I have had an interest in business and an entrepreneurial streak since my early teenage years of publishing a small newsletter called CompuNews, which was mostly regurgitated industry news taken from other magazines. Still, it had a few subscribers.
Later on I developed an interest in computer programming and selling the programs I wrote through the Shareware model. I started a daily e-mail discussion list called Euro-Share which became very well subscribed, and as a result, commercially successful through selling advertising spots in the posts and on the web site.
I gained quite a high public profile within the Shareware industry as a result of Euro-Share, and this lead to a number of speaking engagements on the subject of Shareware and marketing/development/web sites, notably at the annual Software Industry Conference (SIC), at the time held in Tampa, Florida, and later on at the European Software Conference in Köln, Germany.
It’s been a while since Euro-Share was active as a discussion list, but the web site still generates a residual income through Google Adsense.
It was April 1999 that I finally took the plunge and left full-time employment as a software developer and started up my own company, IntoNET Technology Ltd, offering software development, business consultancy, domain name registration and web hosting, amongst other things. I’ve been running IntoNET ever since, and this year we celebrate our 10th anniversary. I should really do something to mark that.
In the last couple of years I’ve been taking more interest in retail operations, and especially selling to the general public from web sites through e-commerce. In 2006 I started a web site, Good Time Products selling adult sex toys. It’s a bit of a leap from IT consultancy I know, and it raises a few eyebrows when I tell people, but I firmly believe in being able to sell anything. And as we all know, sex sells. It really does!
I have a USA centric site selling adult sex toys as well at Good Time Products USA.
In 2008 I extended my retail operations and started Good Time Products Lingerie, selling top quality lingerie, basques, bustiers and corsets amongst other things. It’s been doing very well, and I want to continue to grow this business into other related areas.
My next project is Little Scribbler, children’s arts & crafts supplies store. I’m working on that right now. I have had the graphics designed and the technical e-commerce infrastructure is mostly built. I hope to launch this site in the next month or so.
I’m very interested in all aspects of business, and welcome discussion and mutual opportunities from other entrepreneurs.
Read the rest of my blog posts on business.
