This is one of the first interviews in our entrepreneur interview series. We have managed to get hold of young entrepreneur Benjamin Jacques today. Benjamin is a design entrepreneur who is the Founder of Melting Waves Design Studio. Benjamin has been working in the field of art and design for over 6 years and have been designing for companies around the world since age 15. He is also going to be featured in an upcoming book called “Raising CEO Kids” because of the stunning success of his business.You can learn more about Benjamin here.

Benjamin Jacques with Michael Dunlop

In this interview, we talk to Benjamin on what keeps him running and his inspirations behind becoming an entrepreneur. The difficulties that are faced as a young entrepreneur and how he plans to grow his business in the future. Enjoy!

1) Hi Benjamin, welcome to Collegefallout, would you give us a little introduction about yourself.

Thanks Vivek. I’m really excited to be here. As far as the introduction goes, my name is Benjamin Jacques and I’m the founder of MeltingWaves.com, a website that teaches graphic designers about marketing and entrepreneurship and also serves the creative needs of companies worldwide. I have plans to launch several more websites, one of which that is called TakingBackEarth.com, which will only showcase positive events that happen in the world since all the current news channels only focus on negativity.

2) Can you tell us your story and inspiration for starting up as an entrepreneur at the age of 15?

At the age of 15 I got my first two freelance design jobs. One was to design a logo for a real-estate center in Florida and the other was to design a corporate package for a mortgage firm in the UL. From that point on I started making a lot of money with freelance work but recently in addition to freelance work I’ve started coaching other designers on how they can find freelance work on their own and start profitable design businesses.

3) You have met some pretty awesome people like Michael Dunlop and Yanik Silver. Can you share that experience with us?

I met Michael and Yanik and a lot of other amazing people at Yanik’s Underground Online Seminar in DC this year. It was absolutely amazing because I’ve been following their work for quite some time and meeting them in person was one of the most inspirational moments in my life. They not only helped me out and gave me great advice, but they were really nice to me and we had some great conversations.

Benjamin and Yanik Silver

4) Are you running your graphic designing business alone? How has the experience been running?

At the moment I’m running my business alone but I plan to hire people on when my money isn’t all tied up in college loans and product creation. I’d recommend that everyone try to run their business with a full staff if you can afford it because you can get a lot more done in a shorter period of time. One perk about running my business by myself is that I don’t have to worry about managing employees so I have more time to pump out valuable content to my audience.

5) Can you share with us your biggest mistakes made as a startup entrepreneur? Something that would have helped you grow faster perhaps.

The biggest mistake I made when starting out was that I didn’t put up a website and start growing my audience right away. If I did, my fan base would be three times as big and I’d be making way more money and giving value to way more people than I currently am. I may have been doing freelance work since I was 15 but I just setup my website less than 9 months ago and only really started monetizing it last month! I’m actually not even 100% finished building it yet!!! So I’d advise that everyone get a website online as soon as possible so that you can start growing your fan base.

6) Would like to share with us some of your biggest clients or perhaps the most challenging design job thus far.

I really see all of my clients as being equally important no matter how much work I’m doing for them or how much money they’re paying out. I have had some jobs that are more difficult than others though. Recently I designed an entire website for a client I have up in Canada and I totally underestimated how much time it would take. I should have seen that coming since I’ve been setting up my own site for months, so I’d recommend that whenever you take on freelance work you should try to gauge out how much time it will take so that you can use your time efficiently.
7) How do you intend to grow your business in the coming years?

I plan on growing my business by getting more people involved and providing a huge amount of valuable content to my audience. I also have plans for some portfolio software I’m going to launch, a book I’m going to write, and other high-value products I plan on developing. But the main way I plan on growing my business in the years to come is finding out what problems my audience is having and then fixing them by providing them with valuable advice.

How do you manage juggle time for your graphic design business, blogging and personal life?

I’m also juggling all of those with college classes! It’s tricky sometimes but the key is to really schedule everything out and sort out the tasks that need to be completed first from the tasks that can wait a little bit to be completed. I have separate schedules for when I attend classes, when I complete my homework, when I write blog posts, when I send out emails, etc. The key is just making schedules for all the tasks you know you’ll do more than once, and then making sure those schedules don’t conflict with one another. That leaves time for just kicking back and enjoying life, knowing that all your work will be done on time.

