Is the customer always right?  Not all the time says Ashley Bodi, Co-Owner of Business Beware, a company that helps business owners deal with those “hard to please” consumers and fight back against those non-paying, and sometimes downright shady customers.  Check out what Ashley had to say in this YGG interview.
We know you’re a “Young Go Getter”, but so our readers know, how old are you?

I just turned 27 in February in which I am still trying to process haha!

Can you tell us the quick history about yourself, and what drives you to succeed?

I think I knew when I had my first lemonade stand as a kid that I had the entrepreneur bug inside of me.  Although I sort of denied it for a long time and went to college on a volleyball scholarship and went in undecided like the other 80% of people going to college do.  I was never into the whole school thing, I loved to learn what interests me not something you have to read on a book list.  In college I debated on what I wanted to do mostly because you have so many telling you that you have to decide on this one thing to do for the rest of your life and who truly knows what they want to do the rest of their life?  I ended up graduating in 2005 with a Communications and Marketing degree.  I still didn’t know what I truly wanted to do although in the back of my head I had that thought of being an entrepreneur.  It’s tough though because people and society don’t encourage entrepreneurship although most jobs would not be here today without those who thought outside of the box and started the businesses they did.  I headed out to Los Angeles to work on a documentary because I thought it was something I wanted to do and it sounded awesome at the time but soon after I got out there I realized that this was not where I was supposed to be. Not too long after that my dad called and asked if I wanted to come to FL to work for the family businesses and I took him up on it.  It was when I started to work with my dad that I noticed what the other side looked like when dealing with all kinds of customers.  With every job you deal with customers but it’s a completely different thing when you’re the owner, believe me I had no idea.  And that’s when it hit me about something my dad and I had talked about when I was getting out of college…he said that there should be a site where businesses can warn each other about problem customers like something of a reverse Better Business Bureau.  I went to him one day after we just fired one our problem customers and said “we have got to create this site, it’s time to stop customers like this who take advantage of businesses.”  And so from that day on BusinessBeware.Biz was born.  I knew I had my work cut out for me with having to teach myself how to build a site that could function how we wanted it to and to get the word out about it was going to be a challenge too, or so I thought.  There were many nights I stayed up until 2 or 3 am working on this concept and had whiteboards with information all over my condo for months. We finally launched the site in May of ’08 and since then cannot believe the awesome feedback we have received with helping businesses all over the country.  After about 6 months we had businesses from Canada contact us wanting us to open it up to them as well so we added them soon after that.  Since then Business Beware has become a voice for the business owners.

We know you are a younggogetter, but I am sure there is more to you than that. What are some other jobs you have done prior to you current one or new projects you are currently working on?

Well since I had no idea what I wanted to do I worked a lot of different jobs just to make ends meet or extra money in college.  I have worked in/at retail, restaurants, gyms, been a lifeguard and others that I don’t really regret because they made me the person I am today.  I think it’s important to work at jobs you don’t necessarily like because then you figure out what you do like and you learn to suck it up and just do it.   I love to be inspired and I love to inspire people as well.  I think you learn from each other and it’s amazing what you can learn from other people and their businesses.  If it was not working for the family business over the past few years I don’t think I would have had the passion for Business Beware like I do right now, so things always work out and happen for a reason.  Right now I am focused on Business Beware and the radio show we launched a few months ago.  It’s a lot of work getting that radio show together on top of running Business Beware, but I would not trade a single second of it.  I’m also focused on showing others my age, younger or even older that it’s okay to go after what you want and don’t let anybody tell you it can’t be done.  In my parents words “the sky is the limit.”  I love meeting new people and talking with them about what they do, it inspires me both with my work and life.  Life is too short, so do what you love.

Adversely, what has been your biggest vice?

