Business Profile: Indianapolis Web Company

In today’s world, if your company doesn’t have a website you are going to fall behind the competition in a hurry. Because this is so critical to the success of a company, we decided to meet up with Ian Golden who is the founder and CEO of Indianapolis Web Company to talk with him a little bit about his company and ask him some questions pertaining to entrepreneurship.

Golden started Indianapolis Web Company about ten years ago before he was even in high school. He would pick up some small jobs building websites and helping companies on how to implement online marketing.  He really took his company to the next level when he got to Ball State University where he pursued a major in entrepreneurship in order to follow his dreams of being a successful business owner.

After taking his business to the next level, school and work started conflicting with each other. His business was always on his mind but at the same job he knew he had to take his studies seriously and maintain good grades and something had to give. At this point, as a junior, he decided to leave Ball State in order to focus on his company. Today, Indy Web Company develops websites, provides online marketing services, and provides training services to companies across the nation. Golden is a great example of a young hustler who is combining his knowledge with his work ethic in order to be a successful business owner. We asked Golden a few questions about his journey as an entrepreneur and also got some advice for other young entrepreneurs.

School Comes 2^nd: What is the most important aspect of running a successful company?

Golden: Learning how to generate income is ultimately what will make or break your company and that starts with sales. You need to be able to sell whatever you are selling because no matter how good your product is, people will not even know it exists if you don’t personally tell them about it.

School Comes 2^nd: When did you know it was time to leave Ball State?

Golden: It was pulling me away from school. I am an A student but the grades I was receiving were definitely not A’s. I knew something had to give so I talked to some professors and one professor told me “I either need to go hard in business or go hard in the classroom.” That hit me and I made the decision to go hard in business.

School Comes 2^nd: Who has been the most influential person on your journey as an entrepreneur?

Grant Cardone. Grant is an expert salesman who has a selling strategy that has helped take my business to the next level. I started watching his YouTube channel and then ended up ordering his books and he really taught me that the key to making it big is to learn how to sell.

School Comes 2^nd: What advice would you give other student entrepreneurs or students who are thinking about starting a company?

Golden: Learn how to sell. If you can learn how to sell and perfect it, you can make millions because you can make money selling your product or service and then replicate it and sell your methods to others to use.

Golden is continuing to expand his business, as he is continuing to generate new clients while at the same time working with repeat customers. Indianapolis may also be growing geographically to capture a larger market, which will allow the business to grow even more. Whether you are a student entrepreneur looking to launch your first website or an established business looking for an upgrade, you need to check out Indianapolis Web Company. To view their portfolio of work and learn more about their company visit www.indywebco.com.

Grant Cardone’s 10 Commandments of Retail Sales

     There are many college students who are interested in starting a variety of businesses in the retail industry. However, most do not understand the retail side of business and the key aspects that lead to success in this competitive industry. Grant Cardone has some valuable insight for those student entrepreneurs and his 10 Commandments of Retail Sales should be followed by every business owner in the retail industry.

1.     Customers will pay extra for your products.

2.     Retail customers don’t like to be ignored.

3.     Customers will buy from you just because you are open.

4.     The buyer wants and expects to have humans to engage with.

5.     The customer has agreed to spend money so they are investing time and energy to visit your store.

6.     The customer deserves to be greeted positively and enthusiastically.

7.     The customer deserves to have a manager say hi.

8.     The customer is looking for the best solution, not the best price.

9.     The customer is easy to please because their expectations of retail is so horrendously low.

10. The customer is likely to follow the first purchase up with multiple other purchases.

Top Five Business Magazines for College Start-Ups

   Entrepreneur

    www.entrepreneur.com

Inc.

   www.inc.com

Fast Company

   www.fastcompany.com

Forbes

    www.forbes.com

Fortune

    money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune

Start-Up Accounting on a Budget

There are ways in which you can minimize your accounting expenses as a small business owner while in college and operating on a low budget. One of the best software programs for small business accounting is QuickBooks. There are many different versions of QuickBooks and you can choose from based on the size of your business and the industry your company competes in. As a college student, you can usually get huge discount on this software if your school makes it available and it can either be purchased through the bookstore or specially ordered.

To make using this software manageable, it would probably be best to supplement the software with a user guidebook to answer any questions you may have along the way. There are also classes that meet both physically and online that can help you get started and gain a good foundation for how to use the software. It may also be a good idea to find another business owner that uses the same software and have them walk you through it and give you an overview. This is something you may have to pay for but in the end it will be much cheaper than hiring someone to handle your accounting when it is not necessary.

