Gary B., St. Charles, MO
www.myhottstyles.com

Our first featured member for April is Gary B. from St. Charles, Missouri. Gary joined Startup Essentials in June of 2006. He is currently completing Path 3 on the new Journey as he continues to setup his business.

Gary has lived in Missouri his whole life. He loves the St. Charles area, where he currently lives with his wife and stepson. He enjoys spending time with them and is very active in the Cub Scouts with his stepson.

Gary followed an interesting path toward starting his business. Gary is currently working at Charter Communications in Telephone Trouble Ticket Management. His department oversees the repair of Charter’s phone service. Several months before he began his job at Charter, he had spoken with Startup Essentials, but was not quite ready to start a home-based business. Then he was hired at Charter on a temporary basis for a special project. A few weeks before his temp job was set to end, he called Startup Essentials to join The Journey program and get going on his journey. Soon after starting The Journey program, Charter management changed their minds and offered him a full-time position, which he agreed to take. But he did not give up on his pursuit to open his own business. He continued steadily down the Journey paths, building his home-based business while he works his full-time job at Charter. As his business grows, he plans to revert to only part-time work at Charter and focus more on his e-commerce business. He also plans to supplement his website sales by selling his products at tradeshows and conventions that come to the convention center in St. Charles.

Gary really enjoys WWE wrestling and originally wanted to sell wrestling memorabilia on his website. But, to sell WWE wrestling products, he would have had to become an authorized dealer. To become an authorized dealer, he would have had to place a lot of upfront money. That did not fit his current marketing budget. So, his wife suggested he sell handbags because women shop heavily on the Internet for good discounts on clothing products and accessories. After diligent research, he found she was right about the handbag market. So, he decided to go with the market and sell handbags to women - a decision he has not regretted. Their company is called, Hott Styles, and their website address www.myhottstyles.com.

He loves the new Journey, especially the fact that it has audio and visual training. Gary says, “I have learned a lot about building a business. I thought selling on a website was just ‘slap on some products and go.’ There is much more to know. The Journey taught me everything from marketing to web hosting.” When it was time to create his website, Gary built a Colony-1 brand website with knowledge from The Journey. Then he converted to a Startup Storefront brand website. He said the conversion gave him valuable experience in building out his website and taking his business to the next level.

Gary attends The Journey weekly conference calls. He also calls into Startup Essentials Customer Support on a regular basis and enjoys their insights on building his business.