Entrepreneur Interview: Lester of BevShots.com
Even in these tough times, there are still plenty of motivated and passionate people taking risks and starting new businesses. One of these folks is Lester Hutt, who is the founder of BevShots.com, which takes microscopic photos of your favorite drinks and turns them into beautiful art. The piece shown above is English oatmeal stout. I know Lester through a long-time friend, and he agreed to share some of his business experiences as well as how it has affected his family’s personal finances. What was your inspiration for Bevshots? I was working as a business research analyst at Florida State University, and my job was to find possible business opportunities out of university research projects and patents. I came across the work of research scientist Michael Davidson, who took photographs under a microscope of a variety of items including DNA, biochemicals, and more. He also did cocktails, which he initially used for a tie collection. I ve never really understood abstract art, like a blue wall at a modern art museum that is supposed to express man s frustration with industrialization in the 20th century”. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to make a form of modern art that is affordable to the masses. What previous experience did you find most useful in starting this new business? For one, my time working for Apple taught me the power of good industrial design and creating a great user experience. In addition, I had just spent the last several years running every aspect of a small business, from product development to managing employees to sales. How did you come up with the initial funding costs? We used a combination of loans from family, personal cash reserves, and a revolving line of credit with local community bank. Thanks to my existing banking relationship from the aforementioned small business, it wasn’t difficult to secure a loan with relatively favorable terms. How did this affect your personal finances? It definitely affected us quite a bit. For one, we went from two incomes to having only income to support our family. We started looking for places we could cut back, including going out to eat, canceling our cable television, clothes, and travel. We’re also thinking of buying a used car as our next work vehicle. Besides trimming expenses, we also found that we were unable to take advantage of other investment opportunities like real estate that we might have otherwise pursued. We do still maintain an emergency fund with 8 months of liquid cash. Even in a worst-case scenario for the business, we will still be okay. More after the jump: How did this affect your family life? What does your spouse think about it? She is very supportive, as she has also been a small business owner and is looking to start a new business. On the personal front, she is great with Quicken and using it to help us manage our spending. For example, we set a goal of cutting back on restaurants by 50%, and we found it wasn’t that bad at all. We recently had a child, and that has also helped save money by keeping us at home more. What was one thing you learned during the experience that you would want to pass on to other entrepreneurs? I would say to keep your monthly operating expenses as low as you can, both for on the personal and business sides. But for the business in particular, many start-ups may go out and lease an office that often requires a long-term contract or hire too many employees too fast. Instead, I decided to work from home and rented a P.O. Box for $10 a month. I hired a part-time Public Relations and Marketing Director, and brought on board 3-4 interns from FSU doing marketing and graphic design for free. I remember reading on your blog about the Ooma VoIP phone – we bought that and now have free unlimited phone use. (I’m talking to you on it right now!) I’d also like to point out that our business model does not have large upfront costs. We have contracts with vendors for production, where each new purchase is made to order. We didn’t have to purchase any large equipment or lease manufacturing space. What was the largest obstacle so far in your venture? I think we underestimated how difficult it is to get the word out about your product nationally. Even though we are well-connected on the local level, it was very hard to expand past that. We avoided traditional media due to the high cost and worked hard at using social media, but it was no silver bullet. So how are you advertising? n general, we are trying to get earned media as opposed to paid media . We point out that we re a start-up business created from innovation of a public university, that we kept the business local, and that the products are all made in the USA. We’re also trying to get on some “Unique Gift Lists” for Christmas, as we see BevShots as artwork that you can add to a man-cave or man-room above the stereotypical Bud Girl calender. On the local level, we are sponsoring a beer-tasting event. As part of that, we get a lot of publicity on television spots, magazines, and newspapers that would otherwise cost up to ten times more if all of that advertising was purchased separately. How did you set the prices on your product? With BevShots, I am targeting a specific segment of the art market. I didn’t want to compete in the cheap poster market where the price points can be below $10, and I also felt that original art was too expensive for the mass market. Original pieces of modern art that are sold in galleries usually start at $500 for very small pieces and can go as high as $10,000 or more. I also took into account that it typically costs a few hundred dollars to get something custom-framed at a local shop. For the BevShots’ price points, I made sure to have framed pieces that started at the $199 mark and went as high as the 500’s for the largest pieces. These are price points that you would find at home accessory stores like Z. Gallery or Crate and Barrel. – end of interview – Recap I’d like to thank Les for sharing his time and knowledge. Starting a new business can be stressful, and I think there were a lot of good tips in there. You can learn more about BevShots by visiting their website, joining their Facebook page, or following them via Twitter. They even have an iPhone app going. If you’re an entrepreneur with a unique story and would like to be interviewed here as well, please feel free to contact me. Past Entrepreneur Interviews: Entrepreneur Interview: Maury of PennyPortrait.com Irina Patterson, Balloon Art Entertainer Dennis, sells custom Greek apparel online and locally Dan, sells titanium money clips online
Gogo Inflight Internet Coupon Code
Gogo Inflight Intertnet is now offering WiFi internet on select Airtran, American, Delta, and Virgin America flights. See here for participating flights. I signed up for their mailing list, and got a code for some free WiFi in case anyone is flying in the next few weeks. Here’s another code good until 10/31, but I can’t tell if it’s one-time use only: 222wifi21940a. Jonathan, first timers surf the internet in flight with a free gogo session this month. Just look for the “gogoinflight” Wi-Fi signal at 10,000 ft and keep up with the world below. Enter SURFGOGOFREE when you are prompted to purchase your session through October 15, 2009. *Good through 10/15/09. Offer available on select American Airlines and Delta Air Lines flights. Offer is good for one use per person, may not be combined with any other Gogo promotional codes and applies only to single sessions, such as Gogo Flight Pass and Gogo Mobile Pass. Use of Gogo service requires registration. Terms and Conditions
Intuit, Makers of Quicken, Buys Mint.com
Yesterday, Mint.com announced that they were acquired by Intuit for $170 million. Not too shabby. Intuit is best known for personal finance products such as Quickbooks, Quicken, and TurboTax. They also released Quicken Online last year, which was basically a direct competitor to Mint.com. Both aggregate your spending and income by automatically accessing the data your financial websites, and analyze your habits for you. However, according to their press release, Intuit intends to keep both of the them separate: Intuit intends to keep both the Mint.com and Quicken Online offerings, with each serving separate and equally important purposes. Mint.com will become the primary online personal finance management service that is offered directly to consumers by Intuit. Quicken Online will connect Quicken customers across desktop, online and mobile to deliver easy, anytime-anywhere access. This will help accelerate Intuit s ability to create products and services that make managing money easier for all Intuit customers. One of the benefits of this deal seems to be that concerns about data safety might be alleviated. Millions of people trust Intuit with their tax returns, which are probably some of the most sensitive data out there, so they might be more comfortable with sharing their financial website passwords with Intuit. On the other hand, the competition between Quicken Online and Mint.com probably inspired some extra features and also made sure that both services remained free. According to WalletPop, there are “no plans” to charge for either of these services for now. Both sites have improved a lot recently, I just hope that continues.