One way you can utilize your resources while being on a college campus is by hiring an intern. Accounting is usually one of the most popular programs of study at colleges and universities. This gives you a large pool of potential applicants who may be willing to do all of your accounting for you in order to receive credit and a recommendation upon completion of the internship.  A student who is close to graduation should have a good understanding of all the major accounting software so bringing them on board could save you time and money while receiving quality work at the same time.

Accounting is one of the most important aspects of your business and you need to have a good foundation with regard to your numbers. It can be extremely difficult to go back and find mistakes and if you can find them, correcting them is no small task. However, at the same time, not every start-up can afford an accountant to ensure a low risk of mistakes. These suggestions can help you along your journey until you get to the point where you can afford to hire a professional accountant or firm to handle that area of your company.

Business Profile: ClusterFlunk

          Have you ever been in a lecture hall of 300 students only to realize that you don't know anyone else in the class? Maybe you have had to miss class because you were hung-over? Or maybe you just weren't feeling good about a homework assignment that was due the next day or a test you had coming up. ClusterFlunk is a new start-up based out of Iowa City, IA that aims to solve all these problems with one single website. We met up with AJ Nelson, one of the co-founders, to discuss the background of the company and learn more about his journey as an entrepreneur.

          ClusterFlunk was founded in 2012 by Joe Dallago and AJ Nelson. At the time they were both college students and after Joe received an unsatisfactory grade on an exam, he became frustrated because he didn't know any other students who were in his lecture whom he could work with to get a better understanding of the material. He also felt alienated and thought he could turn this problem into an opportunity so e went to his friend AJ and they made the decision to start ClusterFlunk. ClusterFlunk is a website that allows users to upload past assignment, tests, and class notes and then other students can download any documents that have been uploaded.

          Dallago and Nelson both have a background in business from an early age. Both took many business classes at Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids, IA, which is where they first met. They have also worked for some very prestigious companies. Nelson was previously a campus representative for Dell and also completed an internship at Maxim Management Group. Dallago has held internship positions at Rockwell Collins before moving to Palo Alto, CA for positions with Survey Monkey and Google.

          The company got its start at the University of Iowa where both students were enrolled. After they started marketing the company in Iowa City and attracting registered users they decided to expand to other schools including University of Northern Iowa, Kirkwood Community College, and Cornell College. However, after meeting with investors, they were told to scale back and focus solely on the University of Iowa until they could prove that their model can work and increase the percentage of Iowa students registered. After scaling back, ClusterFlunk now has 32% of the roughly 30,000 students enrolled at University of Iowa registered on their site and they hope to grow that number to 42%. Next year their goal is to expand to 60 public schools using the same model they are currently using, only on a bigger scale. This will allow them to run the entire company from Iowa City. In order to do this, the co-founders have decided to take at least this semester off from school to focus on their business.

          To make this transition from student entrepreneurs to full-time entrepreneurs easier, they were fortunate enough to attract investors to help them grow the company at this important stage of development. Possibly the most notable investor who came on board is Ben Milne who is the founder of Dwolla, an online payment network that allows any business or person to send, request, and accept money. Other investors include Josh Cramer who is the founder and CEO of Cramer Development, Brad Dwyer who is the creator of the Facebook game Hatchlings, and Anthony Marlow who is the co-founder of TMone. These investors have made further development possible and have allowed ClusterFlunk to hire their first employee who works remotely from Ontario.

          After talking with Nelson about the company's history, we asked him a few questions about his journey as an entrepreneur as well as questions that will help aspiring entrepreneurs on their journey.

School Comes 2nd: What advice would you give to a student entrepreneur or a student who may be thinking about starting a company?

Nelson: The most important thing is just to go out and do something. Don't get caught up in the process of writing a formal business plan and just try things and see what works. Also, find a good partner who is your opposite. Someone who has skills that you do not and vice versa. Once you start, go out and grind because it wont work if you don't make that commitment.

School Comes 2nd: What is your major and do you think the classes you take are relevant to your success as a start-up?

Nelson: I was a business major at Truman State and the University of Iowa, while Joe was studying Computer Engineering here at Iowa. In our honest opinion, no. The rigorous structures of classes teach you the building blocks on how to manage your life, and we also believe that you learn essential life lessons in school and through the people you meet in school. On the other hand, we don't believe that the specifics are important. We believe that the educational world right now is flawed and that's why we are trying to fix it. Learning is what you make it. In today's world you have all the information you need to do anything sitting on the Internet. Becoming a life-long learner is the most important aspect of becoming an entrepreneur in our opinion.

School Comes 2nd: How are you planning to make money?

Nelson: We haven't given much thought to that at this point because the most important thing is to grow the company and gain as many users as possible and the money will take care of itself. We have been fortunate enough to have investors that believe in the company and the vision and have provided enough funding to grow the company while it is not currently bringing in money.

