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.”
