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Friday Entrepreneurs: Charlotte Genevier, SocialEngine

February 1 12 Comments latest by sanjana

The Friday Entrepreneur series continues.

Today, read about Charlotte Genevier, a Friday Entrepreneur who’s co-founded multiple companies (including her current one, SocialEngine). Below, learn how:

  • She sold her first company for $90,000 in 2007
  • She launched her second company with a monthly advertising budget of $600
  • The five biggest mistakes she made (including delegating)
  • The advice I gave her, which helped to increase traffic by 300% and increase sales by over 50%

* * *

How did you get started founding a tech company?
First, I met Alex, who became my co-founder. Alex had an eye for design and a strong business sense as he’d already worked on several projects of his own, while I had a love of (and talent for) math and programming. Though I do help out with many of the business decisions, Alex handles all the marketing, customer and employee management. Similarly, while Alex does much of the front-end design for our products, I plan and program the the products’ back-end.

Looking back, how were you able to get started with no money?
As high school students, we were lucky to have virtually zero living expenses and time constraints. Because of the non-capital-intensity of this field, all we needed to get started was a few dollars a month for web hosting and our own time, which we gladly spent programming instead of playing video games. We officially established our company, Webligo Developments in March 2003. Every time we released a new product, we learned a little more about software development, customer relations, and the fundamental aspects of business.

So tell us about BlogHoster, your second company.
Though BlogHoster earned us about $175,000 during its first two years, we eventually sold it in the summer of 2007 for $90,000 to UK-based Splashpress Media.

The backstory: We spent the greater part of 2004 planning and developing BlogHoster (a blog hosting service) in the typical garage-office fashion. We launched in December and saw immediate sales with only a bare-bones marketing budget. Over the next year, we added a slew of new features as well as a customer mod-sharing community that became surprisingly active. Slowly but surely, we started spending more time on BlogHoster and less time on our college coursework. We grabbed 300 square feet of office space in Pasadena and hired an intern from our high school to help keep everything together. Soon, we realized that BlogHoster had a lot of potential that would likely not be fully realized within our limited resources.

And now you’re working on SocialEngine.
SocialEngine is a white-label social network platform. Before Facebook, MySpace, and the like, personal blogs were all the rage on the web. In fact, they were arguably one of the first major iterations of social networks; websites like Livejournal and Xanga offered basic social networking features. We made BlogHoster to ride the wave of decentralization that always happens when a particular type of web service becomes popular. We created SocialEngine for the same reason. It is said that during the gold rush, the people who truly profited were the ones selling the tools. When modern social networking became in vogue, everyone wanted to be the next Facebook (it even made your
list of “8 Stupid Frat-Boy Business Ideas“). Truth be told, most of our customers are not trying to be the next big thing. Instead, they are using SocialEngine to unite people around a common characteristic or niche theme.

What’s different about SocialEngine?
One of SocialEngine’s most attractive features is that, like BlogHoster, it can be seamlessly branded and customized to match any website.

Here are a few examples of SocialEngine-powered sites:

How did you initially get users to try SocialEngine?
With an effort to be a bit less shy than we were with BlogHoster, we finally put together a decent advertising budget of about $600/month. We bought some ad inventory on Google, Yahoo, and Hotscripts.com, which brought in some immediate traffic. These types of ads give us an excellent ROI because our customers almost exclusively use search engines to find software like ours, and because the average SocialEngine sale was about $350 and paid for more than half of the month’s advertising budget. In my opinion, Adsense and other ad networks don’t make sense for many products, but they work magically for ours due to its price, the engagement channel that customers use (search engines), and the fact that all of our leads are already “warm.” We also wrote a press release and published it via PRweb.com. Despite being a tad sensationalist, it drew in quite a bit of attention.

What about pricing?
As kids, we always undercharged for our work. It went hand-in-hand with the awkwardness and insecurity of being teenagers. We also had virtually no costs (with no living expenses or office space, just pizza and Diet Coke), so it already felt like we were hitting the jackpot every month. As we transitioned from hobbyists to businesspeople, this obviously changed. For our first big project (the IMS Pro), we eventually took a deep breath and doubled the price.

