Interview with Mike Ferrari, Co-Founder of SmartyPig

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While I was doing some research for my article “Frugality for College Students - 13 Ways To Save Money While In College” I asked my Twitter friends for some suggestions. One of the replies that popped up was from Mike Ferrari at SmartyPig.com suggesting his website as a way for students to save towards a goal of theirs whether it be for books, a spring break trip, a new camera, a trip, or whatever. So after taking a browse through the SmartyPig website, I decided to give it a shot and test out the system. Because the sign up process was so easy and the site is easy to navigate in it self, I thought it was a great idea. I got in contact with Mike again via Twitter to see if he would be interested in doing an interview for Dorm Room Biz. With that being said, the following is an interview we exchanged via multiple emails. I hope you enjoy!

Start off by telling us a little bit about your background - where you went to school, what you studied, etc.
I’m from Ohio, originally. Bowling Green and Dayton. I moved to Des Moines when I was 15. I went to DePauw University, in Greencastle, Indiana. Graduated in 1993 in Psychology and Business Administration. Went into advertising right after college.

What sparked your initial interest in entrepreneurship?
Always had a thing for coming up with business ideas. You know the routine. You come up with this great idea and ultimately end up talking yourself out of it. I became quite good at it. Drove my wife mad. But one day, almost four years ago, I had this idea that I found really hard to blow holes threw. That idea was and became what is known as SmartyPig.

Almost four years ago, my wife and I had our first child, Charlie. I remember thinking how important it was to start a college savings program for him. I remember starting his 529 plan a few weeks after he was born. We started putting a hundred dollars away each month. And after 5 or 6 months, I remember logging into the 529 site and seeing his savings build. And more importantly, remembering that feeling of “responsible saving”. It was like I hadn’t even missed the money. Automatically taken out of my checking each month. We just became accustomed to not having the money. Soon after I was in Phoenix playing golf with some old college buddies. I had just dropped them off at the airport and I went back to my hotel to kill a few hours before my flight back to Des Moines. I grabbed my computer looking for a site that would help me save up for other things in my life. I wanted to save up for a trip for my wife and I (some day) to go to Italy. A lofty goal I knew would take years to save for. And I also knew I wanted a new road bike next year. Was training for Ride The Rockies with some friends… So I just assumed there was a site out their that was all about “goal savings”. When I didn’t see it, I guess you could say I had my “light bulb” moment. Started drafting a business plan right then and there. It was all I thought about. Trying to shoot holes in the idea from every direction. I spent the next few months flushing out the idea and showed it to a friend of mine, Jon Gaskell. It wasn’t long before the two of us quit our jobs and became the co-founders of SmartyPig.

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Are you Revoluminary?

When I came across Dorm Room Biz, I was encouraged to find other students trying to start businesses from their dorm rooms. I thought that by sharing my story on this blog, we could get a good conversation going and help folks make some money…

The Inspiration

On a dollar per hour basis, tutoring is about as lucrative a job as any for most college students. Simply look at tutoring gigs on Craigslist about a month before SATs, and you’ll see what I mean. Neurotically ambitious parents will pay through the roof to get their children into a good school or to get good grades. Play an instrument? Interviewed for competitive jobs? Speak a foreign language? People will pay you for music lessons, mock interviews or even for talking to someone in another language! So why isn’t everyone doing it?

That’s exactly what my friend Pete and I were thinking about a year ago. Landing a tutoring gig involved persistent advertising on classifieds boards and guerilla-esque networking to find friend-of-a-friend students. If I was lucky enough to get responses, I’d be asked for references (which I don’t have), asked to work odd hours (that conflict with school) and commute to the students’ homes (I don’t have a car). Somewhat of an archaic process, isn’t it?

Fast-forward to today, and check out the solution we’ve come up with on www.Revoluminary.com. We created a site that allows students to essentially start their own tutoring businesses without leaving their dorm rooms. Here’s how it works.

Getting Started

Go to Revoluminary, create a profile and list a class. It can be anything: math, language, mock interviews, traveling tips to your home city… anything goes!