9) 3 quick tips you would give to every graphic designer who aspires to start up.

• Tip #1: Don’t go into business to make money because if you do you’re bound to fail. You need to go into business to help people solve their problems in an area that you are extremely passionate about, and then the money will follow.
• Tip#2: Research spirituality and mental health as much as you research business. I’m not talking about religion, but rather spiritual views about enjoying life for what it is and being fulfilled with what you currently have, even though you have goals you want to meet in the future.
• Tip #3: Don’t view your competition as your enemies, but rather as your partners. You both appeal to the same audience so instead of fighting, you can work together to help the audience as a whole and promote each other’s companies.

10) Who are your inspirations as an entrepreneur?

My biggest inspirations are entrepreneurs that teach you about helping people just as much as they talk about making money. I’m inspired by entrepreneurs such as Yanik Silver, Michael Dunlop, Frank Kern, James Dyson, and Rich Schefren. On the other side of the scale I’m very inspired by spiritual teachers who talk about different ways to avoid stress and appreciate life such as Eckhart Tolle, Joel Leevey, and Michelle Leevey. I think it’s important to gain inspiration from those that offer motivation and encouragement to you, not those that are just trying to make a buck off of the advice they’re giving.

11) Are you planning for a formal college education?

I’m currently attending the Savannah College of Art and Design and I’m in my second year, but I’m taking a quarter off to work on business because things are going very well. The important thing that artists and designers need to realize about art schools is that they definitely improve your artistic capabilities, but they don’t teach you a thing about starting your own business and that’s why you see so many starving artists all over the place. So I’d recommend that you get your artistic advice from your school but get your business advice online from successful entrepreneurs.

Rapid Fire Questions:

a) One song that has always picked you up when you felt low

“All along the Watchtower”. Both versions, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan.

b) One book that you would recommend every entrepreneur to read

“Living In Balance: A Dynamic Approach To Creating Harmony And Wholeness In A Chaotic Worls” By Joel & Michelle Leevey.

c) Your favorite movie that you would suggest to entrepreneurs.

“Blood Diamonds” probably inspired my more than any other movie and made me want to direct my business towards helping war-affected children in east Africa.

Thank you Benjamin! Appreciate the time that you have given for this interview. Do keep us posted in progress and we will be following your growth as well.

I hope you enjoyed the interview, do post in more questions or thoughts about the interview that you may have in the comment form below.

The No Leakage rule was introduced by the young internet entrepreneur Michael Dunlop. This rule basically entails you getting rid of any advertisements or sponsor banners on your blog. Michael Dunlop claims that banners and third-party ads are basically the leaks of your blog. A visitor who comes to your blog can be turned into a very profitable customer if you are smart and eliminate all kinds of leakage.

When a reader comes to your blog they are acting upon the action you are encouraging them to take. If you have sponsor ads – definitely a few of your visitors will click on your sponsor ads and get directed to them.

The common leakages  in a blog are:

• Blogroll
• Top Commentators List
• Ad Banners from Sponsors
• Any link which you have no control over

Michael Dunlop in his blog Income Diary deeply emphasizes on the fact that having links shown above will affect your control over your visitors. He says your blog should be leak proof in such a manner that a visitor has only two options and that is:

• Either Subscribe to Your Blog
• Or Exit the  Browser

On his blog he has three banners that direct readers to take a positive step towards their online business. He has an affiliate link for a domain registrar, a web host and a premium theme – basically he provides a setup for his visitors to start their own money-making blog.

Although the No Leakage rule can boost the conversion rate on your blog – there are also a few disadvantages associated with. So the final choice for applying the No Leakage rule is upon you. In CollegeFallOut I make a gross violation of the “No Leakage” rule but I do not plan to switch to affiliate marketing any time soon.

This post is a list of top 10 blogs related to entrepreneurship. These are written by successful entrepreneurs. If you follow these entrepreneur blogs I am sure you can be much more succesful in your endeavours and stay motivated during hard times. These intelligent personalities will guide you through the stages of entrepreneurship.

Hoping this list will provide you all the best entrepreneur blogs on the internet today.

On Startups:

Dharmesh Shah is the man you need to know if you are all into entrepreneurship. Admittedly, he maintains one of the top entrepreneur blogs on the internet. His blog is a repository of invaluable entrepreneurial tips.

