Karate Kids

This former ballerina and stunt woman has turned her love of martial arts into an empire.

 

Entrepreneur: Dawn Barnes, 40s, founder of Dawn Barnes Karate Kids Inc.in Santa Monica, California

Description: children's karate school that focuses on inspiring self-esteem in every child

Startup Costs: $15,000 in 1995

Projected 2005 sales: $2.5 million for the four studios

Pupil to teacher: In 1984, Dawn Barnes enrolled herself and her two young sons in a karate class with no idea of the adventures that awaited. By signing up, this former ballerina and stuntwoman started down the path to becoming a third-degree black belt, successful entrepreneur and well-known leader in the martial arts industry. Fascinated by the physical/spiritual balance of martial arts, Barnes trained diligently and, about 10 years later, opened the doors to her own school.

Mind, body, spirit: Described by some as the "Four Seasons of karate," Barnes' four schools are lavishly equipped with leather seating, wall murals, Olympic judo mats and colorful equipment. But the schools' true beauty can be found in the life skills emphasized during each class. Focusing on respect, patience, kindness and honesty, all 1,200 students, ages 4 to 14, finish each class with a single thought: "Every day, do something to make your mind strong, your body strong, your spirit strong."

No fear: Barnes's next step is to take the phrase she coined--"positive dialogue response," meaning motivating children with praise rather than fear--worldwide. She has written instructors manuals and produced DVDs used by teachers worldwide, she spreads her teachings by speaking at national conventions, and she has written a new children's book series--soon to be turned into a feature film--titled The Black Belt Club. Says Barnes, "If one seed of self-esteem can be planted in one child, that child is going to grow up and make a difference for other people."

Taking Sportswear to a New Level

Chic meets beach at this upscale fashion destination.

 

Description: High-end clothing retailer with three locations in Orange County, California
Founders: Billy Stade, 35, & Kari Stade, 25
Location: Costa Mesa, California
Projected 2005 Sales: $6 million

Snowboard Season: Billy Stade's passion for snowboarding led him to start selling snowboards out of a tiny 5-foot-by-20-foot retail space in 1993. With only enough money for first and last month's rent, Billy negotiated deals with vendors he knew to front him product. The snowboards sold well that first season, but as warmer weather approached, Billy realized he'd have to expand his product offering if he was going to stay in business during the spring and summer months. As he looked at the surf and clothing shops in his high-traffic Huntington Beach, California, location, Billy decided to get into the fashion arena. And there were other expansions: About six years ago, Billy hired Kari as an office manager, and the pair married in 2003.

Fashion Forward: Going beyond typical surf wear, The Closet sells both men's and women's fashions that echo chic international styles with the relaxed California vibe mixed in. "We always had to be forward, progressive and intelligent to compete with such big surf shops around us," recalls Billy. Today, The Closet sells only a few high-end, limited-edition snowboard products, having shifted to focus on its extremely successful fashion retail business. With an eye for the high-end sportswear and casual trends exemplified by brands like Lacoste, Modern Amusement, Stussy and Volcom, The Closet has been compared to boutiques like Henri Bendel in Los Angeles.

Failed Economics: It hasn't been all sunny days for this entrepreneurial couple, though. They recall late 2001, when The Closet launched a third location that was quickly toppled by the economic downturn after 9/11. "We just buckled down," says Billy. "We went completely bare-bones. It was just [Kari] and I working 9-to-9 shifts [to] build back up." With perseverance, they weathered the storm, and today the company again operates stores in three of Orange County's coastal locales--Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach--with plans to add two more next year.

Surviving Hurricane Katrina

How one New Orleans entrepreneur picked up the pieces following the worst natural disaster in U.S. history

Disaster Strikes: Last August, Chris Reams sat in a Las Vegas hotel room transfixed to the TV. Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster ever to hit the country, was unfolding live on the screen. "It was like watching my own 9/11, only Mother Nature was the terrorist this time," says Reams, 31. "I kept thinking of how different the city I loved was going to be upon my return and wondered what would be left." Of all the images of businesses being destroyed, Reams desperately searched for one that would show if his clothing shop, Ichabod's, had survived.

It didn't. Like tens of thousands of others, the business was in ruins.Reams had flown to Las Vegas a day before the storm hit to attend a trade show. It would take him more than a month to return home after staying with family members in St. Louis. He found that although the shop had avoided the full affects of flooding, the looters had spared nothing. "It was horrible," Reams remembers. "I didn't stay in there long; I couldn't bear it." They had broken in, stolen most of his goods and destroyed what they couldn't take.