While our profits increased only marginally, our customer support needs decreased substantially giving us time to begin planning our next project. That’s when we discovered that pricing can be an excellent resource-balancing tool, assuming you can find the equilibrium you’re looking for. Since then, we’ve often used pricing to adjust the flow of our projects. We generally begin with a low price to facilitate market penetration and to build a customer base of grateful, feedback-giving customers. Over the project’s arc we incrementally raise the price to match the added value of new features or to open up time for brainstorming.

Have you thought about raising outside money (angels, venture capitalists…)?
We’ve definitely thought about taking venture funding a number of times along the way. In fact, we’ve received several offers, including a recent one for SocialEngine. Sometimes it’s tough to say “no” since it seems like web startups are only judged based on their ability to attract funding, rather than their ability to turn a profit. We were only 14 and 16 when the Web 1.0 bubble burst, so the basic (yet then-ignored) concept that a company should actually have a business
model left a lasting impression on us. VC funding isn’t free money, and unless we have a need for a large amount of capital for a new project, we will continue funding ourselves organically. The scope of our projects have been relatively small to date, so perhaps VC funding will become a reality in the future as we need to hire more people, overlap projects and accelerate our growth.

What are the three biggest mistakes you made with your first companies?
Here are some of the more memorable ones:

1. Before SocialEngine, we offered our customers free upgrades and unlimited support for life. Yes, that’s as silly as it sounds. It reflects the disbelief we still had that people wanted to buy our software. This ultimately led to us being held at the whim of a few grumpy customers for quite some time. Needless to say, we now charge for installation, extended support, and new features since they are, in fact, substantial investments of our time and valuable to our
customers!

2. Another one of our big mistakes was poor money management. We let our profits pile up into a savings account that earned 1% interest, not even beating inflation. Although we can say that we were naive kids that didn’t even know what a mutual fund was, that’s only half the story. A much larger portion of that money could have been reinvested in the company, allowing us to grow much faster than we did. I think the main reason we left it in the bank account was the fear that our lucky streak would end at some point. When we finally realized that luck wasn’t the reason our projects were selling, we started to use the money more actively.

3. We used to be very shy about marketing. All our pre-SocialEngine projects had tiny marketing budgets (due to our fear of spending money) that bought ads on only one or two websites. With BlogHoster, our primary source of traffic was a single script-directory website on which we had a sponsored listing. We later discovered that our sales trends correlated directly with the traffic levels on that site. By putting all our eggs in one basket, we were left at the mercy of that company’s ability to attract traffic to it’s site. With such high profit margins and virtually non-existent operating costs, we should have been more bold and varied in our marketing instead of sticking with what we believed to be our “tried-and-true” methods. The lesson here is to avoid being timid when you have the resources to be bold!

I love hearing about these mistakes because they’re so instructive. How about more recently? What about the biggest mistake you’ve made with SocialEngine?
The biggest mistake we’ve made with SocialEngine is the length of time it took us to begin properly delegating. Because the company was just the two of us for so long, Alex and I had the mentality that we didn’t need help, even when we were swimming in support emails. We didn’t think another person could perform the tasks as well as we could, but we couldn’t continue adding new features to the product, manage marketing, answer pre-sale emails, and handle support all by ourselves. When we finally found a third member to add to our small team, it was like a weight was lifted from our shoulders. We were suddenly able to handle more work and get more things done with much less stress.

We actually talked in October and I gave you some feedback on the site. Can you tell us what we spoke about, what recommendations I made, and what you’ve done?
Initially, SocialEngine earned between $15,000 - $20,000 per month from license sales. After the 2.0 release in December (which included a variety of new features) and the implementation of your suggestions, we’ve brought our revenue up to between $25,000 - $30,000 per month. Of your suggestions, we tried the following:

1. Offer a taste. We decided to create a 15-day trial version of SocialEngine to give people time to experience the product on their own servers. This has been an excellent way to prove SocialEngine’s quality and build trust. To track conversions, we offer a $10 coupon with each trial download. Our records show that conversions from the trial version generally take less than one day, which supports the theory that people just want to make sure our product has substance before buying!

2. Test your front page and make it easier to purchase. After the launch, we occasionally received emails from people who couldn’t seem to figure out how to place an order. This was more than a little disconcerting! We redesigned our site layout to include at least three “purchase” links on every page of the website, with four on the homepage. Our Google Analytics (and the lack of confused emails) show that these have been very useful.