I tend to get really creative and always trying to think outside of the box with Business Beware and other things I do.  I’m always coming up with new ideas and others have to remind me, what you have is good!  My programmer Shelley, always has to bring me back to reality with my creativeness when I get new ideas so I am thankful she keeps me straight with that.  And with the creative thinking I will stay up late researching things and learning more even when I’m just flat out exhausted but what do you do? I love to learn!

What can we expect next from the talented Ashley Bodi in the near future?

I am truly focused with seeing Business Beware and the radio show through.  I have a huge respect for business owners after seeing the other side and working for the family businesses.  I respect my father and mother so much for what all they have endured and done for our family through their business.  Any family or small business for that matter staying afloat right now with the economy is just amazing.  A lot of that comes from the passion they have for what they do.  I want to help businesses any way I can and let them know that no matter what business they have Business Beware has their back.  Consumers have so many outlets where they can voice their thoughts about a business but why is it wrong if businesses want to warn each other about problem customers?  It’s a two way street and even most customers would second that.  We are not a blacklist site, it’s about letting both sides communicate with each other and hopefully work out the situation and letting business owners know what they’re getting into before they do a job.  The radio show is also something I really want to concentrate on.  There is nothing else out there like it.  No one is taking a stand to say “hey the customer is not always right.”  Our show is about the other side and why they are not always right and different situations where the customer has given the business a headache.  It’s such an untouched topic because everyone wants to complain about how businesses did them wrong but the news never talks about what happens when the business owner gets scammed by a problem customer.  So my focus at the moment is the site and the radio show and being a voice for businesses all across the country.  And you never know I always have a few tricks up my sleeve, so watch out!

Everyone starts to feel burn out on a project every now and then. What do you do to keep yourself motivated and focused?

Everyone can always feel burned out at some point but honestly I have never felt that way with working on Business Beware.  In the beginning I won’t lie that I felt like banging my head against the wall many times trying to create the site etc. but everyday it’s a new day and I am motivated by those I meet and businesses I learn about.  If I ever come to a bump in the road somehow it all works out, which is awesome.  I think if you are truly passionate about what you do then you won’t get burned out you will look forward to every minute of every day and if you do go for a nice long run!

Can you give us three tools that you use every single day to make your life as a younggogetter more efficient, productive, or fun?

Oh man, I am such a technology fanatic it’s sad.  I don’t know what I would do without my blackberry.  Seriously, I try to keep a planner and I start out great but I always forget about it and don’t use it.  So I keep up with everything on my phone and with us being an online site email is such an essential to my everyday work.  It’s awesome that I can check my emails no matter where I am and get back with people quickly.  My computers are right up there too.  I have a desktop pc and an Apple lap top (yeah I know it’s like a double standard there).  I use both to get things done throughout the day and while working on other projects I currently have going on.  And of course we can’t forget the iPod.  I love music and it’s amazing how music can put you in a certain mood.  I use the iPod at the office and occasionally sing along (yeah it’s not that pretty) because it keeps me focused and upbeat at the same time.  It’s also my way to end the day with a nice run and the tunes pumping!

What is your favourite quote?

Ah, I have so many quotes I love and that motivate me but this one I always love, “There is no such thing as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder.  –Ronald Regan.”

And last but not least, if you could give one piece of advice to fellow Young Go Getters, what would it be?

Never give up. It takes a lot to be an entrepreneur and many don’t understand why you would want to go against the flow and do something on your own because it’s risky. Well sure it’s risky, anything you do in life is but to say that you built that business/company/organization is a great feeling. Don’t let those people get you down when they are not on board with your ideas, they just are not in the same mind set as you and when they tell you it can’t be done just reply with “watch me.” Some of the biggest names today were turned down or told no many times before they succeeded and it can be tough to hear no but take that and let it drive you even more. When I get told no, I am moving on to the next person to say yes and my drive is stronger than ever and that’s how you have to be as an entrpreneur. Yes, you are going to hit some ruts but if we didn’t have ruts on a mountain how would we be able to climb it? You can’t climb a smooth surface mountain, it’s impossible. So if you believe in something then go for it and don’t let the others bring you down.