Before the Storm: Ichabod's had opened in New Orleans just a few months before Katrina hit. The trendy clothing store featured many of Reams' own designs. Originally located in nearby Covington, where he lived, Reams had moved the operation in April, hoping to profit from the lucrative young market provided by the nearby Tulane and Loyola University campuses. "Normally, the summer is a slow time for retail," Reams recalls. "We were taking it easy, waiting for school to start."

Home Sweet Home: When he returned to his home 30 minutes outside of New Orleans, there wasn't much left to greet him. "I have a plastic-sheet roof, no garage and plenty of debris," Reams says. "I'm trying to keep from going crazy most days."

While surveying the damage done to his house, Reams found that his clothing inventory and screen-printing equipment had survived. Determined to find a way to get back on his feet quickly, he took what he could and set up a temporary workspace in his fiancée's father's home in Covington.

Bright Idea: With help from his sister and other friends who had internet connections, Reams successfully re-launched his websitein one week, complete with new pictures of his shirts. But what really saved Reams was his idea to talk to his competitor in New Orleans, Sarah Wheelock, owner of Funky Monkey. Somehow, the vintage clothing store across the street from his evaded the wrath of looters. "Maybe people didn't want used clothing," Reams laughs.

After reopening, Funky Monkey faced inventory trouble. Some of the nearby residents of the city had moved back in, and they needed clothes, but shipping was a nightmare. So Reams proposed an alliance: He would supply her with his designs, and she would give him 50 percent of the sales on his clothing. The partnership worked, and Funky Monkey has even dedicated more space to Reams' designs. With 2006 sales projected to exceed $500,000, Reams says he--like many other business owners in the area--has no plans to reopen his old store. (Seven other businesses on his street have permanently closed.)

Says Reams of the lessons he learned from the disaster, "[Katrina] forced me to really just move faster on some things I should have done a long time ago, [like] converting [the website] more … [and] getting to know your neighbors."

Right of Fashion

This style trailblazer brought her small-town boutique to the big city.

Business Flair: Stacey Pecor is a natural-born entrepreneur. Her father, a serial entrepreneur, taught her to think big while her mother, the owner of a small clothing store in Burlington, Vermont, exposed her to the world of fashion. "I can remember going to my first fashion boutique," recalls Pecor. "The noise and the sounds and the lights and the color and the people... it was very glamorous to experience something like that." In 1991, Pecor introduced her own dazzling creation: Olive and Bette's Co. Inc.

Fashion Focus: Pecor's goal was to bring the latest styles to fashion-starved women in Vermont. After succeeding there, she expanded Olive and Bette's to New York City's Upper West Side in 1995, becoming one of the first to bring trendy clothing to that neighborhood. To stay cutting-edge, she continually shops the market from coast to coast, securing top designers like Theory along the way. She has since opened three more locations in New York City, carefully choosing high-traffic places that attract a variety of consumers ranging from teenagers and stroller moms to Julia Roberts and Sarah Jessica Parker. Pecor, who has received mentions in Life & Style and Newsweek, plans to open more stores in the city and expand her existing website.

Inside Out: Over the years, big-name stores have settled in her territory, but Pecor's focus on quality from the inside out has helped her not only stand her ground, but also benefit from the extra foot traffic. She provides extensive training to her 50 employees on everything from new products to computers. She also keeps careful track of key measurables like sales, and sets high goals. Says Pecor, "Nothing can sit in the warehouse for more than 24 hours."

From Couch Potato to Furniture King

This entrepreneur started his furniture company on a whim, but this one-time joke biz has become a runaway success.

Bag Is Born: At age 18, Shawn Nelson was watching TV on the couch when he decided "a huge beanbag thing" might be more comfortable. He bought 14 yards of vinyl, cut it into a baseball shape, and spent three weeks filling it with anything soft he could find. The finished LoveSac was 7 feet wide, and everyone who saw it tried it out--and loved it.