3. Do some search engine optimization. Realizing that search engines are now our primary source of traffic, we’ve optimized our pages with the hope of receiving as much organic traffic as possible. Before the optimization in early October, we averaged about 220 unique visitors daily; now we are averaging about 750 and still growing.

4. Add testimonials to your website. We frequently receive glowing emails from customers about SocialEngine. You suggested that we publicly quote these on our website, and we have (as you can see on our homepage). Having these quotes from customers seems to really have improved pre-sale trust. We may be opening up a customer showcase in the near future to display some great implementations of SocialEngine.

Lots of iwillteachyoutoberich readers would love to start something small and make a little revenue off it. What would you suggest to them?
First, don’t put money into a new project if you have no idea how it will make money. Although there are a few rare exceptions, this basically never works. Once you have a business model, stay focused! Don’t be tempted by alternative ways to make a little money here and there, as they will usually derail your efforts and waste your time. Our business model is based on selling our own products, not consulting on an individual basis. In the past, we took on a few consulting projects as an attempt to mitigate the risk of releasing a new product. To our dismay, these projects were extremely time consuming, stressful, less profitable, and actually slowed down our main progress.

Second, don’t be afraid to take calculated risks. At the beginning of myjunior year at Harvey Mudd College, I struggled with dividing my time between work and school. When I finally made the decision to take time off, nearly everyone I talked to was overwhelmingly negative. The arguments they made for staying in school were valid, however I truly felt that if I didn’t take the risk of devoting myself completely to my company, I’d always regret it. Not having the “safety net” of a college degree is scary, but I know I would be much less fulfilled had I played it safe.

Is there anything else we should know?
Thanks for reading about our work! As a special thank you to IWillTeachYouToBeRich readers, we are offering a $50 discount on the purchase of a SocialEngine license (valid for the next twenty days). Simply enter the coupon code “ToBeRich” when ordering your license from our website: http://www.socialengine.net

webligo.jpg

Now what? Check out the SocialEngine. Read other Friday Entrepreneurs, sign up for my newsletter, and submit yourself as a Friday Entrepreneur.

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Friday Entrepreneurs: Mimi Ting, Mingle

April 27 6 Comments latest by Michelle

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the poor customer service I received at a tux shop where I went to get measured. Today, I want to tell you about a GREAT customer service experience I had. I went into a store called Mingle to buy a shirt, and the woman at the register forgot to give it back. Two days later, I finally realized my credit card was missing, and I called them up to figure out a time to get it back. The woman, Mimi, owns the shop, and she apologized profusely. Then, a few minutes later, she called me back and offered to drive it to me wherever I was so I wouldn’t have to inconvenience myself. Eventually, she ended up opening early so I could pick up the credit card from her.

Now that’s great customer service.

And then I thought more about her store. When I went in there, there was a “Please Yelp me!” placard on her desk. I love companies that openly ask their customers to evaluate them, which means they’re listening and changing to what people are saying. And, no surprise, when I checked out the Yelp reviews for Mingle, they were almost all positive. (As Mimi says, “I am unsure why other stores don’t encourage their client reviews.”)

As I dug around online, I discovered that her store has a frequently updated blog and lots of things written about her. She uses the classic marketing strategy used by bloggers when they ask others to guest write: If someone else writes on your blog, they’ll link to it, ensuring more people visiting your site. Same for her — she carries lots of independent designers’ clothing, who of course tell people to visit Mingle.

Beyond that, her interview below tells how she found the space herself (through Craigslist), looked at other business plans before making hers, and how the hardest part is not getting a store up, but keeping it going. Running a retail store is a tough, tough business. Mimi runs her store on one of the most competitive retail streets in San Francisco, and she’s built up a great following from her customers and the designers whose clothes she sells. Check out her interview below.

What is Mingle?
MINGLE is a boutique that features the works of local and independent designers. By definition, mingle means “to mix or bring together in combination, usually without loss of individual characteristics”. Our store reflects a mix of styles and creations from many talents, but together, they tell a cohesive story. We offer clothing and accessories for both men and women.

How’s it different than other retail stores?
We are different than a typical retail store in that we primarily work with independent designers. Therefore, many of our merchandise are one of a kind or limited in quantity. Also, because many of our designers produce their own pieces, our price points are much more reasonable than that of other specialty boutiques.

