With the family at Kiawah Island, SC for the week. This is where we always vacationed when Bethany and I were younger, so it's great to visit again. It's beautiful, as always!

My parents and some close family friends of ours spent some time this week exploring Harlan, KY just as the usual Appalachian Autumn weather begins to arrive. They emailed me some pictures, and I've taken the liberty of posting them publicly so that I can gloat to the Internet about how pretty my hometown is.

It's Justified.

Thanks to Susie Auer for the pictures.

I decided to go ahead and make another post, since the last gallery was getting slightly unwieldy to navigate. I'm leaving Wednesday morning, so this gallery will only contain pictures of my last couple of days. It's been a wonderful trip.

Today we visited Cramond Island, just outside of Edinburgh in the Firth of Forth. Fantastic site, with a really neat history. We also explored Inchcolm Island and the associated 12th century abbey. Very cool stuff.

This will be my ongoing Edinburgh album. I'll add photos as I take them throughout my stay.

Jet-lagged like crazy, but it's gorgeous so far. Great to see Bethany and Remington.

The new apartment! Got keys today, moving in a few things now, though most of my moving will happen once I get back from Scotland.

Hopefully people will get to see it in person fairly soon.

Yes, in the Honors common lounge, there are currently three televisions and gaming systems that have been running simultaneously for several days straight. There are also countless computers scattered throughout the room. We're making the best of what little break we have left. What else would we do? We're snowed in.

I became interested in computers, technology, and the Internet at a fairly young age. Although my family did not actually own a computer until late 1999, I grew tired of performing "normal" user tasks a couple of years before this. Having a computer in our home opened up opportunities for me to learn, in detail, about the machine and its software. I picked up some technical books and programming manuals to aid me in my self-education.

Upon obtaining a decent, if basic, skill set, and becoming knowledgeable enough to stumble my way through most things, I immediately began attempting to commercialize on my work. Why? I lived in a rural town, I was bored, and I was tech-motivated/obsessed. It was something to do. Here's what I learned from my early endeavors, documented for other young would-be entrepreneurs:

GASoftware

This was my first "company". Technically, the name stood for "George's Amateur Software", but in sixth grade I thought it was funny to have "gas" in the name. Through GASoftware, I released several freeware utilities, a couple of programming tutorials, etc. The only for-profit part of the operation was the custom programming service I provided under the name. I got a few local clients, for whom I built simple database front ends, etc.

Writing and distributing software, even free software, is a valuable learning experience. I highly suggest that any programmer who wants to start an indie software company try releasing and supporting free or open source products first. It teaches you how to make stable, tested releases and how to support customers.

GASoftware was actually fairly successful. My software, while primitive, was typically well-received and oft-downloaded, and my tutorials and other content were appreciated. It definitely provided me with a foundation for future endeavors.

HostShuttle

My second attempt at a commercial tech-business was HostShuttle, a shared web hosting service. I leased servers from a large, well-known data center and partitioned off the resources to resell, providing server support and management.

This particular business attempt taught me quite a bit, but I also bit off a bit more than I could chew. Being young and unemployable due to my age, I had little startup capital, so I needed to make a profit fairly quickly. This was my first big mistake. Profit rarely appears in the company coffers immediately.

My second mistake was my pricing model. I priced HostShuttle's services very competitively, but they could only be profitable if I had fairly high sales volume. This strategy, while great for attracting customers, does not work if you don't have enough startup capital to endure an initial drought of sales.

Eventually time constraints and the fact that I was just breaking even discouraged me enough that I decided to throw in the towel and sell off what I could. (Keep in mind I was quite young and immature. Obviously I would not have given up as easily, had I been older.) I took care of my customers, though, notifying them well in advance, obtaining accounts for all of them with another quality host, and migrating all of their data for them. I also continued to provide support for them until the hosting period they had paid for expired.

I learned a lot from HostShuttle, including some important economic principles which should be heeded when starting a business. As has been recommended countless times by others, don't start a business unless you can afford to support it for its first year. I also gained valuable insight on business management and client relations.

There were several things I handled well in this venture. My customer support was lauded, my prices were attractive, and I created new, custom services for a couple of niche markets. Several of my clients asked me to contact them if I ever decided to host again. While I decided to shutter the business, I do consider it to be a personal success.

AttachéSoft

AttachéSoft was my second attempt at forming an indie software company, this time primarily for profit. I was much better equipped to build this startup. I had a simple business plan with low operating costs, enough startup capital, and a business partner to help me out (whom I will call John).

John was also young, a year older than me. He had some coding experience, but his role at AttachéSoft lay primarily in web design, website management, marketing, and customer support. My role was that of the lead developer and business manager. The division of labor worked out quite well, and the venture was relatively successful. We began to turn a profit almost immediately, despite the simplicity of our products, and our income showed signs of steady increase.

Since our business was doing well, despite its infancy, I approached John with an idea to expand our services. Initially, he agreed and thought it was a great idea, but he later began to lose his enthusiasm. Before the product was finished being developed, John contacted me, informing me of a questionably true personal issue which would impair his ability to continue in the venture and he dropped out.

With John gone, my work-load doubled, I was less motivated, and I was much more distracted. Eventually, I made the decision to shelve AttachéSoft, as it was hard to adequately support the project while keeping up with my "real-world" responsibilities.

If there's a lesson in this particular anecdote, it's that the previously mentioned principles, when heeded, can produce success for young startups. Obviously, you should also make sure that your employees/partners are reliable and share your goals. If you happen to lose someone, replace them with someone you can trust as quickly as you can.

A Bit of Advice

I have owned a couple of other websites/venures, but these initial three were the biggest learning experiences for me. Looking back, all of these businesses seem rather trivial to me, and when I revisit my older work I can't help but chuckle at its simplicity.

I believe, however, that my most useful asset in all of these ventures was my written communication skill. Since I was a decent writer for my age and since I was socially competent, I was able to interact with clients in professional situations, despite my age. Most of my clients never realized that I was still in school, and would be for years to come.

Besides the above advice, potential young entrepreneurs should heed this warning: do not start a business or offer a service trivially. You must be willing to see the effort through, and to accept what comes of it, good or bad. No matter what happens, you must avoid affecting your customer base adversely at all costs. You will have a commitment to your customers, and you must fulfill your obligations. If you get started and find you can't handle the work, make it right with your customers in whatever way is feasible.

Keep in mind also that legal issues are a concern. Minors cannot enter contracts, and are limited in other ways when it comes to business operations/employment. Always be careful and make sure you're not operating illegally.

That said, I would encourage any young person who feels they have an idea for a viable entrepreneurial venture to go for it. Worst case scenario, the project will fail miserably but you'll have learned a lot.

This is a short background video on cloud computing that I made for a recent presentation I gave in an honors class. Some of my other materials are on my Netvibes page.

(Yes, I have a secret affinity for campy 90s tech-instruction videos.)