By Andrea Williams

Monday, September 26, 2011

Unemployment, job dissatisfaction and sheer guts created startup success for these seven entrepreneurs.

Most young people in their 20s and 30s wouldn’t remember “Take This Job and Shove It,” a 1978 country hit sung famously by Johnny Paycheck.

But these days, they probably can appreciate the sentiment.

For millennials, those born in the 1980s and 1990s, finding employment has not been easy. And when they do, it can be pretty crummy: long hours, low pay and little security.

For some, a good solution has been entrepreneurship.

These seven young people followed their passions and built successful startups. And they are not alone. This generation boasts a large number of business owners, so much so that the next big hit on the music charts may be: “Took this risk and loved it.”

Start at the Bottom? Yeah, Right.

Owner: Todd Wiseman and Milos Silver

Company: Hayden 5 Media

Location: New York, N.Y.

When Todd Wiseman and business partner Milos Silver graduated from NYU’s Tisch Film School in 2009, they knew they’d either have to work for somebody or work for themselves.

They chose the latter. And, with an investment of $1,500 each, Hayden 5 Media was born.

Hayden 5 Media, which creates web videos for companies, took off after online media boomed and every company seemingly wanted a web video to promote its business. Wiseman and Silver were able to build their brand with a low-cost, high-quality strategy — cutting out bigger companies that were charging five times their fees.

They have come a long way from the days of scouring Craigslist ads for new customers; Hayden 5 Media is now regularly approached by large ad agencies and major record labels for their services. And they’ve quadrupled their gross revenues each year.

Diamonds Are a Guy’s Best Friend

Owner: Vipul Lakhi

Company: Mytriorings.com

Location: New York, N.Y.

Vipul Lakhi’s family has worked in the diamond industry for generations, so it was no surprise when his best friend sought his advice on engagement rings before proposing to his girlfriend.

For Lakhi, the experience of helping his friend and the lack of job opportunities following his 2009 graduation from Northeastern University created the perfect environment in which he could start his own company.

With $30,000 of his own startup capital, Lakhi started My Trio Rings, a company that sells low-cost wedding rings.

“An average American buys an engagement ring for just over $3,000, followed by a ladies’ and men’s wedding band that costs roughly $1,000 each,” said Lakhi. “My Trio Rings retails the three rings sold as a set, and the prices range from $400 to $1,500.”

Lakhi uses several factors to keep prices low, including efficient design (like clusters of smaller diamonds as opposed to large, expensive solitaires), economies of scale and an online-only retail store.

But, according to Lakhi, what he doesn’t sacrifice is quality. And with scores of positive testimonials and a 300% year-to-year revenue growth rate, customers seem to agree

When Speeding Tickets Pay

Owner: Greg Muender

Company: Ticketkick.com

Location: San Diego

After getting three speeding tickets within three weeks as a broke college student, Greg Muender needed help.

With a little bit of research and some legal advice, Muender was able to get two of his tickets dropped, and soon he was helping friends and friends of friends get out of their tickets, too.

“Before I knew it, I had enough customers to start a business,” Muender said. “Best of all, because of the economic climate, I couldn’t have found a more opportune time to start a business that saves people money.”

With a depressed job market looming, Muender saw building his own company as a surer bet, and he officially launched Ticketkick.com in July 2010 — one month before his graduation from San Diego State University.

Customers pay between $79 and $199 for Muender and company to handle the document completion and defense preparation necessary for contesting traffic violations. And although Ticketkick.com currently works only with California residents, business is booming. The company boasts a 70% success rate and is on track to break $1,000,000 in sales in 2011.

More Than a Cushy Title

Owner: Nina Beckhardt

Company: TheNamingGroup.com

Location: New York, N.Y.

From Capital One’s Venture Card to Epson’s BrightLink projector, top companies take the naming of new products and brands very seriously.

Enter Nina Beckhardt and her company, The Naming Group.

Beckhardt graduated summa cum laude from George Washington University in 2007 with a degree in Fine Art and Psychology and a life-long love of words, Beckhardt joined another naming agency, quickly climbing the ranks to President/Creative Director.

But, despite the cushy title, Beckhardt felt very little job security, and she decided to go out on her own in October 2009. The entire creative staff followed her.

Today Beckhardt is a nationally recognized brand-naming expert, and The Naming Group attracts top-tier clients, including Sony and General Motors. In fact, GM just tapped Beckhardt and company to name the newest small car in its Chevrolet line, the Sonic.

Being Tour Own Boss Again and Again

Owner: George Burke

Company: eBookFling.com

Location: Newark, N.J.

George Burke is a classic serial entrepreneur. He started his first business, a web design company, as a senior IT student at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He used the proceeds from its sale to fund Bookswim.com, a wildly successful, Netflix-style book rental service.

Burke’s latest venture is eBookFling.com, an online company that allows members to swap Kindle and Nook ebooks. Each member earns a credit from lending an ebook to another member, and those credits are then used as currency to borrow books.

Burke, 29, makes his revenues from members who are less interested in lending and are willing to pay $2.99 for a single credit redeemable for one ebook.

Since eBookFling.com’s launch in late March, the site has already amassed over 30,000 members. But what excites Burke even more is the reception he has received from authors who value the site’s ability to introduce their work to new readers

Showing App-Titude

Owner: Khanan Grauer

Company: TouchAppMedia.com

Location: New York, N.Y.

From recipe catalogs to mobile resume creators, there’s an app for just about everything.

But Khanan Grauer, founder of TouchAppMedia, believes software developers have barely scratched the surface.

With his high-tech skills, Grauer never had a problem finding a “regular job.” Instead, it was his desire to create his own ideas and let the market — not a manager or executive — determine his success that fueled his entrepreneurial spirit.

Launched in 2010, TouchAppMedia was created specifically to take advantage of the mobile explosion because, as Grauer noted, “Part of being an entrepreneur is being in the right place at the right time.”

His company develops mobile applications for various companies. And, in a stroke of marketing genius, he partners with — and receives payment from — those companies. The product is completely free for the end user and allows Grauer’s offerings to stand out in a market swelling with over 400,000 other apps.

Timing couldn’t be better for TouchAppMedia. Revenues are up 100%, and he spends much of his time scaling the business to meet demand.

“Demand is actually escalating faster than supply,” said Grauer. “Those are magic words to any entrepreneur.”

Always the businessman, Burke is working to implement a fee-based platform for authors who want even more direct access to book lovers.

The Recession: Bring It On!’

Owner: Steve Richard

Company: Vorsight

Location: Washington, D.C.

Steve Richard believes that “if you can’t find the job you want, you should create it.”

And that’s exactly what he did when he left his job in 2005 to launch Vorsight. His company provides B2B sales training as well as sales appointment setting services for a wide range of clients, including companies like Rosetta Stone and Blackboard.

While many people are cursing the economy and its effect on their businesses, Richard believes that the recession has played a large role in Vorsight’s success It has allowed him to attract great employees who were willing to work for his fledgling company. Also in a depressed economy businesses need more help than ever with sales techniques.

Vorsight boasts a staff of 35 and is on track to bring in $4 million in revenue this year. Not bad for a company that Richard started from scratch with no outside investments and little more than his own “sweat equity.”

Source: CNNMoney.com