My Entrepreneurial Spirit did not die after graduating College.
During the early 2000s I embarked on what would be my second attempt at running a business.
That journey started as research for products to buy and resell on eBay.
The research led to the discovery of a highly profitable electronic product with a great source.
Mp3 and mp4 players.
It was a fairly new technology at the time. Most people were not very familiar with how to download music onto these small handheld devices.
I was able to capitalize on the hole in the market and the business was very successful.
The major advertising channel I used was Craigslist. I had one successful location that operated on the weekends, which at one time grew to 2 physical locations, had a website that was generating revenue consistently, became a Powerseller on eBay - selling to individuals and wholesalers, sold on Amazon, developed partnerships with local gyms, and a joint venture with a watch company that also had mp3 technology built in, setup at local colleges and at trade shows.
Do you remember Myspace? (insert old person joke here...) Well, if you do, that's where I had an account and I stored mp3/mp4 tutorials for my customer's Frequently Asked Questions.
I loved every minute of running that business. The product sourcing, the negotiating, the marketing, the selling, the advertising.
It really brought out a creativity inside of me that I rarely had a chance to display when working in Corporate America.
That business was very successful, but the electronic products I sourced were from an overseas supplier and they were not the best quality products.
Returns due to malfunctions in the electronics of the unit became common, the electronics had a warranty, but there was a 30 day turnaround for the entire process.
And with online orders the process was longer.
Eventually we decided to move from the mp3/mp4 players to mobile phones which was a more crowded and competitive field at the time.
We operated under the new model for sometime but eventually I was forced to sell the business and go back to Corporate America to a job to support my family.
If there was one thing I would have done differently with that business is to work closer with the supplier to bring a higher quality product to the market.