Becoming a successful entrepreneur is no easy task, but it is something that can be very rewarding when achieved. Often times it can be hard for upcoming entrepreneurs to get their idea off the ground, which is why talking with already successful entrepreneurs is such a great resource for anyone interested in starting their own business. This week I had the privilege to sit down with serial entrepreneur Alex Lawrence who has launched several successful businesses and currently lives the entrepreneur lifestyle. Read on to see just how he did it and what valuable advice he has for any upcoming entrepreneur who wants to do the same!
Profile Snapshot:
Entrepreneur: Alex Lawrence
Location: Utah (USA)
Age: 35
Hobbies: Golf & Teaching
Schooling: BA in Business Management and MBA
Businesses: Funding Universe (Start-up Investment Analysis site) & TwitJump (Twitter Analytics Tool)
Blog: “The Entrepreneurs Blog” @ www.theentrepreneursblog.com
Background:
Alex Lawrence grew up in California and later moved to Utah where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management. He then went onto pursue and complete his MBA. Even before he finished school, Alex knew early on that he wanted to get into entrepreneurship. During his college years, he came up with the business of renting those expensive TI graphing calculators to students for the semester since most students only needed them temporarily for one class and then never use them again. Alex was quite successful with this venture and used the money to help pay his way through school. Looking back now, Alex said he went to school for three reasons. The first was to assure he had something to fall back on in case his entrepreneur ventures went sour. The second was to learn something new, and the third was for the networking aspect of the experience. Since graduating, Alex has further continued down the road of entrepreneurship.
Current Businesses:
- FundingUniverse is a company that helps upcoming entrepreneurs find the finances and resources they need to get their new idea off the ground as well as help existing businesses get the capital they need to grow. Some of the services they offer include building websites, creating business plans, social media strategies, debt and bank matching as well as angel investor matching. Alex currently Partner at FundingUniverse, and this is where you can find him spending most of his time these days. He works with businesses both small and large on a daily basis helping people on the road to entrepreneurship. The company is expanding nationally and has financed just under $40 million in projects this year!
- TwitJump is a project Alex started recently, which is a web based service that provides twitter analytic services to the user. He described it to me as a “Twitter Command Center” of sorts. Users can use the service to monitor traffic, perform keyword analysis, and boost the results they are targeting through the use of Twitter. The site is currently in its beta stage, but it is set to go live in the next several months. Alex has worked closely with a handful of carefully selected developers, and he is already seeing solid traffic growth to his site, with over 2,000 users and more being added each day.
Future Plans:
Alex hopes to someday obtain his Ph.D and become a full-time teacher. In the mean time, Alex will continue to work with FundingUniverse and TwitJump. Later this year Alex will start teaching an entrepreneurship class at his alma mater, in his spare time. The class will break from the traditional business curriculum and focus strictly on entrepreneurship and how to start your own business. Students will get to take part in mock investor pitch presentations and also get to hear from a variety of entrepreneurs through the course. It’s something I’m sure many of us entrepreneurs wish we had when we were in school.
Advice For Young Entrepreneurs:
Towards the end of our interview I asked Alex about some lessons learned through his experiences thus far. He offered up the following advice to any upcoming entrepreneur:
- Select something you are truly passionate about, which can then be transferred into a business model.
- Money should not be the driving force here. It’s important, but it shouldn’t be your primary focus
- Take the dive into entrepreneurship as soon as possible
- Entrepreneurship is a generally a young person’s market
- Young entrepreneurs have less to lose and more flexibility to take big risks
- You don’t need a big office and staff – can do it all right from home and generally online.
- Give yourself a 6 month window to run full force with a project/business and see what happens
- Gather an initial sum of money from family/friends and a small bank loan to get your idea running.
- “Fail fast” – …meaning figure out early if your idea is bad and save yourself time and money if that is the case.
- Investors want a business plan with sales and proof of potential growth.
- Serious entrepreneurs should make sure their significant other is fully supportive of their desire to pursue an entrepreneur lifestyle, as it will typically require long hours, travel, and tasks out of the typical norm.
- Finally, Consider a partner to offset your areas of weakness for your business. The right partner, while sharing in equity, can more then offset that thru the contributions their talents and experience bring to the table.
Please take a second to leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on my interview with Alex Lawrence. Thank you.
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An excellent piece. Short and to the point. Like the advice, except for the focus on youngsters. They definitely have the energy and drive; but even those of us over 40 can still get bit by the start up bug — though, yes, with 3 kids and school fees to think about, its a bit more harrying than being on your own. More pieces like this are definitely needed. Keep it up.
Thanks for the great content and information. I am always going through the internet searching for good content and to also get ideas for my home based business web sites and future articles on this basic and general subject. Again, thanks for the great content and I will be coming back to revisit this site again for more information in the near future.