Pocket Power: When neighbors started placing orders, Nelson decided to start his company almost as a joke. With free help from his friends, he made the LoveSacs in his parents' basement and sold them at trade shows, events and even the drive-in. Business was moderate at best, until he got a call on his cell phone that changed his life: a quarter-million-dollar order from Too Inc., which was looking for a back-to-school offering for its Limited Too stores. "I answered the phone and said, 'Twelve thousand LoveSacs? Sure, no problem. That's what we do; we're the best in the world at it,'" remembers Nelson.

Hard Road: Undaunted, Nelson amassed $50,000 in credit card debt building a factory. He worked 19-hour days and slept at the factory. "It nearly broke me emotionally, physically, mentally," Nelson says. "My hands were cracked and bleeding. We finished the order [for Too Inc.] but ate up all our profits." Just when things seemed darkest, a deceptively simple idea presented itself: Open a mall store. Not just any store, but one designed from the beginning to look like an upscale chain--even before it was a chain. It paid off: With some 55 stores, about half of them franchised, LoveSac is looking at sales topping $30 million this year.

Looking Forward: "We're headed toward owning [the market for] oversized living," says Nelson, who dispenses with all modesty where his business is concerned. "We're going to have a catalog that'll be three inches thick, selling everything that's over-the-top, bling-bling, LoveSac-get-out-of-our-freaking-way."

Unstoppable: No one fully expected LoveSac's success-not even Nelson himself. He says being committed to solving any problem is vital to his--and any entrepreneur's-success. "Decide that there is always a way," he says, "and you'll find that there is."

The Million-Dollar Home Page

From the "Why didn't I think of that?" file: Learn how this 21-year-old entrepreneur made more than $1 million in five months.

 

Take one college-bound student with an overdrawn bank account and one 20-minute brainstorming session on how to raise money to pay for school, and what do you get? A million-dollar idea that's had people around the world slapping their foreheads and muttering "Why didn't I think of that?" ever since.

With only one month to go before he was to begin classes at a three-year university--and no money in his bank account--Alex Tew was determined to find a way to avoid student debt. Armed with a notebook and pen, Tew stayed up late one night brainstorming ways to make some quick cash.

To help jumpstart his creativity, he wrote down just one question on his notepad: How can I become a millionaire? Twenty minutes later, he had his answer: Sell one million pixels of advertising space on a website for $1 each. "I thought, 'This is one of those crazy, quirky ideas, but it just might work…I've got nothing to lose.' "

 

A Runaway Idea

Tew already had some experience with website design, so with a paltry $100, he quickly bought a domain name and some basic web hosting services and had his website, MillionDollarHomepage.com, up and running in two days.

The concept was simple: Businesses could buy 10x10 or larger blocks of advertising space for a $1 per pixel and place their logos and links on his site. Tew knew no one would be interested in buying pixel space if he didn't get the ball rolling, so he convinced some family and friends to chip in to buy the first 1,000 pixels. He also thought it would be a good story for the media to pick up--"Broke student has quirky way to raise money for college"--so Tew took the money he made from the first 1,000 pixels he sold and used it to write and send out press releases to the local media near his hometown of Cricklade, England (about an hour and a half west of London).

 

The UK media quickly took the bait, but what was even more remarkable--and proved to be the most effective marketing tactic--was that bloggers, online forums and chat rooms also began to embrace the story. Word of mouth through all the varied media attention quickly snowballed, and within two weeks Tew had sold $40,000 worth of pixels--enough to cover his entire three years of college. It didn't take long before media in 35 other countries got wind of Tew's million-dollar homepage idea. In just five months, Tew reached his goal of selling a $1 million worth of pixels. In the past two weeks alone, he's received close to 4 million unique hits.

Part of that traffic was due to his exposure on eBay. With only 1,000 pixels left to sell on his site, he had hundreds of people wanting a piece of internet history. "I thought the only way to logically meet some of that demand without starting another page was to put the last 1,000 pixels [up for sale] on eBay."

On January 11, the winning bid of $38,000 bought the last ad space on his site, putting him well over the million-dollar mark. "I've spent probably about $40,000 maintaining the site and publicizing it, so there's been some degree of expense to keep it going. But still--it's a healthy profit at the end of the day."

Learning to Adapt

If it sounds like Tew skipped all the way to the bank with his 20-minute idea, think again. A large part of his success is hugely owed to his ability to quickly find solutions and adapt to the many problems that unexpectedly popped up during the past five months.

"It's been quite overwhelming because everything has just blown up in such big ways that I never really prepared for," Tew says. "I had to adapt quite quickly due to the sheer volume of interest."