Advertise yourself

Make sure you list your credentials and set an attractive hourly price. Send invitations using our “Send to a Friend” button. Put together a YouTube commercial and embed it on the site (see mine for an embarrassing example). Add our widget on your Facebook page so your friends can see which classes you’re teaching. The more your do to get the word out, the more students you’ll get.

Build a Reputation

Make sure your tutoring sessions are high-quality and memorable. Test your webcam and microphone ahead of time. Use the shared whiteboard, video-feed and instant message tools wisely and your students will be impressed. To enhance your class, create a relevant file (slide presentation, spreadsheet, etc..) and upload it into your class ahead of time. Finally, encourage your students to provide feedback after the class. The higher your ratings, the more future students you’ll get!

Thanks a lot, Chris, for letting me guest-post. I look forward to hearing everyone’s feedback and to seeing you all on Revoluminary!

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Make Money From CashCrate. It is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Over the last couple months I have been involved with a great money making opportunity for students. The service is called CashCrate. I have most about CashCrate many other times on Dorm Room Biz describing the program as well as when I got my first check! Well, another check came recently and I thought I would post a little bit more about CashCrate and how easy it is to make money from surveys and different offers.

CashCrate is a great system because you can make money without even filling out the surveys. Although filling out the surveys means that you can make more money, it is time consuming and can be a bit of a pain. The problem with these surveys and offers is that to complete one you will definitely have to give up your email address and will most likely have to complete other offers for it to go through. However, there are some great ones that pay well, if you pay. For instance, I completed the Netflix offer which was a 15 day free trial and then costs like $8.99 a month after that. I joined through CashCrate and submitted it as being completed, and although they waited the 15 days to make sure that I actually joined the service and made the first monthly payment, I was then paid $15.00 - so I essentially made $6.01 for joining Netflix which I had been wanting to do anyway. If you take some of the higher paying offers that you may spend a couple bucks on, you can make even more money back. Some offers will cost you $2-$5 to complete (usually for shipping of something like a book or DVD) and then you’ll get paid say $15-$20.

However, surveys are just the tip of the iceberg with CashCrate. They have a great referral system which allows you to promote a referral link on your website or in forums. When people sign up through your link, you get paid. When the person completes their first $10 worth of offers (the minimum payout), then you as the referrer get paid $3.00, these are your first level referrals. You then also make money from your second level referrals. This means that when you refer someone to CashCrate and then they refer someone else, you make money that way. Starting out, you make 20% of what your referrals make and 15% of what their referrals make; yet as you refer more people, this percentage gets adjusted and can increase.

So, if you can continually refer people to CashCrate, or any similar service that has the same kind of referral program set up, you can be making money without even having to fill out the surveys. This is the point that I hope to get it. So far I have 13 first level referrals and a second level referral. As these people continue to refer others, I will continue to make money.

Here is the important secret though - you need to complete your first $10 worth of offers to really take advantage of the program. So, spend 30 minutes when you sign up and just keep completing offers. If you reach that $10 mark, great, but you could always keep going. For my first check, I only had one referral payment of $3 and the other $20 some was from referrals. For April so far, I am making about $10 from my referrals. So if you join and complete that first $10 mark and then refer people, you can really make some money with the CashCrate program.

Now, this is a great side income generator so, I encourage you to join CashCrate, complete the $10 worth of offers, and then promote the hell out of the program. It is great to watch your monthly earnings continue to rise and receive emails saying that you have earned more money for not doing any work.

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Are you already a member of CashCrate? How are you promoting the service and earning money? I’d love to hear other people’s success stories from using the program!

February CashCrate Check Arrived!

After coming home from Spring Break, I was excited to find in the mail my first check from CashCrate. I was very happy to be paid pretty quickly, considering it probably arrived on the 12th or 13th. Even though it wasn’t an earth shattering amount, $26.25, every little bit helps!

This month so far from only doing a couple offers last night, I am up to $16.61 so I’m looking to cross over the $50 mark for this month if not more.

I have a post coming up on Wednesday about a different technique to managing your time and getting your priorities done efficiently. This concept will play into making money from CashCrate and dedicating so much time a week to put towards earning more and more from their system.

Has anyone else signed up for CashCrate and found it as a good money maker? From the little bit of time I put towards it after joining, I am liking it so far.

