Starting a Business

Mojo Boards - Entrepreneur Jason Rogers

I (Aleina Baham, BYUI student) interviewed Jason Rogers. He’s started business making and designing longboards. He said that what surprised him the most about his ventures creation process was the cost of everything. He said that the combination of everything ends up costing three times as much as you think it will, that you will only get a third back of what you that you think you will, and that it takes 3 times as long as you think it will.

The toughest part about putting together his business was raising the finances. You have to have money to live off of while you’re starting the business and you have to raise or borrow enough money to start the business with. Working within your means proves to be difficult.

His expectations going into the process were as such that he expected to:

·       start making money in the first year

·       build a website with little to no money

·       get people to flow to that website without any advertising

·       create videos advertising his long boards in a short time

·       create a business all by himself

·       and that he could do it without any investors.

His expectations were not met at all. He found that you can’t expect to make any profit for the first 5 years. You’re bound to be disappointed due to not reaching your expectations. The more you stick to it the more your expectations change. He found that it is important to have lots of people involved in your business because the more people you have in your business that are inspired in it, the more help you have to stay inspired and keep going.

When he needed funding for his company he started off by getting a job. Realizing that he was going to need more money he started borrowing money from friends and customers and would pay their money back with 10% interest in 6 months or less. He is now in the process of getting funded by Angel Investors. A company that works with you one on one instead of in a large board room full of people.

He determined the size of the opportunity or market size by evaluating the market, margin, and multiples. He said, “You have to hit high in two of those to make it [in your business].” He found that the market for his business was 6 to 7 million dollars a year in revenue. “It’s a decent market, but not a huge market like cell phones.”

What I have put into my business so far.

Starting a business doesn't take a lot of money if you do it right but it will take a lot of your time. There are 5 steps I went through to start this business. Each step cost a little more money then the next.

Step 1 (one) was to validate the idea. The idea question was; Will a longboard with a handle be particle? $40 in put down on a deck the $100 on wheels and trucks. After 2 months of riding I was confident it was a valid concept.

Step 2 (two) will it sale? $105 went into buying glue, paint, trucks, and wheels for the cardboard mock up. People loved the design and started fallow my progress.

Step 3 (three) find a manufacture. People will not invest time or money endless you have a plan and passion. The plan must be soled and in my case it wasn't soled till I found a manufacture.

Step 4 (four) testing again. $130 was payed to make the first board. We tested it then fixed the design then payed $357 For the next 5 decks.

Step 5 (five) Pre sale and set up marketing. By this point I had already sold all 5 boards before the end of the first week. Witch was good because that payed for trucks and wheels for the boards later. This was the time I payed for the license for the company. It wasn't a company till we got to this point.

 All this took place in 3 months. In total I had put in $732 and if you add the business license it was $1,012. This was only the beginning.

Work than Play

"You've gotta live before you die"

We work...a LOT. Did you know that working a typical 8-hour/day job you spend almost 1/3 of your life WORKING? We also sleep a lot. When you crunch the numbers again you'll find that the average person spends another 1/3 of their life sleeping (unless you're in college of course)

That leaves you with 1/3 of the Pie of life (and even that is being generous) to do what you love. And what is it? Why do you do it? Why DON'T you do it? These are important questions to consider

Longboarding for me has always been something that I've made time for when I have a spare moment of that last 1/3. I longboard because it frees me, it liberates me. For those special moments I'm on my board all that matters is cruising as hard as I can and feeling the wind against my face reminding me that I'm alive. I know that sounds pretty hippy-like, but let's be real...chances are you know exactly what I'm talking about! It's something that can be done little justice in written description and really needs to be EXPERIENCED.

So I ask you, "What are you doing with the 1/3 of your life that is freed up?" Are you wasting it doing something that drains you? Are you happy with what you're doing?

There are plenty of things that breathe life into the day to day grind we are all subjected to and longboarding just so happens to be the one that Mojo is committed to making accessible and more exhilarating for you longboarders out there. So do what you love, and love what you do!




get the grip...

It's a struggle

       Bootstrapping a business has been one of the toughest things I have ever done. When we ordered the first batch of boards we did not expect it to take as long as it did for them to come in. They were suppose to be here in two weeks but they came in two months. They are finally here and they feel great to ride. While waiting for the boards we began to focus our attention on fixing the website and developing relationships with wholesalers. Thanks to our new partner company, COMV, we have an amazing site. They saw the potential our company has and signed an agreement to take care of our marketing and web presence for a small percent of our sales. You can see our website at Mojodecks.com

      When I started to look into getting our wheels and trucks at wholesale prices, I realized how important it is to get the comapny registered. So we finished getting that taken care of, but now we have less money to work with. Luckly we had two sales recently that payed for the licensing, trucks and wheels for a few of the boards.

     Our next step to focus on is creating a kickstarter video. We hope to build enough funds to pay for the shipments of the rest of the trucks and wheels and a CNC machine to make the production of the boards easier for our manufacturers.

The starting of a new idea into a business

The Progress

When I first started thinking about Mojo longboards it wasn't even a name yet, only an idea. An idea of having a longboard with a handle in it. I looked around and found only one site with a board that had a handle and the board wasn't all that cool looking.    The first board I bought on amazon. When it came in the mail, right away I started carving out a handle with a pocket knife and a box cutter. I can be really handy with a box cutter but it looked a lot better after I had borrowed a few tools from my father. I rode that board for 6 months and received a lot of compliments for the handle. So many of my fellow college students asked where I got it, those who had a longboard would say “man I wish my board had a handle, that would make it so much easier to carry around at school!” Those who wanted a longboard would say “Man, when I get a board I want one with a handle in it too.” Right away I knew the real longboard market wasn’t being fully tapped. Most boarders are college student but boards were being made just for boarders. They needed to be made with the college student in mind.

       The business didn't become something till my entrepreneur teacher, Ralph Little, challenged me to make a video about the project in ten days. I ran with the challenge and never stop running sense.  Mojo longboards didn’t fully take off till 3 things happened. #1 a fire kindled by my entrepreneur teacher to get the idea moving. #2 I had to work out all the details of how to get the boards manufactured, and how to ship them. #3 Friends and random people, who later became friends, grew to raving fans and gave me their full support.

The cardboard mockup

       We went through many different designs and finally settle on the board you now see today called the Eve.

I made different cardboard mockups and asked Friends with the right tools to make prototypes. After much searching we then found a manufacture who would work with us and they just so happened to be in the same town.