I have had the chance to interview Jason Sadler in the past, check it here. But when I heard he had started a new charity to gather shirts for disadvantaged people in Africa I had a few questions for him. So see below for a quick interview!

What prompted you to start 1millionshirts.org?

I’ve worn shirts for charitable organizations on iwearyourshirt.com and knew that it was hard to make an impact for them. You can’t ask people to donate to different causes each week without truly having a connection to them. My life has become all about t-shirts and I thought with the community that I’ve built, I could try to make a difference.

Where did you get the idea?

One of the charities I worked with last year (WaterIsLife.com) asked for the 600+ shirts I accrued and said the t-shirts would be going to Africa. Not only would the t-shirts be providing protection from the elements, they’d also spark some small economy; having people selling and bartering with the shirts. 600+ shirts is a good amount, but I knew I could go bigger. 1MillionShirts was born and I’ve finally had the time and the people to help get it off the ground.

What happens when you get to 1millionshirts? Will you try for 2million?!?

This is one of the things I haven’t thought too much about yet. I’ve been focusing on the launch, on finding partners and finding the right people to help organize t-shirt donation efforts. Then there’s the non-profit 501c3 paperwork, thinking about sponsorship opportunities and getting all the content together for the website and social media sites. We certainly won’t tell people to stop sending shirts in when we hit 1,000,000.

How can people help you get the word out?

The biggest thing people can do is go in their closets/dressers, grab a couple good condition t-shirts, throw a couple $1 bills in an envelope and ship the package to our warehouse in Colorado. All of the information for sending in t-shirts can be found on our Send Shirts page. People can also get involved by setting up t-shirt drives in their area, by getting involved with social media and sharing the idea with their friends. We’re looking for corporate sponsors and just want to help change lives in Africa via t-shirts.

If you get a chance to send in your shirt or can help out in any way please do get involved. Just visit www.1millionshirts.org

Some folk were born to be entrepreneurs. The likes of Richard Branson and Alan Sugar were strutting their stuff when they were only midway through their teens, and their success results from an innate instinct for business, rather than from any specific scholastic qualifications.

To use Branson as an example, he published his own magazine at sixteen, launched Virgin Records at twenty, formed Virgin Airways at thirty four, a carbonated cola drink by the age of forty five and his own mobile phone company by the time he was fifty. And all this before we discuss his train company and recent intergalactic dabblings too: a rather broad spectrum on his entrepreneurial CV.

This isn’t for everyone though. Some use their formative university years to hone their thoughts and ideas, so when they emerge with their hard-earned qualifications, they have already done much of the necessary groundwork towards becoming a successful entrepreneur.

In short, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to entrepreneurialism. But they all share a drive and determination to succeed and they all have a natural intuition for what is right.

Christian Arno, from global translation services provider Lingo24, founded his company in 2001 after graduating in French and Italian. He worked initially from a spare bedroom in his parents’ home in Scotland, building a client base gradually and careful to spend his start-up finances wisely.

Funds came from a £5,000 loan and, crucially, he had invested £500 of his student loan on the stock market, which had yielded a return of 3,000%. But it was the home-based working model that was key to the company’s early success:

Arno says. “I was able to offer major clients prices up to 30 percent cheaper than our competitors. It was imperative that we could compete from the start, and having no overheads for premises helped facilitate this.”

He made the decision to start opening virtual offices elsewhere too, with New Zealand in 2003 and China in 2004.

But the big change came with his decision to open physical office spaces, beginning with Timisoara (Romania) in early 2005 and Panama and Edinburgh in 2008.

“There are strategic reasons why I opened all these offices where I did. A combination of local skill-sets combined with the multiple time-zones enables us to operate around the clock, quite literally. This is crucial to our global growth.”

Today, Lingo24 operates across four continents with clients in over sixty countries. They translated 33 million words in 2009 and achieved a turnover of £3.65m – which Arno predicts will rise to over £5m in 2010.

