Interview
MIKE CHEN
Highest Education Completed: High school
Year Started Business: 2002
Type Of Business: Software
Target Market: People without programming experience who want to create software applications
Number Of Employees: Six
Best Month (Gross Revenues): $87,000, from selling the Mark Joyner Farewell Package as an affiliate
Hours Worked Per Week During Startup Phase: "Very few, as I was also going to school and holding down a job. About 15 or so, maybe."
Hours Worked Per Week Now: "75 hours + because I'm building a single-focus, long-term serious business now. I see myself as more of a business builder now, rather than an entrepreneur."
Favorite Part Of The Job: "I love seeing people change their lives with the software I create. That's my greatest joy."
Least Favorite Part Of The Job: "Waiting for the results of marketing tests. I'm very impatient and I want to see results immediately."
Companies Admired: Mark Joyner's old Aesop.com, Google, and Toyota
Favorite Quotes:
Dream like you'll live forever, and live like you'll die tomorrow. -James Dean
Do or do not. There is no try. -Yoda
It is not possible to fail in this world. The only way you won't get to where you want to be is if you stop trying to get there. Until then, you're on your way. -Mike Chen
Special Business Achievements/Honors: "I am known to have created the first 'fly-in ads,' and the site I launched them from received over 4 million hits in the first five days of its launch. I was also the biggest seller of the Mark Joyner Farewell Package, selling over 300 copies. I also created the first Web page locking software on the Internet: WebLock Pro.
Months Before Achieving A Profit: "I lost a lot of money in my first few months and then reached profitability once I started creating products for myself and getting involved in affiliate programs that weren't scams."
ALAN BECHTOLD
Highest Education: High school with two years of trade school in printing
Year Started Business: 1984
Type Of Business: Internet marketing and publishing
Target Market: Self-employed/small-business owners in need of Internet marketing consulting and many categories of consumers for her e-book publishing division.
Number of employees: Seven
Best Month (Gross Revenues): $1.1 million
Hours Worked Per Week During Startup: About 65
Hours Worked Per Week Now: About 60
Favorite Part Of The Job: "This is two-fold, really. I LOVE creating products and writing the copy that sells them, first and foremost. Secondly, I LOVE speaking before an audience, meeting the people, and getting to know the other speakers."
Least Favorite Part Of The Job: Paperwork, taxes—boring and frustrating
Companies Admired:
* Microsoft—love/hate: LOVE their marketing and business savvy, HATE their products
* Dell Computer—BRILLIANT business plan and unique selling position, not to mention products well worth owning, for the most part
* Google—another BRILLIANT concept
* E-bay—yet another BRILLIANT concept
Favorite Quotes:
* Business is life on steroids. — T.J. Rohleder
* Wishes only come true in Disney movies. — Michael Wickett
* Eat your vegetables. — Alan's mom
Special Business Achievements/Honors: "My biggest achievement was a joint venture that brought me more than
$11 million in gross sales — including my highest-grossing month ever—over a four-year span, at no cost to me, and no risk besides being able to fulfill all the hundreds and hundreds of orders that were pouring in from my partner's list of customers."
Months Before Achieving A Profit: Five
A willingness to learn is essential—an unwillingness to give up, and the intelligence to know when to move on.
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