February Entrepreneur Magazine Highlights

I just got an opportunity to flip through the February edition of Entrepreneur Magazine and wanted to highlight a couple stories that I thought you guys would all enjoy. So here we go…

1.  Blog-A-Thon by Guy Kawasaki - “I know a fair amount about evangelism and a little bit about blogging, so I’ve combined the two to provide some insights into the evangelism of a blog.”

2. Blogging for Dollars by Mike Hogan -  Entrepreneurs are starting to make tidy livings off their blogs. Articles main spotlight is on John Chow and the amazing success he has had with monetizing his blog over the past year.
3. Waste Not by Tiffany Meyers -  Making your office greener is easier than you think. Take these 5 steps to clean up your act.

Interviews coming soon!

A week or two ago I made a post looking for student entrepreneurs to interview in order to share their stories with you all, the readers of Dorm Room Biz.

Well, I have a couple lined up that will be completed over the next couple weeks. I am going to try to do them all as podcasts, but if that doesn’t happen, you will be able to read all the answers here for sure.

So keep an eye out, the first one will be coming by the end of the week!

Find The Biz That’s Right For You! – Sunglass Sales

Here is the first idea that I like from the Small Business Opportunities magazine – sunglass sales.

Sunglasses have become much more than a way to battle the sun’s strong rays. They are a veritable fashion accessory and men, women, teens and even children own more than one pair. It’s a $2 billion-plus industry and there is plenty of room for you to join the boom!

You can buy great looking sunglasses at rock-bottom prices and resell them to your customers for a very nice profit. You can sell the sunglass products at fairs, flea markets, from carts and kiosks, and even in parking lots at sports events on at the beach.

All you need is a resource from whom you can purchase your inventory and here are two you should contact for more information.

Solar Sunglasses is a resource for your budding sunglass enterprise. They offer quantity discounts and high0profit potential for their items. If you already have space rented in a mall or shopping district, these products will sell right from your cart. You can check their website at www.solarsunglasses.net to learn more or call the company at 877-765-2732 to receive information.

The company has extensive inventory and products for every age group. The company also offers great merchandising tools such as a cart that can fit in any mini-van. See the website for details and to check out the easy ordering system. The products are shipped immediately; the start up package is $99

For only $99 you can get the start up package which includes: 32 pairs of sunglasses from the most popular styles and 2 nice display cases for counter tops and tables. You can spend some more and go with two other packages as well. Special #2 $250: 10 dozen sunglasses plus a display rack. Special #3 $300: 12 dozen sunglasses plus a counter top display rack.

The problem with selling sunglasses is finding the right location. Most malls either have a store like the Sunglass Hut or a kiosk cart selling them. So what do you do? Look for other options.

If you are a college student, see if you can sell them on campus. From doing some research, I know some schools require you to be a business and pay a fee or percentage of sales to the school for selling on their property. The way to battle this would be to try and link the sales to a fundraiser for a club or organization. Say that the profits are going to the club or they are being split a certain way.

Most universities also have an off-campus bookstore. At the beginning of the fall semester, our off-campus bookstore has a company who comes and does a HUGE poster sale. Maybe yours does something like this too. Your target market is already there, see if you can tag on and sell your sunglasses as well. Again, you may have to pay some fee or percentage, but it could be worth it!

If reaching your market doesn’t work that way, look into flea markets, festivals, carnivals, concerts, or any event that drawls attention from the local community. Talk to your local Chamber of Commerce about possible events and seeing if it is possible.

Overall, I like the idea and for a small investment for the start up package to give it a test run, there could be some money to be made! I would add this venture to my list of things to try out!

Other resources for wholesale sunglasses include:
-Lipopsun (www.lipopsun.com)
-Any Wholesale Sunglasses (www.anywholesalesunglasses.com)

Interview with Dorm Delicious

Wow, I just found this in my inbox from over a month ago and had forgotten all about it. I came across a website called Dorm Delicious which is a dorm room design focused blog/webiste. It is run by another young entrepreneur, Andrew Skinner, and I figured it would be a great way to learn about the the website and his experiences through a quick interview. Here are the questions and answers, feel free to leave any comments and be sure to check out Andrew’s site.

