How Young Entrepreneur Was Started - My brother and I have truly been 'serial entrepreneurs' since our early teens. We wanted to assist other fellow entrepreneurial enthusiasts with their businesses and try and guide them through starting, managing and growing successful business ventures so we started www.YoungEntrepreneur.com in 1999. We created a forum for like-minded individuals and it has grown to almost 20,000 members.

We have been fortunate to have each other through the years while going through the various business 'growth lesson.' We had learned quite quickly that our business characteristics really complement each other. Matthew recognizes my strengths and I recognize his which always ensures a very high quality, respectful friendship and business relationship. This is extremely important whether you are going into business with a friend or family member, always respect each others opinion and areas of expertise.

We came across a struggling small business which was a billiard hall when we purchased it for a very affordable amount. After creating a business plan and then mapping out a model for success, we overhauled not only the marketing and corporate identity but also got our hands dirty and overhauled the interior of this establishment. As part of our plan, we built a stage for live local bands (for our clients while playing pool) and then built a small cafe and secured our liquor license. It was less than 6 months before we had this place turned around. A fresh new look, inside and out. We built it and they did come!

We quickly became 'the hotspot' and place to be on Fridays & Saturdays and continually had waiting lists. We hired and surrounded ourselves with an elite team of great staff. By our 11 month mark, we had received an offer to sell and couldn't refuse (being the entrepreneurs we are) we already had 4 other business ideas. We had started looking for another 'struggling' small business and it wasn't long until we found a little printing and graphics company in a great location. Poor identity and no marketing made this company a struggler. So, naturally, we were up for the challenge. We gave an offer for the business and it was ours in less than a week.

We had no experience but a heck of a lot of motivation. We were off head hunting and finding an experienced staff to help us take this business to the next level. To make a long story short, we overhauled the interior and the corporate image and did a lot of marketing and again built this business up with the right team members and as they say, 'history repeats itself', we sold it in about 10 months for a great ROI.

From there we went into the wholesale fashion accessory business which allowed us a lot of traveling experiences in ASIA. It was a very successful experience and we met some wonderful people along the way. For the past 4 years, we have been in the publishing business. We publish niche market affluent lifestyle publications and have quickly grown our readership to over 400,000 and grown the revenues into the 7 figures. We have plans to launch 2 new publications over the next 7 months and one being a national publication which will be available on newsstands across North America. We will keep all of you informed on all the upcoming news!

Advice For Startups - Be passionate - The important detail is to ensure you are passionate about what you are doing. No matter how much potential your business might have for making money, unless you believe in it, if you don't believe in it, it's quite hard to convince other people to. A bit of self-belief can go very long way.

Be committed - Hand in hand with passion comes commitment. From day one you'll need to be dedicated and work incredibly smart, often forgoing friends and certain events in order to get your venture off the ground. You need to ask yourself whether you're prepared to make that kind of sacrifice and commitment and whether you can keep yourself motivated to put in those long hours. If you're the sort of person whose new year resolution lasts until January 2nd you might want to think again whether you've got what it takes, particularly when things might not be going your way.

Find a mentor - Try and find a good mentor, someone who you can turn to during the difficult times of growing your business. At times, you may need to dig deep to find the emotional resilience needed in order to keep on track and moving forward. So while you don't need qualifications on paper, entrepreneurship isn't for everyone. But if you think you've got what it takes then it could be one of the best decisions you ever make. Like both my brother and I have always said "Procrastination is the thief of fortune" So, go for it!

Mistakes to avoid - Seek help - When we started our first business, we thought we could overcome our trials and tribulations on our own. There weren't sites online like YoungEntrepreneur.com or EvanCarmichael.com back then. So, in retrospect, we would have tried to find quality mentors much earlier in our entrepreneurial ventures. Try SCORE.org for a possible mentor! It's a great place to start.

If I Were To Start A New Business... We feel like we are always looking for the next 'big' venture and each day seems just as exciting as the first. We are really enjoying the publishing industry and plan to start our own 'boutique Venture Capital' firm in the near future to try and help entrepreneurs with great ideas, get to that next level quicker. We also plan on directing and producing our own feature film this year....that should be interesting. Bottom line: We try and stay focused while mixing other passions into our daily routine. Now, what are you waiting for?

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