity Networks. With large help from the Gabfire Themes team we managed to do a great collaboration and designed a one-of-a-kind WordPress template that is so advanced it is absolutely mind blowing.

There are a few of things I recommend to those who are looking for partners

1. Know what you need
2. Look in the right places
3. Hire a lawyer
4. Be very picky
5. Assign roles and stick to them.

Cristian: Having a partner, how is this different from having a regular employee?
Daniel: It is not so different in our case. We have the Chief titles, I am the company CEO and they both report to me, and have employees working under them. It is just like having a manager – It’s just that they do their job in such superior level that they deserve to have company options.

Cristian: Do you think your company has roots in you playing games as a child? (Daniel told me he was a gaming addict). I’m asking because sometimes parents don’t feel like gaming will influence their children life for the better.
Daniel: I think that playing games surely got me being an internet-savvy person, and lead me to learn HTML, PHP etc.

Cristian: What are the most important revenue models for an online business like http://www.bloginity.com/ ?
Daniel: Advertising, without a second thought. There are many ways you can do revenue streams for an online business like CPA, CPM, CPC (all very similar) you can do full page advertising (which falls into the advertising folder as well) and you can also do music revenue, collaborations, sponsorships, partnerships.

If I could recommend anyone what it is that you need to learn before opening a site like ours it would be: define your audience – and then be sure that it is a good audience to advertise to.

Cristian: Since starting up, how many employees you hired?
Daniel: I keep on talking about these business advices that I’m getting and following. It is a really great article written by entrepreneur Neil Patel, ‘Business Advice in three words’ (ref: http://www.quicksprout.com/2010/02/03/business-advice/) he reminded me of a very old saying

1) Hire employees slowly
2) Fire bad employees

But as for your question – our network has hired approximately 35 contractors, and 4 full-time employees.

Cristian: What are the most important http://www.bloginity.com/ topics?
Daniel: We recently ran a very interesting survey about this topic. We write a lot about Celebrity Scandals and let’s face it Americans love their celebrity gossip and nothing seems to dominate the headlines like a scandal involving a famous actor, athlete, musician or politician. According to a new survey we ran more than half of American adults (52%) said they feel validated when a celebrity is sent to jail, feeling the punishment fits the crime committed. Just 24 percent of adults surveyed said they are surprised to learn about a celeb going to jail because they normally don’t receive harsh punishment for their crimes, while 17 percent feel disappointed in the star that’s a role model for children.

56 percent of Americans prefer to read about celebrity crime to any other celebrity scandal, including celebrities entering rehab or making and distributing sex tapes. You can read more in this press release in Yahoo! Finance (ref link http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Bloginity-Networks-Survey-bw-3467385107.html?x=0)

Cristian: What about the typical consumer of your content? How does the demographic looks like?
Daniel: We target female audience, 18 – 35 mainly industry people who are either bloggers, or live the celebrity lives. We’ve had so many times cases to which we wrote about a celebrity and their management called us up to include a different image (a more recent one) or ask us to remove some content, or even give us a feedback and let us know that they liked the article. So we are sure our audience are either the celebrities themselves, their management, the webmasters, and everyone else who comes from Google News and other referring sites. Our demographics are the biggest in the English speaking nations: USA, Canada, UK an also big in Germany and Japan. (as we’ve launched in different languages, http://japan.bloginity.com and http://de.bloginity.com)

Cristian: How does http://www.bloginity.com/ differentiates from other similar sites? What makes people come back?
Daniel: I like to think our cool way of reporting news, our staff and because we create our own personal unique opinion and reports. People share the same thoughts, we always leave room for more thoughts and our readers love that. They also love to communicate with us via comments – and we always reply back. Our web design is unique, our topics are great and we are just rocking it!