School Comes 2nd: What do you do when money gets tight?

Nelson: Luckily we had a great friend that believed in our vision, and gave us a couple thousand dollars to start. Once that ran out, we ended up taking out student loans and funding ClusterFlunk that way until we recently closed our round of funding. It's all about validating your ideas, and proving that you are solving real points of a lot of people. If you can do that successfully, raising money is easy. The key here, go out and do something. Make a product, do a smoke and mirrors test, get some customers, and run on a shoestring budget. Every great start-up has their crazy story on how they started in the beginning. I would like to think that this is ours.

School Comes 2nd: If there is one thing you could do right from the beginning to lay a good foundation what would that be?

Nelson: Be naive. Take that leap of faith, drop out of school, do whatever you have to do to make it happen. Become a life-long learner. Always be learning, you'd be surprised on how far picking up a couple of books can take you and your ideas/company.

School Comes 2nd: Do you have any good stories of interactions with ClusterFlunk users?

Nelson: We were out to dinner with one of our investors and I got an email from a registered user telling us how bad ClusterFlunk was and that we should be ashamed because it wasn't helping and that we should go back to the drawing board and that is exactly what we did. After that happened the website was 1000 times better and it has been the best thing that could have happened for the company.

          Expect this company to continue to expand, as opportunities for growth are limitless. ClusterFlunk will more than likely be a household name throughout the United States as their service becomes available to more and more colleges and universities. This website is something that can be used by every student enrolled at a college or university and its user-friendly platform makes it attractive to students who have used it. These factors combined with the knowledge and determination of the company's co-founders will lead to success. For more information about ClusterFlunk, visit www.clusterflunk.com.

5 Books Every Student Entrepreneur Should Read

1. Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson

2. Ride of a Lifetime by Paul Teutul

3. Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

4. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

5. Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich

Starting a Clothing Company in College

Starting a clothing company is something that any college student can do while in school for a minimal initial investment. Many clothing companies have been started by college students, and we are going to help walk you through the initial steps to get started so you too can start your own clothing company.

            The first thing you will want to consider is who your customer is going to be. You need to know who the end buyer of your clothing line is so that you can plan accordingly. After you have decided on who your customer will be and figured out how you are going to market to them, you will need to come up with a brand name. This is something that should be unique and relevant to the industry to intend to be a part of. After settling on a brand name, you will need to hire a freelance graphic designer to design a logo for your company, as this will be your brands identity. As a college student it is usually better to work with an experienced freelance designer rather than hiring a marketing or advertising agency because you will likely have a relatively small budget and the freelance route will be much cheaper. You can also consider websites such as 99 Designs where you can choose from what multiple designers create and you only pay for the one you choose to use.

            The next step is to work with a designer to create designs for the apparel. This will take time so while you are working on this step it is the optimal time to start sampling different garments to print on. It is generally cheaper to purchase shirts online from a wholesaler because they are cheaper than purchasing them from the screen-printing companies. If you are starting with tee shirts you should order at least 5 to 10 different blank shirts to compare the quality, fit, and size of the shirts. By the time you have settled on the brand and style of blank shirt you are going to print on, your designer should have your first designs completed for you to review. You may need to make some modifications and should work with your designer until you are one hundred percent satisfied with the final product.

Now that you have your initial designs in hand, it is time to start comparing the price and quality of various screen-printers. Like we mentioned earlier, it is usually cheaper to purchase the blank shirts online from a wholesaler, so make sure that the screen-printing company you choose to work with will allow you to bring in your own items and wont make you purchase the shirts from them. You can usually stop in and look at some of their previous work or have them mail you a sample and then get a quote on how much their service will cost based on the quantity of shirts you are going to print. Once you have modified the design and are set on what you are going to print, you will want to have some samples printed before you have them print a large quantity. Although the unit cost will be expensive, you are more than likely going to make changes to the size of the design or how it is positioned on the shirt so it is much safer to pay for the samples rather than risk having hundreds of shirts you aren’t satisfied with and cant do anything about it. After you have a sample that you are happy with its time to print in bulk. A good chunk of the costs associated with printing occur in the set up-costs, so the more shirts you print, the cheaper your unit cost will be.

Most of these steps also apply to any embroidering you may do on hats or other items. Now that you have your initial clothing line printed and in your possession, you are now at the point where you need to start implementing your marketing strategy in order to sell it to your customer. Hopefully you are successful in selling your stock of inventory and at that point whether you plan to print more of the same designs or create new designs for consumers, you will start the process over and continue to grow the company. There is a lot more to it than these initial steps, but this will at least help you get off to a good start and build a good foundation for your company.