He started a School Cyber Digest which dealt with Internet issues within the school and became Editor-in-Chief. I asked him how people within the school accepted it:

"Students and faculty in my school varied greatly in their acceptance of an INTERNET ONLY publication. I feel that some teachers are scared of computers and some students fear the fact that they are not computer literate. Others, however, have taken a great liking to my publication and read every issue, make comments, and follow my suggestions. (See www.hopkins.edu for the Cyber Digest).

Does he think we should look more at the long term impacts of technology, say in the Third World, on economic systems and politics or should we focus on the here and now?

"I think that technology should be watched carefully every step of the way. It will be just as important in third world countries as it is is in this country (USA) and others. Technology is not going away, in fact it is improving and growing everyday. I feel that modern day and future technological advancements will have a great impact in every country in this world, rich or poor.

He started his business career selling magazines for The Volvo International tennis tournament and became one of the top sellers while being the youngest member of staff. Why was this?

"I spent a lot of time developing my sales technique. This included clever one liners as well as tactful answers to customers' questions. I knew that I had to give potential customers a reason to make their purchases from me instead of any of the other 15 salespeople."

At the age of twelve he opened "Kevin's Sports Trading Cards" keeping it open the entire summer vacation. Was it profitable or did he have a lot of competition?

"I didn't have any local competition but I had a large cash restriction. All of my business ventures were funded by myself with no other help so it was difficult to buy a large inventory seeing as how it was only open for a summer and was initially being supported by a $10 per week allowance until I started reinvesting profits."

He then moved onto trying to sell the cards online but realised is couldn't make enough from it to continue growth so he packed up one cyber business to start another: "I was so used to posting classified ads on AOL that I started a business of posting them for other companies that wanted to market their products on-line. This was the start of Cyber Solutions."

How did he find advertisers? Solid, grueling and monotonous work.

"...this job did not require skill as much as it did time and patience. I found my clients by contacting people who were already making postings and sold them on the idea by showing them how much time I could save them."

He claims his adverts did result in sales for his clients, but doesn't have any figures. Online advertising's success has been reasonably limited so far and so Kevin turned Cyber Solutions over to the Internet by offering web design, training and consulting. What was the competition like?

"Like any hot industry there is plenty of competition in the Internet consulting business. My clients chose me because they had tried using other companies and were not getting the response that they had hoped. I was able to help them market their company or product online for a much lower cost with much better results."

Since then he's created the Cyber Marketing Solutions, Intl. for all Internet marketing, consulting, advertising, sales, and web page creation activities. Is business good? How can he compete with the large firms with established skills and portfolios?

"I find that my clients are happy with my services because I am still small enough that they are always dealing with myself, and never have to wait for responses or service. Also, I am able to offer all of the same marketing techniques and abilities of the larger companies for a much lower fee. Clients feel very confident with Cyber Marketing Solutions, Intl because they know that we are doing everything we can to make them money."

Not bad for his first 16 years. But will his cyber market still be there after the next 16? Who knows.

You can contact Kevin at kevin@cyberservices.com

© 1997 j-dom media. contact us.

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by Jason P. Kitcat [e-mail him]