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Or, is it "you show me yours, I'll show you mine... ?"
You have come across the web page about Rod Aries - if you want to read about my partner Rob Farris, just click. You can meet the rest of our web design, web page rankings and search engine optimization professionals
online as well.
When not surfing the net... trying to surf the real stuff...
Ahh, the power and the glory at Beacon's Beach.
It ain't graceful, but it is real...
Are You Like Me?
OK, get out the No-Doze...
First, allow me to preface this section by letting you know why I am sharing this with you... I find many of my clients have similar experiences to what I have, and this is a good way for us to get to know each other.
I have an undergraduate degree from the University of Washington and a graduate degree from Ohio State in Health Care Administration. I started one of the first networks of urgent care centers in the country, with 2 Harvard MBA partners and a fist-full of venture capital.
Hmm, capital intensive medical business and labor intensive as well... what was I getting into?
I also had to help raise two more rounds of the ol' dinero, before the venture capitalists bought us out. Between full and part time employees, we probably grew the company to 220+ people. I consulted all over the US, and was a speaker at medical conventions, at 28.
Hey, now I am a speaker at internet marketing seminars...
I next was an officer in a publicly traded company (where I met my wife, the corporate attorney). That was also in the medical area, and it too was capital and labor intensive. Did I see a pattern emerging yet?
Gosh, labor and capital intensive was beginning to get the best of me, so I looked around for other options... I had turned my attention to real estate,
at least it was without the mass labor
needs, but still capital intensive. Besides, I had developed skills in identifying and procuring building for medical centers, so for a while I bought income property for my own account.
In fact on my first transaction, I made about $40 grand in 90 days, so I started buying a lot. I thought I was hot stuff,
but little did I realize it was the market that was hot... not really
me. I soon was brokering transactions as a partner in the largest income brokerage firm in San Diego. Most brokers do about 6 deals a year and call it a good year. I partnered up and I participated in 150 sides of escrow in 4 years.
About 80+++% of my clients were agents or brokers. People always wondered why my clients who were 'people in the know' would use my services and become clients, instead of their own talents. I told them I had a secret method.
(Of course I use this same secret method for my Internet clients... I have a lot of web designers, graphic specialists and web masters as clients.)
When desert storm hit Camp Pendelton here in San Diego, Linda and I experienced significant vacancy and lost our financial interest in most of our investments. Hmm, I got rid of the labor, but the capital investments were still there... and then they weren't :( No fun, and a bit of a hit in the wallet.
So, back to square one, "How could I create a business without labor or capital requirements?"
Well, there was this thing called the internet, maybe...
We lost some of our property, but we kept our ocean front home and I decided to start my internet biz from the 4th floor. Watch the waves, and surf when it was good...
"Sorry, I can't meet with you tomorrow morning, I have a "board" meeting then..."
When I started, I did e-mail and ads on AOL. After a year or so, I broke down and finally bought my first web site. I had spent two years in grad school, and have now spent almost five years at "net school" learning the in's and out's. It constantly changes and I practiced on my own sites.
For quite some time, while I was learning the net, there were many days when I would drive my little girl to school and she would have more money for lunch than I was going to earn that week (or month).
Now it ain't braggin' if it is the truth, I became very proficient in creating web pages, for myself and clients, that are ranked and produce results. My first and
busiest site, which I have since sold, gets about 800,000 unique page views a year (totally from web page optimization). I enroll a few of my visitors... I am hooked.
Can somebody say no capital and no (well, a few independent contractors) labor? Hey, I can't do this all by myself... I have found a cohesive core of
talented internet professionals who now work with me.
I have learned quite a bit about the net, I now own 150 different domains, "In net we trust"
(Hey, I own that name too...) plus we have over 50++ clients.
I have also helped my 9 year old get started with her own
"lemonade stand" (What is that little sound you hear? "Ice cold cola, ice cold cola here" Kenzie shouts as she hawks the cans to unsuspecting moms with strollers, beach-goers, surfers and roller-bladers. "Ice cold cola here.") as we are next to a public access to the beach. On hot afternoons in the summer, she makes a few dollars, but the real value is that Kenzie now has far better interpersonal skills than I (wasn't hard), and she can make change for a buck, without a calculator.
I always tell her if she learns HTML, she will never have a job where she has to say, "Would you like fries with that?"
So, Kenzie is becoming Internet proficient and has her own computer and cable modem access in her room. I put a web site up for her as well. And I will be adding an online stick-on tattoo or a vegetable seed business for her (my wife nixed the discount condom idea and I sold the domain), I just didn't know if Kenzie was ready for secured server orders.
I just hope she doesn't hack into Toys R Us...
Well, you know people can talk about themselves forever, but I want to give you a glimpse into my little corner of the web...
Read what my clients have to say...
or learn more about our qualified web design and search engine optimization and internet marketing professionals.
Your turn, if you are so inclined.
At your service,
Rod Aries
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