YoungEntrepreneur:

This is an entrepreneurship blog for young entrepreneurs that is run by two brothers. They periodically have great interviews of internet entrepreneurs and also ways that you can leverage social media to promote your online business as well as the offline one. They always have fresh and useful content daily.

Guy Kawasaki:

This man will single-handedly put your business on nitro-boosters. His blog is a great place where you can find his nuggets of wisdom organized and archived. His golden touch in business is also well known. If you are into entrepreneurship you should not miss his blog.

Entrepreneur:

Entrepreneur.com would seem like an obvious bet but it is still worth a mention on this list. After all it is the top 10 Entrepreneurship blogs on the internet.This blog will have all the information to help start, grow or manage any kind of small business. Again do not miss out on their invaluable archives.

Seth Godin:

Seth Godin’s blog is a great blog for entrepreneurs who want an interesting angle into entrepreneurship. His articles are intelligently written and most of them will inspire you very much. Seth Godin’s is so awesome at writing that on an average he gets 700 tweets per article. If you want a demo of his genius entrepreneur mind, read this.

Income Diary:

Michael Dunlop is a 21-year old internet entrepreneur. He will teach how to become an internet entrepreneur on his very very inspirational blog. His blog is an archive of interviews of celebrity-internet entrepreneurs (which means popular internet entrepreneurs). His blog posts are very motivating and what’s more – he teaches you to get rich young!

Small Biz Trends:

This is a blog where Anita Campbell talks about trends that are affecting small businesses and internet startups. Her blog’s speciality is that Small Biz Trends also puts focus on social media, her articles on Twitter and Facebook SEO are very highly rated. A great blog for those who want to become an internet entrepreneur.

Zen Habits:

A frugal and simple blog that is based on boosting productivity of an entrepreneur. It offers very insightful articles on how to maximize your work potential and the get the best out of life at the same time. A great blog if you want to rectify your wayward entrepreneurs lifestyle. Zen Habits will rectify your eating habits, working habits or any other habit that is holding back the entrepreneur in you. A very high quality blog.

Entrepreneurs Journey:

Author Yaro Starak talks about his really amazing journey as an internet entrepreneur. His blog is perfect for those who are looking to be internet entrepreneur.

Quick Sprout:

Neil Patel is easily one of most favorite bloggers. He is an entrepreneur and he has a really witty tag line for his blog: “I’m Kind of a Big Deal!”. If you are looking for a blog that is interesting for you to read with a youngish outlook on entrepreneuship, then Neil’s your guy.

Hope you enjoyed this post.

Five reasons to become a young entrepreneur. This post provides inspiration for young entrepreneurs. It will help you get motivated in taking the jump into entrepreneurship at a young age. Here are the reasons:

Experience failure:

The younger you experience failure, the sooner you learn. You are bound to face some setbacks when you begin a business or an entrepreneur journey. The point is to learn from them. If you begin young, you can avoid these costly mistakes later.

More Dynamic:

As a young entrepreneur you will be more dynamic in approach. Your decisions will naturally be a little more edgy and may appeal to many. With the high energy levels you have when you are young, it is possible to rapidly grow your start-up.

Industry Connections:

When you are a few years into your entrepreneur journey as a young entrepreneur you will realize that you have made a lot of connections and networks with people around you. This is very important for your business to succeed.

Liberty of choice:

Greatest advantage of becoming an entrepreneur is that you are responsible solely for making decisions. If the comptany is successful it is because of you and if it busts then you are to blame. It is great for youngsters who hate to sit in suffocating office rooms.

Faster Savings:

If you begin to start earning at a young age then naturally you will save at a much young age. In the long run, you will be more financially secure than most of your peers. Financial freedom will be something which you will definitely enjoy.

The world takes a very positive look at young entrepreneurs. More and more people are willing to invest in companies run by young entrepreneurs. It is important that you take leverage of this opportunity to grow and become successful. Milun Tesovic is perhaps the most awesome example for a young entrepreneur.

Hello Everybody.

This post is dedicated to all those young internet entrepreneurs who had the courage to make it happen for themselves. I began blogging almost 3 years back. It is amazing to see people who began their business on the internet for a few months and are now well-known millionaires. I hope the post below lets you become a better blogger. These are 10 young internet entrepreneurs who make millions per year.