1. How old are you, where are you attending college, and what will you be studying?
I’m 20 and I am a junior at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. I am currently studying Commerce, Organizations and Entrepreneurship with a focus in Organizational Studies.

2. What sparked your interest in entrepreneurship?
I have always been interested in starting my own business. In high school I had a small software company where I sold some small applications I built. In college I have gotten much more involved in entrepreneurship and have taken a number of classes. I am beginning to think of it more seriously as a career. I think what really sparked my interest, though, was making my first sale in high school. It is a great feeling of validation to know that someone finds something you made useful enough to pay for it.

3. How did you come up with the idea behind DormDelicious and what made you want to pursue the venture?
Last summer I was making plans for college, including trying to put a little more effort into my room than I did freshman year. Everything I found was trying to sell you something or was written years earlier by a parent or even grandparent. Basically, it was all terrible advice. I really wanted to see what students were doing and not what parents hoped they would do with their dorms. I had mulled it over, but I didn’t seriously consider starting the site until I brought the idea up with my girlfriend, Courtney, over Easter vacation. She thought it was a great idea, and agreed to help write some of content and develop the features with me, so I made a commitment to start this summer.

4. How long has DormDelicious been running?
The site has been up and running since the end of May but I didn’t post the first real article until July 5th. So really it has been running for about a month.

5. What current marketing strategies are you using to get your site more visitors and are you planning on generating income from the site, if so how?
I have been largely relying on search engine marketing initially. I have some other sites that I linked to DormDelicious to get it indexed quickly by Google. Since then a fair amount of traffic has come in, no doubt from college students preparing to head back to school this fall. In addition I have been submitting articles to various news aggregators – netscape.com, reddit, and QuadRiot, for example. I think QuadRiot has produced the best traffic since it is targeted at college students. Depending on how things go this month I might consider buying ads on Facebook at a few schools this fall.

As far as income is concerned, it is primarily coming from Google AdSense ads at this point. I am planning on trying to optimize that income as much as possible, but I am also hoping to do some affiliate marketing through amazon.com, AllPosters, and other similar sites. Direct-linking to products is time consuming, however, so that will be an incremental process.

6. Do you have any kind of expansion plans that you would like to implement with DormDelicious to see it grow?
I would love to see the site grow into more of a community. Right now I think visitors are finding the articles helpful, and a few people have made comments, but I really want to reach out for feedback from students. In particular, I am hoping that people will start submitting pictures of their dorm rooms and dorm decorating projects. I have thought about creating a discussion form as well, but I would like to start the community aspect with getting people to comment on articles and submit their pictures.

7. Have you ever started any other projects or businesses in your life?
I started a software company, Likely Software (http://www.likelysoft.com/), when I was in high school. In addition I have been helping to start RoundOne, a community site for aspiring entrepreneurs (http://www.roundone.com).

8. From the experiences you have had already with DormDelicious, do you see yourself starting another venture in the future or during college?
I would love to start another venture while in school. In fact, I have a few ideas already brewing, but I want to really commit to making DormDelicious a success right now. I am not sure where my path will take me after school but I would love to start a business myself or be involved in someone’s startup. I have read about and listened to a lot of entrepreneurs as part of my curriculum and it seems really exciting if you succeed (although I suppose failure could be exciting too).

9. What has been the most important lesson you have learned from starting and running the project?
I think the important lesson is that good content and good writing will drive a site more than anything else. My girlfriend and I have been able to tap into a tone for the site that is different from most dorm decorating websites, i.e. that of a student. We haven’t been writing with search keywords in mind, and we haven’t been writing random useless text to increase word count, but we have been getting a lot of traffic and a lot of positive feedback.

10. What advice would you give to a new college student who is interested in entrepreneurship and starting a venture/business while in school?
Do it! College is a great time to experiment, and you don’t have much to lose. Chances are you’ve figured out a way to support yourself, and you probably aren’t making house payments or car payments, and you aren’t paying off your student loans yet. Unless you plan to become a serial entrepreneur it will be much harder to start a business out of school. In college you have lots of connections – to professors, friends, etc. – who can help you out. And an added bonus is that if you start a business that is geared towards college students, like DormDelicious, you instantly have a market you can tap – your friends.