Cristian: Just to give people an idea could you share the most important metrics of your traffic?
Daniel: Surely, in a report we recently published about June 2010 we had a string of successes for our Network. As of June 2010 we were pleased to share encouraging news in terms of our company’s health. In the past months we have seen a steady growth, with revenue and readership increasing beyond even our most optimistic expectations. Our focus on efficiently producing high quality unique content has helped us stand out among our peers. The most important metric is bounce rate, and page view per person which we are struggling to achieve (our goal is 13 pages per person) and we are now on 5.3 and bounce rate is low as 10.1%

Cristian: Online is still a new business. Does the educational system prepared skilled workers for this? Or it’s something you should learn on your own?
Daniel: Cristian, I’m a high school drop out. The educational system did not teach me anything! Besides, from talking to all my friends that are the same age as me it seems like the educational system left them hanging to the moment where they need to figure everything out – themselves. You should learn your own – however, I don’t encourage people to leave high school or college. If I could I would stay there and learn but I am not eager to study, I like to teach.

Cristian: Daniel, how old are you? And is online a business only available to young people?
Daniel: I’m 22 years old; it is available to anyone who is willing to work hard.

Cristian: At the age of 16 you moved to America to consume the American Dream.  Is the American Dream still possible during the crisis?
Daniel: I won’t lie, the past two years have been very rough especially to start a business and now it’s hard to maintain it. But we are a great team and we are pushing forward and succeeding.

Cristian: Any plans for the future?
Daniel: We are planning to expand our network, partner with more blogs and recruit more authors and create a beautiful and reliable network for both readers and advertisers to join. We recently launched the network’s homepage; http://www.bloginity.net there is lots of information to be learned there about us, and about our staff.

Cristian: Hi Kevin, welcome on board. Tell us a few words about yourself.

Kevin:  When I was a teenager I took a job working at a hotel owned by a couple who had come to the US from Eastern Europe.  I learned a tremendous amount from them about how to run a successful business.  During the 10 years I worked for them the number of rooms in the hotel increased from just over 100 to more than 400 (including a second property they built next door).  This experience triggered a life-long fascination with entrepreneurship and the factors associated with small business success and failure.  I am trained as a scientist and have managed to combine my interests in science and entrepreneurship in a business that designs and conducts clinical trials to tests food and pharmaceutical products.

Cristian: You recently published a book on entrepreneurship.  I’ve read the book, but for the readers, what is the book about?

Kevin:  I have spent more than 25 years studying entrepreneurs, as well as running my own businesses and business units within larger organizations.  These experiences have led me to the conclusion that there are several reliable predictors of business success and failure.  A majority of new businesses don’t last five years.  My book is about strategies and tactics that the small business owner can use to tip the odds of success in his or her favor.  For that reason I called the book Tipping the Odds for the Entrepreneur:  Big Ideas on Success for the Small Business Owner.

Cristian: Who should read your book? Start-up entrepreneurs? Managers willing to improve their business?

Kevin:  Anyone who owns a business or is considering starting a business would benefit from the information in my book.  Also, those who run a department or a business unit within a larger organization would likely find the information helpful.

Cristian:  I would say that your book it’s mostly about doing the business the right way. Maybe with smaller immediate profits but with great benefits on the long run. Do you think the knowledge shared in the book is also applicable to start-ups (that we all know they focus mostly in making to the end of the month).

Kevin:  In my view, the purpose of a business is to obtain and retain profitable customers.  In general, businesses who market their products or services well and who deliver good value to their customers will thrive.  Value means that the customer will feel that what he or she paid was worth it for the product or service delivered.  Many customers are happy to pay a premium price if the resulting experience meets or exceeds their expectations.  Expectations will be different for customers of a Holiday Inn Express compared to those of a Ritz Carlton hotel, but either can deliver good or poor customer value depending on the price charged and how well they do at setting and then meeting (or exceeding) their customers’ expectations.

Business owners are often faced with decisions that have both short and long-term consequences.  Every interaction a business has with a customer or potential customer will either enhance or detract from the strength of the relationship with that person.  Successful business owners have a long-term perspective.  They will focus on doing what is right for the customer and do so in a manner that will strengthen the relationship.  They will not take advantage of customers for their own short-term gain.  There is an old expression that says a sheep can give you a lot of sweaters, but only one coat.  Successful business owners focus on building the relationships with their customers so they keep coming back and recommending the company to their friends and colleagues.

Cristian:  Are the business principles described in the book only applicable to the US?

Kevin:  I have tried to focus on key concepts (the “big ideas”) that are applicable no matter where the business is located.

