Profiles of Start-ups: CruxyStart

The news on the economy stays lackluster.   There are people losing jobs, companies going belly-up, and finances being stretched.  It is in times like this that creative people who are thrown a curve in their professional lives turn to being entrepreneurs.  Part of it is necessity, but a greater part is that they have an itch to build something that is all their own.

Here at the bible, we are starting a new feature.  Every Monday, we are going to highlight a new start-up story.  We will tell the story of a person who left a career and started a new venture.

Mike Munter and CruxyStart

We had a conversation with Mike Munter of CruxyStart:

I was laid off a bit over a month ago. I started dabbling in starting a humorous web based t-shirt business.  Getting laid off finally gave me the time and motivation to finalize the website and start putting the time and energy into the project.  It’s still in the infancy stage, but getting laid off really opened up the reality at making this something that is more than just a hobby.

Our Q & A:

Q: Have you ever started a business from scratch before?

A: I started a carpentry business with 2 other partners about 9 years ago.  We were subcontracting out to a garage building company, so a lot of the challenges between that venture and my current one are pretty different.  I don’t get to shoot at squirrels with nail guns (don’t worry, we couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn, but ironically a coworker’s ankle from 20 feet away), and we didn’t have the challenges of finding clients.  I’ve also tried a few small dabblings here and there the past couple of years, but never put in enough time and energy to really make them work.

Q: When you first loss your professional job, was creating a new business the first thing you thought to do?

A: Once the nausea started to settle I did the typical response of looking for work like mad and contacting people in my network who would be in the know for jobs.  I found I could only do so much job searching every day and started to realize this was a great time to work on my side business I started a few months earlier as a creative outlet to my former job. I realized this wasn’t a side-job anymore, but a real, full-fledged, ain’t paying the bills fast enough gig.

Q: What is the largest challenge you have had as you started a new business?

A: Marketing, marketing, marketing.  I’ve been reading a lot about search engine optimization and e-marketing.  The web gives you a giant customer base, but the problem is how do you get them to look at your stuff and even better, buy your stuff.   It’s easy to come up with an idea or even build a product, the key is getting the right people to see what you make or service you provide.  There also is working with a shoestring budget and forcing yourself to throw down the cash for marketing.

Q: What is the largest lifestyle change have you had to do undergo as you moved to being an entrepreneur?

A: Dealing with the uncertainty of not having a steady paycheck and the realization how much health insurance really costs.  I think it’s cheaper to wrap yourself in a giant bubble suit.  It was easy to see a tool as an investment that would make a profit, it’s harder to see the same relationship with advertising.

Q: Do you ever see yourself going back to the corporate world?

A: Possibly, especially if it turns out people don’t like organic funny t-shirts.  I realize there are advantages to working for someone as well as owning your own business.  I think it’s important to remember you’re just changing one set of frustrations for another.  At least with your own businesses you get to be the  man instead of working for the man.  The only problem is when your business is really small, you only have yourself to boss around and chew out.

Q: When will you consider yourself a success as a start-up?

A: When I can cover all of my bills solely on the profits of the business.  Well, that and when I can finally afford to buy my own island.  It’s 50/50 really.