Question

How do customers find out about Donny Ouyang's company?

Section 2: Entrepreneurship as a Career


Career Connection

Name: Donny Ouyang



Current age: 17



Age when you became an entrepreneur: 13



Company name: Kinkarso Tech Ltd.

What does your company do?

Kinkarso Tech Ltd. (www.kinkarso.com) is a technology business I started in late 2007. The original purpose was for it to house the various online Web sites I had going on at the time. Today, Kinkarso Tech invests in education/information-based online properties – to resell and to develop.



How did you decide to start your company?

Since I was little, the only job I had ever had was washing dishes for my parents, at 5 cents per load (I still hold it against them!). So, when my little sister’s birthday came up, I barely had enough money to buy her a coke. I just had to think of something…. Eventually, after building and selling my first Web site, I was able to buy her an iPod (the old bulky kind). That's when things started to snowball, and my passion took control.



How do customers find out about your company?

I do different types of promotion over the Internet, as well as offline around my community. Most people reach my Web sites through search engines like Google and Bing.com.



If you have other people working for your company, how did you find them?

Although I do not hire individuals for permanent positions, I do regularly contract development teams and freelancers for various jobs. At the moment, I have 3 contracted programming teams, 1 contracted Web design team, 2 coding freelancers, and 1 webmaster freelancer hired and actively working on my projects.



Most of these development teams/freelancers were originally recommended to me by friends/colleagues online.



What are the best things about working for yourself?

After becoming an entrepreneur, I soon realized that I stopped being bored, entirely. There was always something that needed to be done, or something that needed more planning. There was much more choice and freedom to each day, and a lot of purpose. It’s a great feeling.

What are the hardest things about being an entrepreneur?

The truth is, not everything can be learned from a book. There are a lot (I mean A LOT) of random things that get in the way of business – time restraints, legal stuff, personal life, even pure laziness. In all of this, it is always a learning process, and will always be a learning process. The challenge is to see what’s going on as soon as it happens, and work at a temporary or permanent solution immediately.



What qualities does a successful entrepreneur need to have?

Passion – you hear it a lot, but you have to REALLY understand the word to know if you qualify for whatever you’re pursuing.



What are your future goals for your company and for yourself personally?

I am working on a brand new project that has been in the planning stages for literally years. After pooling mostly all of my work-time and resources directly into it, this project, Rayku, is to become the highlight of my portfolio.



In short, Rayku is an education portal designed to help you learn and understand your topics of interest. I’m really excited for this project and its planned public launch in early 2010.



Do you have advice for teen entrepreneurs who are just starting out?

Have fun! Sure entrepreneurship is hard work; it requires dedication and it requires time that you’d rather spend at the movies. But if these aren’t sacrifices you’d rather give up for the sheer thrill of working for yourself and being different from the norm, then you just aren’t ready yet. Take risks, make gut decisions, never give up, and love what you do, and you will be successful beyond what you may think.

Answer 1

Customers find Kinkarso Tech through online and offline promotion—Donny advertises on the Internet and around his community—and most people discover his sites via search engines like Google and Bing.