Cristian: So what are the traits of a successful entrepreneur? What tips the odds?

Kevin:  Some characteristics of a successful entrepreneur include dogged persistence, a willingness to delay gratification, a bias toward action (rather than analysis paralysis), and a reasonable understanding of one’s personal strengths and weaknesses.  I cover these in detail in the book, which may be helpful to someone who is considering starting a business.

Cristian:  What do you think, entrepreneurs are born or made?

Kevin:  In my opinion, the skills necessary to become a successful small business owner are learnable.  However, some people are more likely to be successful than others.  Those most likely to be successful tend to be optimists who will keep pushing ahead in the face of obstacles and setbacks.  They also tend to be obsessed with providing the best possible experience for their customers.  Owning a business is not a 9 to 5 endeavor, so those who are unwilling to go to extreme lengths should probably not start a business.  One of the entrepreneurs I profile in the book, Seattle Sutton, Founder of Seattle Sutton’s Healthy Eating, would run relatively low-cost commercials on late-night television.  She would set her alarm for 1:30 or 2:00 am so that she could be available to answer the telephone herself when a commercial ran.  That is the kind of dedication that is often required of a successful entrepreneur.

Cristian: From your findings, what are the traits of successful businesses?

Kevin: Successful businesses come in all varieties.  In general, successful businesses deliver a product or service for which there is a demand, they market their product or service effectively (the best product or service offering will be unsuccessful without adequate promotion), they do a good job of setting customer expectations, and they execute in a way that meets or exceeds their customers’ expectations.  The result is what I refer to as a SLEEC business.  SLEEC stands for a business with good Sales and marketing that has Loyal and Engaged Employees and Customers.

Cristian: When you are small and need to hire on a budget, what are the most important things to look at?  Skills, desire to work, price?

Kevin: Price (salary) is an important consideration, but I am much more concerned about value than price.  The Pereto or 80/20 principle applies to employees.  Typically a small percentage of employees (perhaps 20%) will account for a large percentage of productivity and positive outcomes (perhaps 80%).  It is not always possible to tell ahead of time which will be the high producers.  Once a high producer is identified, he or she should be rewarded with money, recognition and extra training to allow them to take on more responsibilities.  It is also important for all employees to truly accept the company’s mission and commitment to customer service.  I like to say that our company has high turnover in the first few months and low turnover thereafter.  The high turnover in the first few months results from weeding out the people who are difficult to work with, have poor customer service skills that do not respond to efforts at correction or who just don’t fit with the mission and values of the company.

Cristian: Controlling how your employees are working with customers is very hard when you have a large business. How can you make sure your customers are getting the right treatment?

Kevin:  It is imperative that everyone in your company is friendly and devoted to providing exceptional customer service.  Rude, apathetic, or condescending interactions will result in lost customers and such behavior cannot be tolerated.  It is up to the owner and his or her managers to ensure that the staff understands what is expected and is held accountable for this level of performance.  Good training and regular feedback will help to ensure that everyone knows what is expected.  It is also a good idea to elicit feedback from customers and even to employ “undercover evaluators” to evaluate the customer experience and provide feedback and suggestions for improvement.  The old saying that the way a manager treats his staff will be reflected in the way the staff treats the customers is absolutely true.  Successful performance and achievements should be acknowledged and celebrated.  Staff should feel challenged and that the management cares about each of them as individuals.  Management should regularly elicit feedback on what can be done to minimize frustrations and provide the tools necessary to get the job done.  Happy staff members will help to generate happy customers and disgruntled staff members will generate disgruntled customers.  It pays to keep your employees “gruntled” (which I presume to be the opposite of disgruntled).

Cristian: On delegation. I know from my own experience that as an entrepreneur is very hard to delegate. What’s your advice? What should be delegated, what should be outsourced?

Kevin:   Many entrepreneurs find delegation difficult.  However, once a company grows beyond a certain (relatively small) size, it becomes impossible to manage it effectively without substantial delegation.  It is impossible to devote adequate time to working “one the business” if one is spending all of his or her time “in the business.”  Delegation is easier if one takes the time to adequately train staff members.  Checklists are an enormous help and have been shown to reduce errors in many settings ranging from auto repairs to hospital emergency rooms.  High performers should be tasked with training and system development to improve the effectiveness of average performers.