Having come so far in the past 8 years, Arno reckons that gradual growth is the key to businesses succeeding.

“Don’t throw large wads of cash at any initiative without having a clear idea of what the outcome will be. I found that companies would call me up and try to sell me advertorials which sounded great, but weren’t. After a couple of costly ones, it was clear that the return on the investment wasn’t there.”

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising were still relatively novel concepts at the turn of the century but Arno was quick to realise the potential of these marketing tools.

“The internet was pivotal in the success of Lingo24 and today direct online marketing is still our most powerful tool”, says Arno. “I discovered SEO and Google AdWords and there has been no looking back. PPC allowed me to test out online marketing techniques for very little money – I could set my monthly budget at a nominal amount, allowing me to gauge its efficacy without blowing my entire marketing budget. And as it turned out, it has brought us a lot of custom.”

Online marketing certainly seems like the most cost-effective route for businesses to go in the current economic downturn. And for Lingo24, it has been an integral part of its global expansion plans, with websites now in a number of key European and Asian languages, helping them to tap into new markets.

“Most of the internet is in English, but 75% of the world’s population speak no English at all, so there’s a clear gap there”, says Arno. “I researched key search terms used by local customers and incorporated them into the translated websites. Because the saturation is nowhere near what it is in the English-speaking market, I found that we rose very rapidly in foreign search engine rankings.”

Arno has this final advice for entrepreneurs seeking to grow their business abroad:

“Take things slowly at first – understand your market and talk to others who have succeeded before you part with your hard-earned cash. Start small, learn as you go and follow a carefully managed growth model.”

About Lingo24

Lingo24 is an international translation company, with operations in the UK, Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia. With over a hundred employees working on four continents, and a network of 4,000 translators, they achieved a turnover of £3.65m in 2009: projected to rise to over £5m in 2010.

We know you’re a “Young Go Getter”, but so our readers know, how old are you?
I turned 27 years young in May…. 30 kind of scares me.

Can you tell us the quick history about yourself, and what drives you to succeed?
As a small child (yes I’m 6’5 now, but I was small once) I spent all of my time being creative, attempting to be artistic and always trying to make people laugh. I never saw myself going to college but did it to appease my parents and now know that I wouldn’t be where I am today without that life experience (read: NOT education). I graduated in 2005 with a degree in Graphic Design and was already working part-time for Men’s Professional Tennis (ATP) and did so for 3 ½ years. At the same time I was working there I was continuing to network and flex my creative muscles by starting a web design company of my own with a college friend. Once that business was self-sustaining, I parted ways with what ended up being a great couple years of work/life experience but truly showed me that I was not meant for a 9-5 work environment. After leaving the corporate world and working for myself I began to realize that the more effort I put in, the more results I saw… not just because more effort brings more opportunities, which it does, but because people liked me, trusted me and put value you in my opinion. A year after leaving my 9-5 job, I had helped create ¼ of a million dollar revenue generating company but knew there was more for me and knew social media could open some interesting doors. On one of the many late nights I spend perusing the web in August ’08 the light bulb went off: TONS of companies print t-shirts, want people to wear them and want to gain exposure somehow. That night the domain IWearYourShirt.com was purchased and the idea turned into a business model where a guy wears a t-shirt and gets paid to promote that company through social media for a day. The website was live in October, the first day was sold on November 11, 2008 and I had 5 ½ months of shirt-wearing sold when January 1, 2009 rolled around.

We know you are a younggogetter, but I am sure there is more to you than that. What are some other things you have done prior to you current job or things you are currently working on?
Obviously I’ve put in 27 years of practice in wearing t-shirts, so that’s been pretty rough. But seriously, I’ve always been a social butterfly, always willing to try new things and always telling people that life is too short to do things that suck. As far as work experience goes, I started out as a produce boy at a small grocery store, pumped gas, was a Verizon cell phone salesman and about 20 other random jobs that all made me the person I am today (but sucked). I had aspirations to play basketball professionally but had two unfortunately knee injuries which may or may not have led me to my current situation, so how can I really complain? Right now I am really focused on building my personal brand, leveraging that to make money and most importantly providing value for companies that buy into Jason Sadler.