When I went in your store, I noticed a placard that said “Yelp us!” Then I looked up your Yelp reviews and was surprised to see how universally positive the reviews were. What made you put up the placard? Why don’t other stores do this?
I became involved with Yelp two years ago and really loved the concept of “user based reviews”. As a consumer/user, it means I can obtain honest opinions about an establishment before I make a decision to patronize.

As a business owner, Yelp became an in integral way for me to obtain customer feedback. It is very important to me to know how our clients view our business. There is no better feedback than from customers who has had first hand experience shopping in our store. Yelpers are generally very generous with praises and definitely not shy with their complaints. Yelp reviews help us stay aware of what changes are necessary to keep up with our client’s expectations.

In addition to the Yelp Placecard, I also include a yelp link to our newsletters and encourage our customers to check out what others are saying, as well as giving us feedback through Yelp.

I am unsure why other stores don’t encourage their client reviews. Perhaps they are not familiar with Yelp or the benefits associated with it. Also, I believe that small business owners are often more involved with Yelp than major/chain business.

Your store is on one of the most expensive retail streets in San Francisco. How do you do it?
Lol, yes, Union Street is known to be “expensive” in terms of leasing space. There are various factors that dictate how “expensive” a space may be..i.e. sunny vs non sunny side of the street. which block you are located on…etc. I believe that we are in a great location and the size of our small boutique makes it manageable.

How’d you get started?
After college I spent about 5 years in the high tech industry doing various things from consulting to sales. I was enjoying the steady income but did not find my work gratifying. I didn’t quite know what I had wanted to do, or how to get started. However, I began visualizing doing something I love– something that challenges me to use all of my skills. Shortly after, I was introduced to someone who helped me get started financially. I applied the same visualization philosophy towards getting the store launched. I did not have any experience in retail or running my own business. However, I had a picture of what MINGLE should be, and I mapped out a plan on how to get there. This entailed doing research, identifying a location, creating a layout and theme for the store, and most importantly, bringing to together the designers/artist labels that represented MINGLE. I was so set on making MINGLE happen I didn’t believe in obstacles. Sure there were challenges.

For example, I had been warned about difficulties of finding a retail space..especially at a place like Union Street. The commercial leasing agents I contacted did not seem eager to assist me as a small business. I began my own search and believe it or not found current location through Craiglist. There were no lawyers and no agents involved. I went to every local trunkshow/sample sale to seek out designers. I also revisited Craig list to help me enlist designers outside of the city. I found that the local fashion community is very tight and open to supporting one another. People were very generous with referrals and from concept to launching the store it took me about 3 months.

I’m really interested in your outreach. We talked about Yelp, but you seem to be one of the few stores that reaches out to its customers in different ways (a blog, etc) and local talent.
Yes, as a boutique, our primary focus is working with independent designers. We provide up-and-coming designers a chance to showcase their goods and provide a bridge between the designers and the general public. By the same token, we are able to offer our clients unique and cool things that can’t easily be found somewhere else. Our designers love working with us because they enjoy the exposure and feedback to help them grow. Throughout the year we host various trunk shows and “meet the designer” events so our clients can preview new collections and meet the faces behind the fashion.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to start a retail business?
Follow your passion and your instincts, then create solid plan on making it happen. I sampled other people’s business plans to get ideas but created one based on my own goals. Clear financial goals must be set and met. It breaks my heart to hear about wonderful retail establishments going out of business due to lack of proper planning.

I received a fortune cookie once, “It is easy to open a shop, the hard part is keeping it open”. I am not even joking—I can’t tell you how true that is. One may think that the biggest challenge of running a business with is getting one started. In my experience, the bigger challenge is to keeping a positive outlook and maintaining the passion despite the responsibilities and the ups and downs associated with running the business. I am very fortunate to have many great clients who are constant reminders that I am still having fun doing what I am doing :)

mimi-mingle

Now what? Check out the Mingle web page. Read other Friday Entrepreneurs, sign up for my newsletter, and submit yourself as a Friday Entrepreneur.

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Friday Entrepreneurs: Courtney Kingston, Kingston Family Vineyards

March 16 14 Comments latest by Enrique

Here’s a fun interview I did with Courtney Kingston, who runs a vineyard (not your typical web business). She went from being in a senior position at an Internet company to starting this vineyard. “The hardest thing about pursuing a dream is that it isn’t convenient,” she said, which strikes me as enormously perceptive. How many times have you heard someone saying, “I’m just waiting for the right idea” or “I’ll start my own thing when I save up $50,000″? As I’ve written before, it never gets easier than now.