Cristian: You say in the book that doing layoffs should be the last resort in saving money. From my experience (unfortunately) sometimes you don’t realize you should downsize until is too late.  So how do you know when it’s the latest moment to let people go?

Kevin:  Some wise person said that good judgment results from experience and experience results from lacking good judgment.  There is no formula that I know of for telling a business owner when it is time to institute layoffs.  Other strategies can be tried first, such as asking for volunteers to reduce hours and take vacation time.  Also, layoffs can sometimes be avoided by not over-hiring in the first place.  Peaks and valleys are inevitable, so staffing for something in between is best with temporary help, “as needed” staff, or outsourcing used to cover peak periods.  If layoffs are inevitable, it is best to err on the side of cutting too many people rather than not enough.  This avoids the need for repeated rounds of layoffs, which can be quite damaging to morale.

Cristian: I must say I enjoyed your view on working on one’s strong points/ weak points. If I understood correctly, you say people should improve their strong points and work and make a passing grade on the weak points?

Kevin:  Peter Drucker, who is often acknowledged as the father of the business management as a social science, emphasized that good managers play to the strengths of their employees and manage around weaknesses to make them irrelevant.  This applies to self-management for the owner.   If one understands his or her personal strengths and weaknesses, strategies can be employed to leverage the strengths and work around the weaknesses through delegation, partnering or outsourcing.  That way the owner can focus more of his or her time on high value activities, particularly new business development.

Cristian: Where could people wanting to become entrepreneurs learn about running a business?

Kevin:  There are many good resources available, including your web site, www.entrepreneurship-interviews.com.  A particularly good resource for those in the US is the Service Corp of Retired Executives, (SCORE) which is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and helping small businesses start, grow and succeed nationwide. Entrepreneur magazine is a good resource and they have a publishing division that produces useful materials.  Also, there is no substitute for experience in the field.  Unless the business is intended to provide a new type of product or service, I recommend investing the time to work directly in the field as an employee to “learn the ropes” before venturing out on one’s own.

Cristian: What would be your advice for people looking to start a business that are afraid to start or wait for a “better moment?”

Kevin:  While it is certainly prudent to prepare for starting a new venture by saving money and learning everything one can about the field before launch, I have known many people who talked about starting a business for years but never got past the planning stage.  Starting a business is similar to starting a family.  If one waits for all of the stars to align in just the right way, that day may never come.  Many successful businesses have been started as part-time ventures while working at a job.   For anyone interested in starting a company, I recommend taking some action every day toward that goal.  Initial progress may be frustratingly slow, especially if these activities have to be done during evenings and weekends while working full-time.  Nevertheless, no matter how big the tree, a few whacks every day with a sharp axe will eventually bring it down.

Cristian: What makes it different from other t-shirt companies?
Jeremy:  We are focused on organizations and licensed institutions (Baseball teams, universities etc.)  I like to think of VoteForArt.com as more of a marketing and promotion site than really a t-shirt company.  We are allowing these organizations the ability to really engage their supporters and market themselves in a more organic way, and at the end of the contest (usually 2 months from start to finish) they will also have a proven design that they know will sell well.  Its a win-win for the organization.  The artists who use our platform, get huge exposure that wouldn’t be possible on other t-shirt platforms.  We had a contest for the fan football tee for Oregon State, the winning design has been on the front page of the Oregon State Bookstore for over two months and will be worn by the entire student body.

Cristian: How exactly does it work? Who orders the t-shirts, who makes the designs and who prints them?
Jeremy: It is very simple 1.  VoteForArt.com sets up a contest page for a specific organization. 2.  The artists follow specific contest guidelines and submits designs.  3.  The organization selects the top 10-15 designs that they feel are the best.  4.  The designs are posted to VoteForArt.com to be voted on by the organizations fan base and the VFA community.  5.  Based on the votes, the organization selects the winning design.  6.  The winning design sells at the organizations retail location and/or our site.

Our Factory in the US produces all of the merchandise.

