Entrepreneurs Need Apply

Marc Ostrofsky, a serial entrepreneur who owns multiple websites and made millions off of domain-name sales, has advice for Millennials wishing to start their own companies: Let them rip.

He is encouraging members of what he calls Generation Z (that would be Generation Zuckerberg, as in Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg) to document their 9-to-5 drudgery in a viral video contest that he is sponsoring called R U Gen Z: Get a Job or Create a Job. If you’ve got a bad boss, co-workers who are certifiable, or a job that just plain sucks—and a video camera to prove it—then you have what it takes to enter to win the $10,000 in cash prizes up for grabs.

The whole idea behind the documentation is to encourage entrepreneurship among those just starting out. Early in their work lives, most young careerists may find that it is fun to make money, learn, and get to know new people and a new place. But after they leave their first position—as most do—they don’t take much away from the experience. By contrast, for entrepreneurs, no knowledge is wasted and every business experience lingers in the memory—in high definition, Ostrofsky says.

“With your own business, even when things go wrong, you are learning and won't make that mistake a second time,” Ostrofsky says. “As an entrepreneur, there is a very different type of learning when you are the boss and the income is directly proportional to [your output].”

In addition to selling the Business.com domain name for $7.5 million, he currently owns a number of profitable websites, including CuffLinks.com, eTickets.com, SummerCamps.com and Blinds.com. The latter site, which sells $65 million a year in window coverings and blinds, runs on a simple business model. The company has zero inventory in stock: Everything is outsourced and drop-shipped.

“We promote the products, put up great photos of the items, have videos for shoppers to look at, have a really great system and ordering platform, and have the custom-made products drop-shipped to your door within days,” he says. “That model works…down to a one-person shop that follows the same concept.”

As the whirl of news surrounding valuations for new media ventures like Facebook, Groupon, and LinkedIn proves, the Internet space is one that continues to be draw investment.

Ostrofsky, whose latest book, Get Rich Click!, comes out in May, aims to help Internet entrepreneurs get started through some time-tested ideas that have worked in the online space. He says that people may think it is too late to delve into the Internet business, but it it is really the beginning, "as if we were in the bottom of the first inning of a baseball game."

One reason for this, he believes, is the power of social networking. Connections accumulated on social-networking sites, for instance, serve as a ready-made client list to a businessperson starting out.

“So if you have something to sell, one push of a button and all of those contacts know about it instantly,” he said. “The more friends you have…and the more friends they have, the larger your ‘network.’ It's as if you are the 'ME' TV network.”

One area that Ostrofsky thinks is a good way to make money online is through affiliate marketing through which you sell digital products offered by other companies on commission, such as audio, videos, webinars, seminars, books, or anything digital.

Because there is no real cost associated with reproducing the product (say a $95 Seminar online), the product’s owner can afford to pay a big commission on each one sold, perhaps as much as $75 for a $95 seminar. So someone who successfully sells 20 such sessions could make $1,500 at the click of a button.

Ostrofsky also directs online entrepreneurs in search of big commissions to Boise, Idaho-based ClickBank, which provides the systems for some 100,000 online entrepreneurs or affiliates to sell their digital goods.

Another model that he says works: Use a digital camera or camera phone to take photos of items that you believe you can sell on eBay. (No need to buy them.) Next, upload the photos, craft a well-written advertisement, add in shipping costs and wait for a sale. Once the sale is made, collect the money and then go buy the product to ship to the customer.

“This same concept can be done online and is done on the Internet daily by tens of thousands of people,” he says.

The bottom line: If you have lousy bosses—and Ostrofsky has had a few—or you are handling work that you can't stand, get out your video camera. But be ready to work hard and work smart if you plan to be an entrepreneur. If Ostrofsky is any indication, it's not for slackers.

One of the main reasons Ostrofsky disliked his boss is because he felt he was smarter and worked harder. "I realized later in life that I lived to work…they worked to live," he said.

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Teresa Novellino writes for Portfolio.com