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E-commerce
Continued from Page 1
LeeKwai, Entrepreneurs Club co
founder and president. “It’s an
easy business for students to do be
cause all you need is the same tool
you use for learning: a computer. ”
LeeKwai, a senior majoring in
Japanese and business adminis
tration, started his own business
in May called Maxxx Co. LeeK
wai sells Fin-blockz, a product he
invented to protect the fins of
surfboards while traveling. The
Fin-blockz are made of poly
styrene, a foam-like substance,
and fit like a plug over the fins.
“I travel a lot surfing, and each
time I’ve ended up with broken
fins due to the impacts of luggage
in travel,” LeeKwai said. “I’ve
also come across many other
surfers who’ve encountered the
same problem.”
As a student, LeeKwai did not
want to take on distribution is
sues. His solution was to sell his
Fin-blockz on-line at www.
bigfoot.com/~maxxxco.
“My future plan was to do in
ternational distribution,” LeeK
wai said. “After an analysis, the
international market proved to be
relatively untouched.”
International or local, LeeKwai
said the Internet can be a relative
ly cost-effective way to distribute.
“In my opinion, electronic
commerce is the most efficient
business available to students,”
LeeKwai said. So far, LeeKwai
has sold all of his prototype de
signs for $25 a piece.
After summer, LeeKwai’s busi
ness took a back seat to school
and other activities. Subsequent
ly, Maxxx Co. is for sale. But
LeeKwai concedes that his ven
ture was well worth it.
“The money I invested in my
company was more valuable than
anything I could have studied in
school,” LeeKwai said.
LeeKwai said Maxxx Co. has
grown from a hobby to a business
and admits it would be a great in
vestment for anyone looldng to
enter the electronic commerce
market.
• “The money is there waiting for
someone to take it,” LeeKwai
said. “But it would have to be
someone that knows about the
surfing industry.”
Alex Hughes, a junior majoring
in journalism and a member of
the University’s Entrepreneurs
Club, has grossed nearly $6,000
since he started X-ray Visionz in
June. As an independent Web site
and graphic design consultant,
Hughes charges $50 an hour for
his services.
Hughes has designed every
thing from intranet sites to mass
mailings to wedding invitations.
As a graphic-design consultant
for Kemper/Ford Marketing,
Hughes created a mass-mailing
campaign for Modell’s, a sporting
goods store in New York. The
campaign, which went out to
30,000 people in Manhattan, was
designed to boost sales of Nike
shoes at their stores.
ESCO, an international steel
manufacturing firm based out of
Portland, sought Hughes to de
sign an intranet site to aid depart
ment executives in using the Web
to research their competitors.
“The site makes it so execu
tives can use the Internet as a
source for looking at competitors
and their financial statements,”
Hughes said. “It also serves as a
form to announce information to
their own department.”
Although his business is thriv
ing, Hughes is concerned that the
attention paid to X-ray Visionz is
detracting from what he wants to
do after he graduates.
“I don’t want to have to worry
about making this successful if
it’s not what I want to do for a liv
ing,” Hughes said. “I’m worrying
because it’s taking away a lot of
the energy I need to put toward an
internship in my field of study.”
But Hughes agrees with LeeK
wai that the Internet has a great
deal of opportunities for students
at very little cost.
“Doing business over the Inter
net speeds things up, increases
productivity and it’s often a free
way of advertising,” Hughes said.
“All it cost me was a computer,
and that was tax deductible.”
Brian Jennaro, a senior finance
and economics major, is a part
ner in the Internet venture uo
bookhunt.com, which started in
May and allows University stu
dents to trade their used text
books on-line.
Jennaro said that students can
save an average of $129 each
term on books if they use his site.
Jennaro said students get an
average of 10 to 15 percent return
on their used books at the Uni
versity Bookstore. He said stu
dents buy, on average, five books
a term for a total of $250. At UO
Bookhunt, students can sell their
books at the bookstore rate and
make up to 75 percent on the sale
as opposed to only 15 percent.
Although the service to stu
dents is free, Jennaro expects to
profit from advertising revenue.
He hopes that as more students
take advantage of the service and
post their books on-line, local
businesses will want to advertise
on his site.
If the service stays here, Jennaro
said he expects revenues to cover
the cost of maintaining the Web
site, plus a little more. But he also
said that if the service is successful,
he will expand to other campuses.
“There’s no doubt that e-com
merce will touch all facets of
business,” Jennaro said. “It’s im
portant to have your feet wet.
That’s the whole reason I want to
be involved in this—to increase
my understanding of e-com
merce.”
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