Cristian: You had a previous business (in the t-shirts industry) that didn’t go that well. What did you learned from this failure?
Jeremy:  I don’t like to think that my previous experience was a failure.  I made some amazing connections and I learned a lot.   With Tees and Tats (my previous t-shirt business), we launched right before the recession (obviously we didn’t know what was going to happen).  Not the best time to launch a high-end t-shirt line.   But we were making it work, our sales were continuing to grow.  I was faced with the opportunity to run voteForArt.com, which I felt considering the partnership we formed with MV Sport and the economy that it was a better decision for me to make.

Cristian: Have you ever applied for a job?
Jeremy:  I applied for a few summer jobs during college, working at different retail stores and political campaigns, but nothing since Jr year of college.

Cristian: So is it better to look for a job after college or if you have an idea, to start your own business, even if you don’t have a lot of experience?
Jeremy:  For me there is nothing better than taking an idea and turning into a real business.  It is a lot more stressful, but It is a lot more rewarding.

Cristian: What is the most notable success so far for Vote For Art?
Jeremy:  We launched in January 2010 and we have already held over 25 contests for major organizations including ASU, University of Wisconsin, University of Maryland, Purdue University, Oregon State, Reno Aces, Moondance Jam Rock Festival to name a few.  We have partnered with top licensing company MV Sport.  We are growing naturally without spending any money on marketing.

Cristian: How many employees do you have?
Jeremy:  I have two employees

Cristian: Probably one of the first things you had to invest when starting Vote for Art was the website. Is it made in-house or outsourced?
Jeremy:  It was outsourced, but we were lucky that the programmer lived a few blocks away from me so it was more of a collaborative process.

Cristian: As an entrepreneur, do you have to know the technical part of the online business if you want to start something that relies of a website?
Jeremy:  I definitely think it helps, but it is not a must.  You will learn a lot on the job and you will pick up more coding terms than you would ever want to know.

Cristian:  I know from your other interviews that it was very important to have contacts with MV Sport owners that had license and a distribution network to sell in college bookstores. So how important is to have a network of people in your industry?
Jeremy:  It is very important. The more people you know in the industry, the easier it is to get things done.  Having the connection will not answer all of your problems, but sometimes just getting in the door is the hardest part and then you need to really sell what you are doing.

Cristian: Any advice for young people willing to start a business?
Jeremy:  Do something that you are passionate about, because when things don’t work out the way you planned and your business doesn’t take off instantly like you dreamed it would, you still need to feel that with hard work you can make it successful.  If you don’t have that passion, your business will never work.

Cristian: How do you market a company like yours? Which are the most effective marketing techniques when you start small?
Jeremy:  We haven’t spent any real money marketing Vote For Art.  We paid a hundred dollars here and there to test out some future marketing initiatives but nothing significant.  I think the best way to market a small business is to tap into the blog network/ video sharing sites where your users are hanging out.  For us it has been a little easier, because every organization that signs up with us has their own marketing initiatives.  But really what it comes down to is the more you put yourself out their the better results you will have.

Cristian: What about the legal implications of running a small business? Where could one get advice on tax and law?
Jeremy:  I was fortunate to have the MV Sport lawyers help us out.  But there are always lawyers willing to work for small equity or differed payment.

Cristian: Most people are afraid their business won’t work. What is your advice for them?
Jeremy:  Make sure before you start that you believe in your business.  You should never go into something without feeling passionate about it.  You need to feel that you can make it successful.  If you are confident in your business that go for it.  What’s the worst that could happen?  an important learning experience that you can apply to all future challenges.

Cristian: Any plans for the future?
Jeremy:  We are launching contests for blogs, magazines, film festivals, music festivals.  We are adding products (hats, sweatshirts etc) and we are going to make this the easiest and least expensive platform for all organizations big or small to market them selves to their supporters (or future supporters).  For the cost of buying merchandise, these organizations will have two free months of promotion and will have a proven design that they know will sell well.  There is no reason that any organization who sells merchandise or wants to sell merchandise should not use our proven model.

Raymond: My name is Raymond Lei. I’m a 19 year old student at UC Berkeley, and I own the business ooShirts.com. ooShirts is an online custom t-shirt printing business. I started the company when I was 16. I was ordering t-shirts for my high school group, and while dealing with a few of the companies that sold them, I saw that the industry could be made more efficient.
Cristian: What is your typical customer?