One of the first problems he encountered was that his website wasn't equipped to handle the volume of traffic he began receiving. In the beginning, he had to manually upload every single image and all the links himself. As hundreds of orders began pouring in, though, Tew was forced to hire two people to help maintain the website's database and deal with customers.

The next major problem was that PayPal blocked his account. (PayPal's anti-fraud policy automatically blocks accounts with high volumes of transactions in order to avoid money-laundering schemes.) Tew was forced to quickly come up with an alternative payment method to keep up with the volume of orders he was receiving. Within three hours of PayPal going down, Tew had found a replacement. And although PayPal eventually enabled his account again, Tew kept both payment options open to prevent a similar problem in the future.

Tew also had to learn to release control to others. "In previous projects, I've wanted to do everything," he says. "With this, I had no choice but to get other people involved." So he enlisted the help of family and friends and even a PR person in the United States to deal with the international media. Tew adds, "I've learned the value of letting other people take responsibility for different aspects of the business."

The Next Step

For now, Tew is deferring his college degree until next September in order to take time to reassess his career path to determine which direction he really wants to go. "I've had a lot of job offers from some of the hugest internet companies, but I think my long-term future is going into business to do my own thing."

In the meantime, Tew plans on donating a portion of his site's profits to a local UK charity that helps young people start their own businesses. The same charity once helped him secure a $3,500 loan to do music-related projects.

"It'll be nice to give something back," he says. "And if I can be anything of an inspiration to other young people wanting to start businesses, well, that's a good thing as well."

A Young Entrepreneur's Advice

Just 21 years old and already an experienced entrepreneur, Alex Tew has some sage advice for anybody looking to start their own business.

• If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail. "That old saying is a cliché, but it's absolutely true," says Tew. "Had I known this was going to be so successful I would have probably prepared a lot better for it. But playing it by ear and making adaptations along the way has been a valuable learning experience, and I know what mistakes not to make next time."

  Part of being prepared means writing a business plan. "It can be difficult to do cash-flow forecasts when you haven't started a business or to write a proper business plan when you don't know how much you're going to make," Tew says. "But you have to lay out in your mind exactly what you're trying to achieve."

• Be creative. "The biggest thing I've learned is to have faith in creativity because ideas work," Tew says.
• Go big. "Make sure your hobby is big enough to make money," Tew advises. In 2002, Tew launched Humanbeatbox.com, an online community for vocal percussionists. The site now has more than 11,000 members and is one of the largest sites for beatbox artists, but the experience taught Tew a valuable lesson. "The mistake I made was that beatboxing was such a niche thing that there wasn't enough money to make a sustainable business. As people start businesses based on hobbies, [they should] make sure there's a big enough market for that hobby."
• Keep trying. "I've had lots of ideas over the years that haven't necessarily been as successful as this one, but I've learned lots of lessons with each one," says Tew. "There's no such thing as a failure because every time you fail, you learn something that you don't do next time. So always keep going. And good luck."

