Interview With Young Entrepreneur – Raymond Lei

I was recently contacted by someone sometimes ago who eventually led me to Raymond Lei. Raymond is really a great example of a true entrepreneur and due to my exams this interview will have been published before now.

Raymond has an entrepreneurial spirit and proven results, I and you have a lot to learn from him and he will be sharing some things with us in this interview.

1. Yeah! I know you are Raymond, but by chance, my readers may not
know you. Can you please introduce yourself?
My name is Raymond Lei and I’m a business major at UC Berkeley.

2. What makes you think you are an entrepreneur?
I started my business, ooShirts.com, at age 16 because I saw an opportunity I wanted to pursue. I’m 19 now, the company’s been rapidly growing, and I’ve enjoyed the entire process.

3. How did you build up an entrepreneurial spirit, do you believe you
were born with it or you developed it?

I’ve always been entrepreneurial. I’ve always liked doing things differently from the people around me. For instance, in high school, instead of joining existing organizations, I would create my own. I didn’t quite like the idea of following others, and preferred working in an “open” setting. Starting my own projects and being entrepreneurial allowed me to do this.

4. Which books motivates you to be an entrepreneur?
None. I think the best motivation comes from your own goals and ideas. Books tend to guide you to think a certain way, while entrepreneurs need to think without these boundaries.

5. I guess you own ooshirts.com? How did you come up with an Idea for
the Website?

During my second year in high school, I was ordering shirts for my school club with its logo printed on it. I wanted a nice 3-color logo printed on a black shirt, and received quotes from several local and online companies. All of them, unfortunately, gave excessively high prices. I did a good bit of research on why their prices were so high and concluded that the existing companies were inefficient. Now, at this time, I didn’t have that much knowledge of how to run a business, so I started off simple – directly selling printed shirts to other clubs at my school, and then growing it from there.

6. Why did you go into the shirts industry and not any other industry?
I felt the prices could be driven down. Other than that, not much. It’s actually a very difficult industry to be in.

8. I guess you also faced some problems we all face when starting?
Like, no visitors, things are not moving well e.t.c.? How do you keep
moving on in spite of all these.

In the beginning, I actually wasn’t expecting much. As I said previously, I started off by selling to other groups at my school. Selling a thousand shirts in a year was good enough for me. And in the first year, that’s how many I sold. I’ve been continually making upgrades to the website and thinking of new ways to improve the way I do business.

9. Do you think your mindset has anything to do with your success?
In the t-shirt printing industry, there are lots of companies, all with excess capacity that are all hungry for more customers. It’s very, very competitive. One important thing I have in mind is that, in order to succeed, you need to be a lot better than everyone else in everything you do.

10. Well, this question might sound funny, do you think it is easy to
be an entrepreneur?
It depends on how you define “easy.” It’s definitely more complex and intense, but at the same time very rewarding and enjoyable.

11. Do you think your site is a success? And why do you think so? Can
you give us more info in terms of results and achievements?
I think the site is on its way towards success. For me, the site is a success when it becomes the largest custom t-shirt company out there. We’re far from that, but if we continue growing as we’ve done in the last few months, we’ll be on our way. Last month we had $60000 in revenue. That can be good or bad depending on how you look at it, but right now I’m looking less at the past numbers and more at the potential for future growth.

12. How long have you been in the business?
Three years.

13. Are you the only one managing the business or you have staffs?
No, I have two full-time employees and various contractors working with me. I want to shift out of the operations aspect of my business and towards big picture goals.

16. If you could turn the time, what would you love to do in regards
to your business?
I can’t think of any major missteps I’ve taken. I probably would have spent more time on it (though I have already been spending all my time on it).

17. Glad you have been three What advice would you like to give to
those just starting or coming up?
You need to enjoy what you do. If you view your venture as something solely for the purpose of amassing wealth, it’ll be more difficult to truly enjoy.

18. What do you think it takes to succeed in business?
A good idea, good execution, and a lot of luck.

19. What is the last “one word” advice you will give to my readers
when it comes to succeeding as an entrepreneur?

Believe in yourself.

Hi Raymond, thanks so much for taking your time to answer this interview, I and my readers really appreciate it.

Visit OOShirts.com to see more of the great work Raymond is doing.

PS: If you Have Any questions to ask Raymond, feel free to ask in the comments section.