Hard driven seniors spin profit

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Chatting over sushi on a week night in the Cafe, seniors Robert Burns and Sarah Schoen seem like typical Bowdoin students—except for the fact that they just made more than $50,000 in profit with their recently founded computer resale business, which was founded just four months ago. And that is only the beginning.

The idea for the business first struck Burns last summer while he was working for the Maine Department of Education in Augusta. He learned of a program through the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI), which leases Apple iBook computers for every seventh and eighth grader in the state's public schools. After the computers' four-year leases end, MLTI buys the computers for about $40 each from Apple and sells them at extremely low prices in a surplus warehouse in Augusta.

Burns saw an opportunity for quick profit by updating the computers and reselling them on Web sites like eBay and craigslist.org. Burns, a computer science major, was familiar with easy and efficient tasks like reimaging a computer's hard drive and upgrading the memory chips, which greatly increases the laptops' selling value. In August, Schoen partnered with Burns on his entrepreneurial venture, and together they pooled their savings to buy 12 computers, planning to survive the remainder of the summer on canned spaghetti if their investment fell through.

However, the small-scale Internet scheme was so successful that it quickly escalated into a full-fledged business called Appleton Computers (both a play on the merchandise they sell and a tribute to Burns's first-year dorm). Following a lawyer's advice, Burns and Schoen registered with the State of Maine as a limited liability partnership in order to protect their personal assets. Within two months, Schoen and Burns recruited three Bowdoin friends and Burns's father as investors by offering a convincing sales history and handsome profit shares. The extra cash allowed them to expand the operation, and soon they were selling 90 to 110 laptops a month to customers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Germany.

Appleton Computers currently boasts a 100 percent customer satisfaction rate on eBay, but the Web site has been less than satisfactory for business. So far, eBay has suspended the business' activity twice without warning or explanation, which significantly disrupted sales.

"We believe that they thought the computers were stolen. It was like: suspend and ask questions later...There was a real lack of communication," explains Schoen. During the three weeks it took to straighten out the matter, the pair would probably have sold well over 40 computers, so the setback was "a major hit."

Another difficulty Schoen and Burns have faced is discerning reliable buyers from scammers. They have been warned of certain groups from Africa and Asia that send fake money orders, so Schoen and Burns personally monitor all the e-mail purchase requests they receive carefully.

Despite a few bad experiences, Schoen enjoys dealing with the customers and occasionally makes generous exceptions in order to please them: "Sometimes we'll get messages saying things like 'I'm a single mom, I'm working two jobs, I could really use this computer, but I can only afford to pay this much' and we'll say 'Okay, you've touched our hearts, that's fine.' Then we'll get a follow up message that says 'This really means a lot to me and it made a big difference in my life.'"

Over Winter Break, Schoen and Burns attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which is the largest industry-wide convention.

"We went there to find some more business contacts. We talked to a few people, and we didn't really find too many people who would sell us Apple computers, but we found plenty of people that would sell us other electronics, like digital cameras, so we're toying with the idea of branching out into more than just computers right now," Burns says.

Schoen and Burns also hope to develop their own Internet auctioning Web site and enlarge the business to include textbooks. They want to market the site to students on a budget by posting links on university Web sites. However, at this time both Schoen and Burns are unsure of their post-graduation plans.

"The greatest part about running an Internet business is that you can live anywhere in the country and still operate," Burns said.

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Holly Nill-McKay

http://www.fetalgreetings.com

When Holly was pregnant a few years back in 1999, she looked for a unique way to tell her friends and family of her pregnancy. Making phone call after phone call to every cousin, aunt and uncle was a daunting task, but she still wanted to share her news with everyone. She hunted through stores and on the Internet and all she could find were birth announcements. Thus, Holly's idea for Fetal Greetings was born. She wanted to create cards where a little embryo baby could make the announcement of the upcoming birth for her.

She began by asking a friend from high school, who had a talent for drawing, to draw some pictures of fetal babies in different settings (i.e. sonogram, mother's belly). She was most pleased with the results and the drawings came out exactly as Holly had wanted. Holly proceeded to create the sayings for all the different cards. In June of 2000, Holly took her business online with http://www.fetalgreetings.com

Holly's business is run completely online and she takes orders via a secure website or by phone.

Holly designed her own website but worked with a webmaster until recently. She is pleased to now have complete control of her site now and to have the ability to make changes anytime, which she does almost everyday.

Holly attributes her online success to networking, gathering current online business information and analyzing the competition.

"Networking is vital," says Holly. She belongs to several online groups, including MyWoman2Woman and Creative Enterprises. "It's invaluable to interact with others who are in your same boat of running a home-based business," Holly says emphatically, "You learn from each other's mistakes and successes and get to form a real bond with people you otherwise wouldn't have when running a home business by yourself."

Finally, Holly stresses the need to check in to see what your competition is up to. Always know who is ranking higher on the search engines than you and why. Submit to search engines regularly and test out new keywords and phrases.

Running a business from home with two small children at home all day does have it's challenges. Holly mainly works during her children's naps and when they go to bed at night.
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Mobile Bandits

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http://www.mobilebandits.com/

Have you ever mistaken somebody else’s cell phone for your own? It’s not difficult to do with the proliferation of the handy little gadgets in our busy lives, which is why the Wagner family came up with Mobile Bandits.

“It’s a great, simple concept,” says John Wagner, 54, describing the small plastic bands that come in six different colors and fit neatly onto almost any cell phone antenna. In late 2004, his daughter, Alison, now 25, told him about the family plans she was selling while working at a Verizon retail store. “People kept asking her how they could tell the cell phones apart,” John says. So she came up with the idea of putting tiny, easily recognizable and brightly colored bands on the phone antennas.

Using his own money, John hired a local plastic manufacturer in Denver who was able to produce their designs using parts available in the shop. “I just looked at whatever existing inventory he had,” John says. While John was busy with the first batch of Mobile Bandits and filing a patent, his son, Andrew, 20, designed a logo and created a website (www.mobilebandits.com). By searching online, the Wagners were able to find a packaging company that fit their budget.

“It went really fast,” John says. “I looked at is as we either go quickly with it or we don’t go at all, because it could have easily been copied.”

The Mobile Bandits are currently distributed in Phones Plus stores around Denver, with 2007 sales projected at $100,000. The Wagners have big plans for the little plastic bands and are looking to sell them wholesale to major phone companies like Cingular and Verizon to be packaged with family plans.
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