Editorial Team

Hi and Welcome to www.entrepreneurship-interviews.com. Tell us a few words about yourself.
Mr. Kubens: Hello, my name is Michael; I’m 34 years old and live in Nuremberg, Germany. My business partner Eugen and I founded designenlassen.de (Designonclick) two and a half years ago. We’ve both been actively involved in online entrepreneurship for about ten years.

In 2008 you launched Designonclick in Europe. Tell us a few words about the marketplace.
Mr. Kubens: We started the site as a german-speaking marketplace for design. We currently have 8000 registered designers, and roughly 4000 projects have been completed via our website. We also offer Spanish, French and English versions of designenlassen.de.

I believe there are a few other marketplaces for designs. How is yours different, and does the location in Germany have a role?
Mr. Kubens: Good question! We are definitely smaller, more personal, and still have a strong focus on the German-speaking market. We are completely self-financed and have limited marketing resources. So, we need to use our resources carefully. We want to see our company grow through the recommendations of happy customers, and as a result, we have worked on improving our customer service and support. We always get in touch via chat with every customer who starts a project with us to offer our support and make sure everything is going smoothly. Certain projects also include telephone support, and we will call the client to make sure everything is going well.

How does the marketplace exactly work? How is the selling and buying process?
Mr. Kubens: The basic principle is pretty similar with every site similar to ours. Our clients define what they are looking for by creating a design briefing specifying what they are looking for and their conditions (project duration, budget, etc.) The designers submit their proposals, and then the client can provide feedback. At the end of the contest, the client chooses their favorite design. We offer a money-back guarantee if there’s no design that fits what the client is looking for.

What are the benefits for, say, a small company over a regular design company?
Mr. Kubens: Well, you receive several different design submissions from a lot of different designers. On average, over 100 design proposals are submitted per project. In our opinion, the diversity and selection offered by our site are some of the best aspects of designonclick.com. Another great advantage is that one can get a logo on a moderate budget – our logos start at just € 200.

How can the company make sure the designs are consistent with their already existing brand elements?
Mr. Kubens: Our clients have the option to use a corporate style guide as a guideline. Our customers are usually looking for creative, new ideas, though.

What’s the typical company purchasing designs from your site?
Mr. Kubens: Mostly start-ups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses use our site. Our site best fits this target group’s budget, and they are obviously open to trying alternative options for a good design.

Any advice for companies looking for a source for their designs?
Mr. Kubens: Yes, I would advise everyone using our site to make sure they have written their briefing as accurately as possible. Only then can a designer work as efficiently on a project as possible.

Are there any risks? How can one make sure the designs are unique?
Mr. Kubens: We don’t tolerate copyright infringement, and anybody caught violating this rule will be expelled from our site. Our designers create every design individually based on the specifics mentioned in the briefing, and every design is unique as a result. In most competitions, designers can see each others’ submissions and can report misuse of designs or any copyright issues.

Now, talking about the designers, how is designonclick different from other sites like elance.com or freelancer.com?
Mr. Kubens: Well, with designonclick, clients can start their design contest right away and don’t need to negotiate hourly rates or worry about finding the right freelancer. The designer who wins earns the prize money offered and has usually gained a repeat customer.

Is it more appealing to freelancers than to businesses?
Mr. Kubens: I think so. Our site can be used very flexibly. A lot of designers just work on projects when they have free time or no other design jobs.

How did you get the first designers and customers? I believe you created the platform, then what happened?
Mr. Kubens: Good question! I think most sites like ours have the chicken and the egg problem in the beginning. We started with projects so that our site would be more appealing to designers. After all, nobody can use our site if no projects are there! We mostly found our designers through word of mouth, and various design communities, as we didn’t have the budget for advertising in the beginning.

Most people wanting to become entrepreneurs are afraid their idea won’t work. How did you deal with this fear?
Mr. Kubens: We had and still have the same worries… and to be honest, a lot of our previous ideas didn’t work out. This is just a part of life if you’re an entrepreneur. My only advice is to try as many new things as possible, but try to keep the risks as low as minimal as possible. For example, only work on new ideas part-time and test them on a small-scale before investing a lot of time and money in it.

What was the happiest moment so far?
Mr. Kubens: There have been a lot of great moments…I remember the first morning after launching the site and how great it felt to see that there had already been designs submitted overnight. It was also pretty awesome when we were awarded two different entrepreneurial awards at CeBIT (technology trade show in Germany) in 2009. This was a huge push forward for us and also helped us pull through hard times.

You recently opened a US-based branch of your business. How difficult is it to approach a new foreign market?
Mr. Kubens: Very difficult! Competition from the English-speaking platforms is much stronger than here in Germany.