What has been your biggest asset while building your IWearYourShirt.com?
Nothing… and I mean NOTHING has helped me more than working my ass off, being super dedicated and having a really supportive family, girlfriend and group of friends (and dog). It’s one thing to work 16 hours in a day, but it’s a whole other ball game when your Mom and Grama are in your live video show every single day at 3pm EST. I’ve seen my fair share of copycats and each one of them has made me push that extra bit harder each day. I’m 100% open and transparent with my audience and try to be as accessible as possible. You know from first-hand experience, it took me nearly 2 weeks to get this interview back to you. It’s not that I didn’t want to do it, it’s just that I put so much effort in promoting every day’s t-shirt sponsor and juggle my personal and online life at the same time.

Adversely, what has been your biggest vice?
Being creative every single day for over 300 days straight. I haven’t taken a day off and have only missed my live video show 3 times this year. I really enjoy spreading the word about each new company and interacting with my audience daily. That’s what makes it easy to go to bed at 2am and wake up at 7-9am, depending on when my dog Plaxico wants to go out.

What can we expect next from the talented Jason Sadler in the near future?
I’m really focused on trying to carve out my own niche in advertising. It’s no secret that magazine ads, billboards, banner ads and other mediums are hurting and not returning ROI. You could easily spend $1000+ on getting a company to create a YouTube video, Live Video show, creatively/honestly written blog posts, Tweets, Facebook Profile & Flickr photos and all the other stuff I do in ONE day for a company. But even if you spent all that money, would anyone be there to consume it? No. I’ve only been building my personal brand publicly for about a year and think I have a long way to go before people will pay thousands of dollars to have 50 people wear their company’s t-shirt, but that’s my goal. Imagine the power of 50 people, who are connected to… I don’t know, 5,000 total people each wearing a shirt for a day and talking about via social media. That’s a minimum of 250,000 people being exposed to your brand. I’m scaling IWearYourShirt.com slowly and hoping to reach that goal and keeping a consistent value. Anyone could put an ad on craigslist to get 50 people to wear a t-shirt, but do all of those people have a social media following and understand how to be genuine and fun to watch/listen to?

I’ve also been really excited to start speaking at conferences, doing social media consulting for companies and I have a marketing consultancy that will be launching at some point in 2010!

Everyone starts to feel burn out on a project every now and then. What do you do to keep yourself motivated and focused?
Step out of my comfort zone. I really love my couch in my living room and the town that I live in (Jacksonville, FL), but sometimes just picking up and going somewhere else is a huge creative motivator. I love taking my dog Plaxico to the beach, letting him poop in the sand thinking about how I could possibly monetize that. Not the actual poop, but maybe create that poop-spray from that awful movie “Envy”? That and Chick-Fil-a breakfast always gives me a good kick start!

Can you give us three tools that you use every single day to make your life as a younggogetter more efficient, productive, or fun?
Tweetie, Ustream.tv and the iPhone. Oh, and if I can add a 4th one, it would be the free Macbook Pro that http://SoundVisionLibrary.com bought me!

What is your favourite quote?
It should probably be something said by Einstein, JFK or someone else who is way smarter than me. But I’m bad at remembering quotes unless they are from Will Ferrell movies: “MOM!! The meatloaf…..”

And last but not least, if you could give one piece of advice to fellow Young Go Getters, what would it be?
Don’t try to be someone you’re not and stop working for crappy companies. There are so many other companies out there that need talented people, you are never stuck at a dead-end job and should focus on what you are truly passionate about. A true entrepreneur doesn’t complain about their situation, they figure out how to innovate and move on.