Starbucks: Price-Targeting, iPhone App, Free Birthday Drink
For some reason, I’ve managed to collect a bunch of random Starbucks news. Granted, I’ve been going there more often recently for the ability to read and work in a comfortable atmosphere outside the distractions of home. I’m okay with paying about $2 for some caffeine plus an few hours of productivity once in a while. Price-Targeting First, I found out that last month Starbucks lowered the price of their basic drip coffee and lattes, while increasing the price of their “complex” drinks like Frappuccinos. This is classic price targeting, which involves company extracting the maximum money out of the most customers possible. People who are frugal and pay attention to prices will now find that a large drip coffee from Starbucks costs just about the exact same amount as a large coffee from a place like Dunkin Donuts. Result: Starbucks gets more price-comparing people. A person who was paying $4 for a Frappuccino before was already paying 100% more for extra sugar, whipped cream, and 5 seconds in a blender. They most likely won’t mind paying another 25 cents. Result: Starbucks extracts more money from non-price-sensitive person. iPod Touch/iPhone App Want to buy coffee? There’s an app for that. The Starbucks Mobile App, from what I can gather, tries to make your iPhone or iPod Touch act like your Starbucks card. And right now, if you use it to reload $25 or more using your Visa card, you can earn a one-time $5 bonus. That’s two free drinks for me… too bad I don’t have an iGadget. Free Birthday Drink I’m usually not big on gift cards, but there are some decent perks with using a registered Starbucks card. You get 2 hours of free Wi-Fi per day, unlimited refills on drip coffee, and now you also get a free drink on your birthday. I like the first two features better, but free is free.
2009 Q3 Investment Portfolio Update – 9/21/09
Retirement Portfolio Actual Target Asset Class / Fund % % Broad US Stock Market ($64,794) 33.8% 34% VTSMX – Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund DISFX – Diversified Stock Index Institutional Fund* FSEMX – Fidelity Spartan Extended Market Index Fund* US Small-Cap Value ($17,554) 9.1% 8.5% VISVX – Vanguard Small Cap Value Index Fund Real Estate (REITs) $18,004 9.4% 8.5% VGSIX – Vanguard REIT Index Fund Broad International Developed $46,820 24.4% 25.5% FSIIX – Fidelity Spartan International Index Fund* International Emerging Markets $21,678 11.3% 8.5% VEIEX – Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund Bonds – Short-Term $4,484 2.3% 3.8% VFISX – Vanguard Short-Term Treasury Fund Bonds – Inflation-Indexed $18,568 9.7% 11.3% VIPSX – Vanguard Inflation-Protected Securities Fund Total Portfolio Value $191,902 * denotes 401(k) holding given limited investment options. Like many others, for most of this year I’ve just been trying to keep my head down, make my regular stock contributions like a good boy, and not looking at my statement balances too much! There’s been a lot of “wow, my portfolio isn’t so bad anymore” talk due to the recent market run, so I figured it was time for a checkup. You know of course, that this also means the market will tank today… Contribution Details So far in 2009, we have made the following contributions: $5,000 x 2 for 2008 non-deductible IRA contributions $5,000 x 2 for 2009 IRA contributions $33,052 for both of our 401k contributions, including salary deferral and company match. One is maxed out, the other has a little left to go. 2009 Performance In my last update back in April, I had found our year-to-date performance to be about -15%. According to my spreadsheet, the 2009 year-to-date dollar-weighted performance of our personal portfolio is now 41% YTD. For reference, the Vanguard S&P 500 Fund (VFINX) has returned 20.52% YTD, their FTSE All World Ex-US fund (VFWIX) has returned 35.72% YTD, and their Total Bond Index fund (VBMFX) is 5.11% YTD as of 9/18/09. The Vanguard Target 2045 Fund (VTIVX) has returned 23.4% YTD, which as a similar stock/bond breakdown to our portfolio, but less international exposure. Part of the good relative performance (which was previously relatively poor) is also likely due due to the timing of my large lump-sum investments. Investment Changes We have used our new contributions to keep us close to our asset allocation target, with a 85% stocks/15% bonds split. Right now, we are not too far off. The target percentages for each asset class are shown above as well. Currently, with the run-up in equities, we are a bit underweight in bonds. You can view all my previous portfolio snapshots here.