Any thoughts about the future?
Mr. Kubens: Our plan is to grow slowly but steadily and to grow as entrepreneurs as well!

Hi Steven, welcome. Tell us a few things about yourself.
Steven: Thank you very much for having me. Well, I’m 29 years old, originally from Freehold, N. J., and am the founder of grapevine pr, a Los Angeles-based lifestyle, and entertainment PR firm.

You started this PR company at 24 as a side job. How did you come up with the idea?
Steven: Literally, I had just graduated from college a couple of weeks prior. I had known that I wanted to get into PR, which is what I majored in while at William Paterson University. The reason I decided to start my own PR agency was that while interning at a local PR and marketing agency, I had begun to handle an independent jazz artist, Sylvia Pilar. I figured that for the hell of it, it would be a good idea to form sort of a moniker or a “skeleton” company to ground all of this work.
What then happened was I had handled this particular client for a few months in the summer of 2006, on the side of my internship, and then in the Fall of 2006, I accepted a full-time position at a large real estate PR firm and put what was called GrapeVine Promotions, on hold. I then put all of my energy into this new job and was landing clients’ major placements, but was feeling that I didn’t belong in such a corporate culture. I’ve always been eccentric in that I liked to do my own things. So I started up the company again, changed the name to grapevine pr, and started sending out new business pitches. That was when I received a response from a popular TV/film actor and began representing him. Then things changed fairly quickly, within six months, and before I knew it, I had to make a decision and was completely out on my own.

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Hi Leslee and welcome. Tell us what kind of business you are running.

Leslee: Nana & Co. specializes in handmade and vintage items from all over. We love eclectic and unique styles, so many of our products tend to lean that direction.

Is it run like a real business with business plans, sales targets, investments, and so on?

Leslee: When we started, we just wanted to create and find amazing things. After our first year selling on Etsy, we realized that to ever turn this into something larger, we would need to go through the proper steps to become official. I took care of the paperwork side of things while my sister and mom helped out with our branding, etc. Slowly but surely, we came up with what you see today. Our shop, the blog, and our Facebook, and our business cards all show who we are.

We started out using what we had on hand. After burning up two sewing machines, we invested in an industrial sewing machine. It is hard to describe what a joy it was for the first time to sew through projects so quickly and smoothly. There have been other smaller investments along the way, but as with any operation, it is important to have the right tools for the job.

We started in September 2009. Being so new to the online business world, our only goal was to sell things. After that first year, we have shifted our focus. We realized marketing is vital. In creative and cost-effective ways, we have worked on improving the marketing side of our company.

Our goal for 2011 is much grander than it was in 2010. We are working on a wholesale plan and getting a couple of our products in several shops. This, combined with increasing our Etsy sales, should keep us busy.

Buying that industrial sewing machine must have been expensive. Most small business entrepreneurs are afraid of making investments, so how do you know when to use some money to grow the business?

Leslee:Yes, it was an expensive purchase. The bottom line, though, as we wouldn’t be able to produce any more burlap items. Burlap is very hard on a standard home machine, so we located a wonderful machine expert who has helped us immensely. It’s funny; he said, “once you use an industrial machine, you’ll never want to go back.” He was right. Our new machine goes through multiple layers like butter.

Investing in costly equipment has got to be the scariest part of starting a business. We have decided that we will only pay cash for equipment. Due to the nature of our operation, we can keep our overhead low. We work from home, so we have no extra facility costs. We exercise our creativity when finding and purchasing supplies and materials. So far, we have been successful in staying away from credit purchases.

So you started back in 2009. How did you come up with the idea?

Leslee: My mom had mentioned several times in the past how fun and financially helpful it would be to make things and sell them. The only place we could think of to sell online was eBay. I used to be an eBay seller but quit because of the pricey fees, ineffective policies, and the hassle. We set the idea on the back burner for a long time. One day, I heard about Etsy, so I checked into it. It is similar to eBay but for handmade items. The fees are incredibly reasonable, and most of the time, Etsy shoppers appreciate the time and effort that goes into a handmade item. I told my Mom about it, and we decided to give it a try. She has always thought it would be fun to own a brick-and-mortar shop named “Nana & Co.,” so that is where the name came from. Vickie (our mom) is Nana, my sister, my daughter, and I are “the Co.”

Who takes part in creating the items, and who’s running the business?

Leslee: We all are part of the creative process. We love using unusual materials in our products. Emails and phone calls constantly fly back and forth between California and Arizona with ideas for new items, places to get supplies, etc.

Who is your usual customer?