Raymond: My customers are people who want t-shirts for their group or event. We sell to people all around the United States.

Cristian: What are the main advantages that set you apart from the competition?

Raymond: We sell the same product, but provide them to customers faster and at a lower price. Our prices are 30 to 50 percent lower. If you order 24 white shirts with a custom 1 color design, for example, you can at $4.17 each. And that’s with free shipping.

Cristian: You are on a path to grow your business to $1million in revenue this year. How does a million sounds for the business started when you were 16? Did you expect it to grow that far?

Raymond: No, I didn’t expect it to grow this far at the very beginning. It actually started off as an offline business – I went from classroom to classroom at my high school selling shirts to the organizations there. But it wasn’t until a year later that I launched a website and began working online.

Cristian: What made your business so successful?

Raymond: Our prices are lower, and it’s not because our products are lower quality. Our business is more efficient than our competition – we have 20 suppliers around the US, we have outsourced programming in India, and advanced order automation tools. As a result, we can focus our spending more on our product and less on everything else.

Cristian: Did you have the family support for this?

Raymond: My parents approve of what I’m doing, but have not financially contributed to it.

Cristian: I suppose at 16 you have little experience on how to run a business. Where did you get advice on how to run a business?

Raymond: A lot of business is common sense. You have to provide a product that people truly want. For my business, this is low prices, and I’ve been able to do this well. I haven’t received much advice from other people, but rather studied existing well-run businesses and learned what I could from them.

Cristian: How did you have your first order done? You took the order and went to a printing center to do the shirts?

Raymond: I actually started out importing from China. I had went to China the previous summer and made a few friends there. I contacted them, and basically had them buy custom t-shirts from a local place and ship them over. However, a few months later, I stopped importing and switched back to the United States because I was able to find some good suppliers here.

Cristian:  How many employees you currently have? And how was the hiring process?

Raymond: Two. They are two high-school friends who were looking for a full-time job. I knew who they were and what they were capable of, so it wasn’t difficult to make the decision.

Cristian:  How important is to start a business while you’re young? What are the risks?

Raymond: I think it’s best to start when you’re young. When you get out of college, you need to have a steady income to maintain a decent standard of living, and starting a business does not guarantee this. But when you’re in high school or college, you have the free time to work on your own projects without risking your standard of living.

Cristian: You told me that you are outsourcing overseas the shirts production and the website development. How did you find your partners and how did you make sure they deliver good quality?

Raymond: For the shirts from China, I had a friend who knew a trustworthy local company. Right now, for the shirts, I have my printers send me sample shirts with my logo on it. It was most difficult to find a quality team for website development. It took a long time to talk with many different programming teams to determine who was right for the job.

Cristian: Do your college colleagues know you’re running a business? What do they think about this?

Raymond: Yes, they do. Many people claim to own a business, so simply knowing someone runs a business isn’t that spectacular. But for the closer friends that do know about how my business works, they are always interested.

Cristian: How did the crisis affect your business? Any tips for entrepreneurs having a hard time?

Raymond: I don’t think it affected it. If anything, it was good for business, since customers would want to look for businesses that provide lower prices. All businesses are different, so I don’t have much advice for businesses having trouble, but as a general rule, be efficient.

Cristian: What would be your advices for teens wanting to start a business?

Raymond: Believe in yourself.

Cristian: What about the legal requirements when running a business? How difficult is for a young entrepreneur to keep up with the legal stuff?

Raymond: There are enough resources online to teach anyone about anything. It’s not so much a matter of difficulty learning as it is a matter of time.

Cristian: Most people are afraid they won’t have a good enough idea to start a business. What is your advice for them?

Raymond: If you don’t think your idea is good, don’t start a business based off of it. That’s common sense. But if you truly believe you have a good idea, and you have a good sense of how you’re going to make it happen, then step forward and make it a reality.

Cristian:  Any plans to expand further or maybe start a new business?

Raymond: I think ooShirts is far from its maximum potential. We have less than 1% of the market share, but also have what I believe to be the best product offering. So we can still grow 100 times larger.