Courtney also told me that people might read this and think, “Well, I don’t have a family vineyard in Chile or an MBA from Stanford or a…” You’re right, you don’t. So what? I wrote about this in Success and the Shrug Effect, where I noted that we often point to someone successful, identify their qualities that we don’t share (”A Stanford MBA”), and then shrug, saying, “What can I do?” That’s BS–don’t fall for it. Everyone starts, whether it’s a paper route at age 12 or a vineyard at age…something more than 12.

My favorite part of this interview is when she identifies a huge problem that you’ll encounter when you’re doing your own thing: the fact that you have a million things to do with no structure whatsoever. Her solution? Sticky notes. Read on to find out what I mean.

What is Kingston Family Vineyards?
Kingston Family Vineyards is my family’s winery based in Chile’s Casablanca Valley. We specialize in hand-crafted Pinot Noir, Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc made from our hillside vineyards. All our wines are produced and bottled in Chile, and then I import them and distribute from my California office.

Ok, honestly. How often are you drunk?
Actually, I taste and enjoy a lot of wine (sometimes before 9am if I have an early tasting appointment with a restaurant) but sometimes the job is less ‘intoxicating’ than you’d imagine. If you think about it, you can’t learn very much about wine if you’re not sober enough to remember what it tasted like.

How did you get started running a vineyard?
My family always had this ranch in Chile. My dad was born there. But when I graduated from college in the early 1990’s, it was mostly dairy and beef cattle (and some great mountain biking trails up in the hills). The idea of starting a vineyard was my brother Tim’s and my idea. Back then I was working in high tech in the Bay Area. I liked my job and worked long hours, and gave it everything I had.

Plus it was good for my lifestyle—I was single, loved living in San Francisco, everyone I worked with was my age with similar interests. But as I moved up in the company, my job became a lot of directing/managing/helping others get their job done. I became somewhat like a well-paid traffic cop, but I no longer felt I was doing anything tangible myself. I also started to burn out from the long hours. When I turned 30, I decided I needed a lifestyle change where I could enjoy a more balanced life. That’s when I took the plunge and started working full-time on developing our wine business. And coincidentally I met my husband Andy just six months later.

How did you take that step of going from a safe job to doing something so unusual?
It was a tough transition. One of the biggest challenges for me was going from a job that was reactive (e.g. a highly scheduled day managing other people) to starting a business with a blank slate every morning. Every day, there were a thousand things that seemed urgent that I needed to do to get things going. It was a little paralyzing and I didn’t know where to start. My friend Rob gave me a great piece of advice: decide what *one thing* is critical to your concept’s success. Write “ONE” on a little yellow stickie, and stick it on your computer monitor as a daily reminder to accomplish one thing–no matter how small—that will get you one step closer to that goal each and every day.

For Kingston Vineyards, our biggest challenge in the beginning was finding a talented pinot noir winemaker who wanted to explore the new frontier of making pinot in coastal Chile. My “network” in Napa consisted of only two people when I started. And they weren’t even winemakers! But with that little yellow stickie reminder, every day I sifted through the thousands of urgent-but-not-important distractions to get one step closer to our goal of finding a winemaker.

What was some of the feedback you heard when you left your job?
On the surface, my work colleagues were encouraging, but I think they really thought I was nuts and believed they’d be interviewing me for an internet job within a year. While wine definitely has sex appeal, I was not pursuing a pre-IPO opportunity like everyone else was at the time. I left a job with 60 people on my team to go work by myself out of my San Francisco apartment. I cut my salary by more than half. I went from a known quantity—doing something I knew I was good at but that no longer challenged me—to something I wasn’t completely sure was going to work out.

I think most people thought I was taking a “break” rather than starting a real business. The hardest thing about pursuing a dream is that it isn’t convenient. Sometimes it’s more convenient to have your dream sitting on a shelf, neatly wrapped in a pretty package for you to look at from a distance., and always wonder “what if”. At least I could say I tried. I remember a professor of mine once saying “when you come to a crossroads, whatever you do, just don’t stop. Go right, go left, go straight. Whatever way you go…go forward.”