Leslee: A typical customer is someone who is gift shopping. We’ve sold to husbands trying to find an unusual but useful Christmas present. We have sold to Grandparents shopping for grandkids. We’ve sold to women who wanted something for themselves. We are still studying who our target market really is. Our goal is to have a variety large enough to appeal to a broad spectrum yet narrow enough to keep up with the demand.

And what are the best selling products?

Leslee: We have a line of messenger bags and purses made from re-purposed coffee bean sacks. During the holiday season, these were good sellers. People who appreciate coffee really enjoy seeing where the sacks originate from. Burlap is also very attractive to customers.

How do you sell the products? How does Etsy work?

Leslee: Currently, we have an Etsy shop. Etsy.com has graciously made it possible for small operations like ours to have a presence on the web. We created Nana & Co. Using the tools which Etsy provides, along with help from other Etsy sellers, it is possible to have a successful online store. Next, we are working on a wholesale plan which will enable stores to carry our line of products.

Do you need to be technical to run an Etsy store, have the Facebook page done, and so on?

Leslee:No. That is the beauty of Etsy. Anyone can set up an account and shop as long as they follow the prompts and instructions. As for Facebook, it seems everyone knows about or has an account. We try to keep up on the technical side of the business but honestly, it doesn’t come easily. Nowadays, regardless, it is an important side to just about any operation.

When you first started, did you make any plans?

Leslee: To be honest, no. We wanted to make things people would appreciate and buy. Since then, we have learned a lot and are continuing to receive a business education. I guess you could call it “trial and error.”

Do you believe in doing what you like to do and then turning it into a business?

Leslee: Truly, doing something a person loves will help keep the fire and passion burning longer. If someone does something strictly to earn a paycheck, it is easy to burn out. This isn’t saying, though, that there is burnout and discouragement even when doing something we love. It’s plain old hard work to run a company. There are highs and lows but don’t give up. For instance, with the economy being the way it is and then the time of year it is, people just aren’t buying like they were during the holiday season. We have had to come up with creative ways to generate publicity and sales. It is all part of the game.

How small is too small to start something? Most people don’t start a business because they are afraid there is too little money to be made out of their idea.

Leslee: I don’t think there is such a thing as “too small.” Businesses have started from people working on the weekend, after they were done with their day jobs, etc. Sometimes their ideas take off, and sometimes they don’t. Either way, the only way they were to know is by taking that first step. We live in a wonderful country that was built on hard work and great ideas. This spirit still lives on today. The spirit of entrepreneurialism is in all of us. Some of us are just braver than others.

How did it influence your family?

Leslee: Nana & Co has taken a healthy chunk of time; as with any start-up, I have two children which I home-school. We have been able to use the whole process as a learning tool for the kids. They have learned about start-up costs, capital, investments, pricing, etc. It goes along great with math and economics. My 10 yr. old earns money when he helps prep some of the materials. It saves me time and helps him grow his savings account. My daughter makes things that have been listed in our Etsy shop. She is learning a lot about entrepreneurialism.

My mom, my sister, and I have spent many late nights preparing and making items. Deadlines never let up, so after the kids are asleep, the Nana & Co. elves get to work. It has all been worth it. We are still in the infant stage of our venture. We can’t wait to see where the future will lead.

So what about the future? Any plans?

Leslee: We are creating new bag designs. My sister is working on education in graphic design. We would love to someday open a party and wedding supply shop with Nana & Co. as the umbrella company. If all goes as planned, this will be in the next year or two.

My husband is in the USMC, so there is a chance we might be stationed abroad in the next 6 months or so. If this happens, we’ll have to adjust our plans, but we don’t plan on allowing Nana & Co. to die.

If any of your readers are in the Gilbert, AZ area on April 15 & 16, please stop by the Urban Spice Spring Boutique at 2451 E. Desert Ln. Gilbert, AZ 85234. We try to participate in several boutiques throughout the year, and this will be one of them. Come by on Friday to see our amazing booth. We are going all out on the design. No pop-up canopies this time around.

Hi Matt, thank you for accepting the interview. You are the CEO of Freelancer.com, the largest outsourcing marketplace. What exactly is Freelancer.com ?

Matt: We’re similar and as simple to use as eBay, but instead of buying and selling goods, it’s for outsourcing small projects, typically 150 pounds or less, from the western world to the developing world. The mainstream projects are things like build me a website, get traffic to my website, design me a logo, and so on, but just about anything you can think of can now be outsourced online. We have over 360 different categories as diverse as mechanical engineering, architectural drafting, and iPhone application design. Because the freelancers are mainly from the developing world, you pay as low as 10% of what you’d normally pay to get the job done locally.

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