Mark Zuckerberg - Mark is just 25-years old (at time of writing). He is the youngest and the top most internet entrepreneur in the world today. Mark is the founder of the second most visited website in the world – Facebook. With this he is the youngest billionaire in the world. He started Facebook while he was still in Harvard. It is amazing to know that Mark started Facebook in his messy dorm room on February 4, 2004 as a way for students, faculty and friends to connect. He got the idea for Facebook from his college and school days where a book with head shots of students used to published.

Kevin Rose

Kevin Rose – ‘Digg’ any posts lately. If yes, you have to thank Digg’s founder 29-year old Kevin Rose. While younger, Kevin worked as a breadstick maker at a popular restaurant. Kevin has perhaps paid a heavy price for Digg. He lost the ‘love of his life’ while founding Digg. He invested $6000 into the site, which was supposed to be for a deposit on a house for him and his girlfriend. As a result of this, their relationship broke down. Since then he has been quoted saying,

“no matter what happens with Digg, I won’t put business first again.”

Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington – The lawyer who started a blog. He is one of the most powerful guys on the internet right now. Once he was a lawyer and he left his job to become the founder of TechCrunch. TechCrunch is now an authority-blog. TechCrunch covers internet startups and latest in technology news serving over 1.5 million page views per month. Michael is 39-years old. He is one of the most powerful guys on the internet right now.

Bob Parsons

Bob Parsons – Almost everyone reading this post is connected to this man. Bob Parson is the founder of the flagship domain registrar GoDaddy. Parsons recounts that he was extremely weak at academics. He joined the US Marine Corps and claims otherwise he would not have graduated high-school. Bob Parsons is also a Vietnam war hero who got injured while serving as riflemen for Delta forces in Vietnam. This is what Parsons said about his childhood,

“I’ve earned everything I’ve ever received. Very little was given to me. I’ve been working as long as I can remember. Whether it was delivering or selling newspapers, pumping gas, working in construction or in a factory, I’ve always been making my own money.”

Arianna

Arianna Huffington- Is perhaps one of the most successful female Internet entrepreneurs ever and is the founder of the top blog in the world according to Technorati! She started the news-blog Huffingtonpost dot com. Her blog HuffingtonPost has become synonymous to a news website. She is greek American and speaks with a marked Greek accent.

Peter Thiel – Peter is the reason why you got the immediate payment from your sponsor the last time.  He and Max Levchin co-founded PayPal. There is yet to be a substitute to Paypal but none have been as effective. Thiel is also the investor who helped Zuckerberg kick things off with Facebook. I don’t know if you care but Thiel is gay. He is worth $1.3 billion.

Janus Friis- He is a Danish internet entrepreneur, who founded the popular telephony application Skype. Although in September 2005, he and his partner Niklas Zennström sold Skype to eBay for $2.6 billion. His hobbies and pass times include skydiving, pool, martial arts and winter sea bathing.

Evan Williams

Evan Williams – If you ever thought who on Earth could come up with a name such as Blog – then Evan is your man. He is responsible for popularizing the word ‘Blog’. Evan created the most popular blogging platform for newbies – Blogger. And yes, he is also the reason you “tweet” so much. Evan is the co-founder of the third most popular social network – Twitter. He is 37-years old, never too late huh?

Andrew Gower – Andrew became worth $650 million developing games. He is the founder of popular gaming site Runescape. He created Runescape in January 1999 as an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge. He used the assistance of brother Paul Gower. The Daily Telegraph also listed Andrew and Paul Gower as the 11th richest young entrepreneurs in the UK. Right now, he is 30-years old.

Milun Tesovic

Milun Tesovic – A young internet entrepreneur and an inspiration to all of us. Milun started Metrolyrics at 16 years old. His is a music website. Milun tells his story in his own words,

“When I was 15, I knew that after I got my driver’s license, I wanted a decent-looking car,” he said. “I had my own hosting company (on the Internet), and then I started analyzing where a lot of people go on the web. There were a lot of places where music and video games were available, but what I saw was music lyrics wasn’t that well represented.

So I made a quick script with my own code and started a database of music lyrics. … It cost $9 a month to buy up the domain.”

Although Metrolyrics receives over 36 million visitors monthly. Milun is still pursuing academics, he is doing BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) in Entrepreneurship.

Wishing you all Success in your Blogging venture.

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