How Michael Senoff Makes Up To $1000 A Day Selling Used Seminar Tapes On eBay

I first learned about Jay Abraham from a video by Tony Robbins. Jay was speaking at one of Tony's expensive Life Mastery seminars. I was totally blown away by Jay's ideas. Immediately, I started looking for his seminar products.
The first item I was looking for was a set of tapes of the famous Jay Abraham $20,000 protégé mentor training seminar from 1990. You read that right: $20,000. That's how much it cost to attend. The press called it: "The world's most expensive seminar". The students were there to learn how to become a master marketing wizard just like Jay Abraham.
I wanted to be a marketing wizard too, but I did not want to spend $20,000. Anyone that attended the seminar received a copy of the entire program on a set of audiotapes. I knew If I could just find someone who attended the seminar, I might be able to borrow their tapes. If so, I could get a $20,000 Jay Abraham marketing education for free.
I did some digging and managed to find a guy from Northern California who had attended the seminar. I asked to buy his tapes. He said no but agreed to fax me the names of all the people who went to the seminar in Southern California. I found a lady on the list who lived in San Diego. I called her and told her I was looking for a set of the tapes from the Jay Abraham seminars. She said she had them and I negotiated a price of $50. I got the complete $20,000 seminar for only $50.
I studied these marketing materials day and night for six months. I was listening to Jay Abraham while I was jogging, while I was driving, and while I was doing yard work. I would even go to sleep with a Walkman on my head literally dreaming about marketing. That is how powerful and addictive these marketing materials and tapes are.
Along with the 55 audiotape seminar, there was a list of 900 protégés who had trained under Jay Abraham in four previous seminar sessions. The list was intended to be a tool for the seminar attendees to network with each other. When I saw this list, I knew I had hit pay dirt. More on that in a minute.
You see, like a lot of guys, I loved to barbecue outdoors. I was shopping for a new grill and one hot summer day in July I came across the most extraordinary barbecue grill I had ever seen. It is called a "Kamado" and it was billed as the world's finest ceramic smoker-grill.
Well, I knew I had to have one. There was only one little problem. This gorgeous Blue ceramic tiled Kamado grill sells for $1895 plus shipping.
Now I knew there was no way my wife was going to let me spend this kind of money on "a grill", so I told my wife I was going to sell my Jay Abraham tapes and use the money to buy my blue Kamado grill!
The original set of Jay Abraham protégé tapes that I had bought for $50 sold right away for $1700 on my very first marketing effort. I was stunned! I had made a killing the first time out of the gate.
To make sure this was not a one-time fluke, I promoted another less expensive set of Jay Abraham boot camp tapes the next day. This set sold very quickly for $900.
After these two sales, I have enough profits to become the proud owner of a brand-new blue Kamado ceramic smoker, and there was not a thing my wife could do or say about it.
Convinced that I had a hungry market, I went right to work. I still had the list that I mentioned earlier of the 900 Jay Abraham protégés who possessed all of these valuable Jay Abraham products. All I had to do is track them down.
Finding people from a ten-year-old list was no easy task. Most of the phone numbers were wrong. Many of the people no longer had the seminar materials. But one out of ten people I made contact with did. Usually, it was as neatly packed away as it was the day they brought it home from the seminar. Many tapes had never been used, not even once and the printed materials were in pristine condition.
As I continued to contact these people, I made another discovery: A person who pays $20,000 for a seminar is considered a gold mine to marketing information sellers like Jay Abraham, Gary Halbert, Dan Kennedy, and Ted Nicholas. These marketing gurus will spend thousands of dollars to locate and have a chance to sell to this type of buyer who they refer to as 'Big Fish'.
These sellers get together to enter into joint venture partnerships. They refer and endorse each other's marketing materials to these same hot buyers using all their in-house customer lists.
Because of this, when I found a person who had attended the $20,000 Jay Abraham seminar, they would usually have tons of other marketing materials from all the other great marketing promoters as well.
All the materials I sell are purchased from the original owners. Many have even mortgaged their homes and maxed out their credit cards just to get their hands on this critical information. I make these packages available to you at huge discounts.

http://www.hardtofindseminars.com

How A Lady Stumpled Upon A $100000 A Year Business Working On Sundays.

After buying their first home, Debra Cohen and her husband faced the unenviable chore of finding reliable home improvement contractors. Fed up with blindly picking names from the Yellow Pages and waiting for contractors who didn't show up, it occurred to Cohen that if she and her husband were having trouble finding contractors, other homeowners in their community must be facing a similar predicament. This bleak reality sparked the creation of a unique service that has since expanded into a profitable cottage industry across the U.S. and internationally.

After extensive conversations with lawyers, business consultants, contractors and insurance agents, Cohen, 38, started Hewlett, New York-based Home Remedies of NY Inc. from her home in February 1997. This stay-at-home mom used a $5,000 loan, a computer and a refurbished fax machine to launch her part-time business. Right away, the response from homeowners was tremendous, and after three months in business, she repaid her loan. Her gross earnings in the first year were almost $30,000.

Today, Home Remedies is a contractor referral service that matches home-owners with reliable home-repair workers. The appeal to customers is that the company takes on the time-consuming task of locating and screening qualified contractors, checking to make sure they're adequately insured and licensed, and serving as a liaison between the contractor and the homeowner throughout the course of a job. Home Remedies provides a win-win situation for both parties: Services are provided free of charge to the homeowner, and contractors represented by Home Remedies only pay a commission for any work they secure.

At first, Cohen worked approximately 15 hours to 20 hours per week; she now works about 30 hours per week. Last year, sales for Home Remedies exceeded $100,000. Cohen earns additional income by selling manuals and packages on how to get started in the referral business.

http://www.homereferralbiz.com/