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.