What are some of the interesting insights you’ve learned about doing business as a woman?
I can’t say doing business as a woman is harder, since I’ve never known anything else. I’ve had some challenges as a woman doing business in Chile, where the business culture is very male-dominated. Also, earlier in my high tech career, my straightforward/to-the-point approach was typical and expected. I was all about white boards and bullet points and optimizing the use of everyone’s time. And I was used to leading. Then there I was: a “gringa” in rural Casablanca where business is done differently. It took me a while to adapt and learn how to be effective in a completely different work environment.

How is Kingston Vineyards doing now?
I’m about to fly to Chile for our fifth vintage, which is hard to believe. Our wines are now on the wine list in some great restaurants across the U.S., such as Michael Mina and the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco; Masa, Jean Georges and Restaurant Daniel in New York; Spago in Los Angeles and the Four Seasons in Jackson Hole. A third of our wine sales come from our mailing list—where customers can buy direct and we ship to their homes. We’ve been fortunate to have a reputation for top quality wines with limited production, so the demand for our wines far outstrips supply. Wine Spectator recently said the Kingston Family Vineyards is leading the way, bringing excitement to Chile.

Oh—and since you live in San Francisco—I’m especially proud of the fact that our “Cariblanco” Sauvignon Blanc is by the glass at Hog Island Oyster Co. in the Ferry Plaza. Byron, our winemaker, loves to sit at the counter with his wife Mary for some fresh seafood after landing in SFO from Chile.

That’s right by my house. So…you know how it’s kind of impressive if you have a signed copy of a book? Well, what if I bought a bottle and got it signed by you? Is that absurd?
People actually do that…but no one has ever asked me. Maybe that’s when I’ll know I’ve really made it big…

What do you do on a day-to-day basis at the vineyard?
I ‘m actually based in the Bay Area, a long way from our vineyard in Casablanca. I used to fly down every other month, but since my daughter Annie was born last year, I now go about half as much. (We’re headed to Chile next week for Annie’s third trip.) My day-to-day job involves everything on the importing, sales & marketing side of the business. That means deciding the design of our wine labels , how much more pinot noir we should make in 2008, or how to adapt the financial model that forecasts when we’ll break even. But I don’t do it alone and we now have a small but mighty team based up here in the U.S. and flying back & forth to Chile.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.
I was born in Princeton, New Jersey; nowhere near as glamorous sounding as Casablanca, Chile. I also went to Princeton for college, and studied international affairs & public policy. I was convinced I was going to move to Washington, DC and “make policy,” until I realized I’d probably have to be a politician and run for office to do that. I moved to Northern California in 1992 for a “year off” before getting a real job on the East Coast but have been here ever since. Along the way I got my MBA from Stanford. That was enormously helpful in giving me the tools to help me start my own business. My husband Andy and I live in Portola Valley with our daughter Annie and our loveable 90-pound, oaf of a dog, Harley.

You’ve worked in big companies, small companies, and now you’re doing your own company. Can you tell me about some of the core differences?
I think the great thing about working in big companies is that you can specialize. You often only need to focus on your piece of the pie, and you are often supported with more infrastructure. I miss the free office supplies (all the yellow stickies I could ever dream of!) and Friday afternoon happy hours. And I especially miss being able to call IT support without getting an invoice!

But the bad news with a large company culture can sometimes be lack of ownership, and a pass-the-buck mentality. In a small company, you really have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and the buck stops with you. There’s no IT support. No free pens. But you can build something you’re proud of, and the diversity of your day is amazing. I love the fact that today I poured wine at a favorite restaurant, worked with a consultant in Chile to develop winery tours (you should come for a visit!), updated our distributors on recent excitingreviews from Wine Spectator and Wine & Spirits magazines, and got to give an interview to teach others how to get rich! (Can we talk again when the winery actually breaks even?)

Do you think everybody should do their own business once?
Not necessarily. Not everyone’s dream is to start their own business. I think everybody should figure out a way to follow a dream. Go right, go left, go straight. Just make sure you go forward.

Courtney and Annie
Early morning harvest with fog receding, Kingston Pinot Noir

Now what? Check out the Kingston Family Vineyards. Read other Friday Entrepreneurs, sign up for my newsletter, and submit yourself as a Friday Entrepreneur.

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I'm Ramit Sethi.

I'm a recent graduate of Stanford, where I studied technology and psychology. Now I'm the co-founder & VP of Marketing for PBwiki, a wiki startup in Silicon Valley.

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