It’s not often that you get to meet someone like Ken Lyotier – a man who rose above his own personal challenges to create a well-respected, non-profit business by uniting a community more known for sad stories of homelessness and addiction rather than those of success.

Lyotier is the founder and former Executive Director of United We Can, a non-profit bottle depot that operates out of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. This week, we were lucky enough to have Lyotier come in and tell his inspirational story to us first hand during our weekly team learning session.

Like many entrepreneurs, Lyotier started off by identifying a problem that he was experiencing himself. While trying to earn a living by collecting recyclable cans and bottles, he found that the stores that were supposed to honor the refunds were often unwilling to accommodate the bottle returns.

With the help of a local minister, he and a friend decided to organize an event where people could bring in non-recyclable items for cash – he was overwhelmed with the response and energy it generated from the community.

“The buzz you get from people being excited about what you’re doing is better than any high you’ll ever get from drugs or alcohol,” says Lyotier.

After searching for answers to local recycling issues and working with the government and VanCity, United We Can was founded in 1995 and has grown into an impressive source of inspiration, empowerment, and employment to people living in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. Over the past few years, the organization has grown beyond the bottle depot to include other services that work well within the community, including a bicycle repair shop and computer recycling.

Along with being a well-respected member of his community, Lyotier’s positive impact on the community has also recently earned him an invitation to light the cauldron at the 2010 Vancouver Games celebration site after being handed the Olympic torch by Canadian singer Michael Buble.

Ken Lyotier is an inspiration to any entrepreneur and he also provides some food for thought. What business opportunities surround you in your own life? What’s holding you back? Use personal challenges to take a step forward and write your own success story.

Last week, we introduced you to the new online business being launched by CityMax.com staff – also known as the E3 venture (Employee Entrepreneur Experience). We determined the company bylaws and discussed what kind of business had the best chance to grow.

This week, we looked at a variety of products to sell, from event tickets to tennis rackets, and finally voted them down to the top three. After a bit of discussion, we may have reached a decision. Check out our criteria below – what would you have voted for?

1. High-end Pens

• We determined that these were easy to sell in bulk quantities, with a 2-3% markup for each pen
• High online search volume for custom pens, as well as the top manufacturers
• Very easy to ship
• However, due to our lack of any existing relationship with a supplier this product earned few votes in the final evaluation

2. Car Wax

• An extremely expensive product that generates repeat customers
• High online search volume indicating great demand
• Easy to ship
• Market is largest in the USA
• High margins
• Better sold in high volume
• Easily branded
• Manufacturing - possibly homemade, which would mean not scalable and a low production rate
• It is a product our staff feel they can get behind
• Potentially a strong product, if supplier issues are clarified

3. Baseball Bats

• One of our members has developed a potential relationship with a supplier
• High online search volume
• Great market opportunity for Little League teams, semi-pros, beer league teams, trophies
• Free drop-shipping
• Easy to out-source production
• Small order sizes possible – no inventory back up
• Fully customizable: baseball bats can be branded easily
• High agreement among board members (CityMax.com staff)

After some debate, the E3 group reached a consensus - custom baseball bats appear to be our best option. Up next week: we research market opportunities and our competition to see if our business model is viable.

Stay tuned…

If you’re familiar with CityMax.com, you already know we’ve got entrepreneur fever. Our website builder is the heart of thousands of successful businesses (just take a look at our amazing Homepreneur finalists), and we’ve been around for over 10 years. But so what, you might ask?

Well, two weeks ago we decided to put our money where our collective mouth is. We decided to start an online venture.

Why?  To show that anyone can do it, and hopefully learn a few things along the way.

Every CityMax.com team member will help run our new small business. Each week, the entire company (all 34 of us) will meet as a board and vote to determine our next course of action – from our operational name, to the look of our website, to marketing. And you’ll get to follow along right here!

Week 1: We drafted and approved our company bylaws. Boring but essential, and very democratic.

Last week: We began talking about what kind of business we should start. To figure out the “right product”, the team started floating ideas against a boatload of questions that any new business owner should ask:

• Is it easily shipped? (The best products are those that can be packaged or shipped affordably and safely)
• Is it scalable? How are you going to manage increased shipping/sales if you go from 1 sale daily to 400?
• Does it encourage repeat customers?
• Do you have a secure product supply? A long-term relationship with key suppliers?
• Can product delivery/production be outsourced?
• Is it easy to access/local?
• Does it have high margins per item (actual dollars, not percentage)? What is the likelihood of making money on every sale, factoring order size, shipping costs, etc.
• Is the product line brandable?
• Are people searching for what you are selling?
• Do you believe in what you are selling?

Now that we’ve got a few guiding factors to help us decide our business model, it’s time to brainstorm and see what we come up with. Next week – we choose our product and begin competitive market research. Stay tuned!

The judges made their final tallies and have declared Marco Barberini of OvernightPetTags.com our Homepreneur of the Year!

Marco’s vision, story, and growing success stood out from an impressive group of finalists. The 24-year old former gas station employee from a tiny Michigan town began his CityMax.com site in 2006 with no HTML experience. In 2007, he ended up quitting his job to focus on his business and has now tagged over 32,000 pets!

In an interview, Marco said: “A few years ago, my wife Heather and I realized we were tired of working paycheck to paycheck and started focusing on Overnight Pet Tags. We built out our site with CityMax.com and eventually started ranking in the search engines. Our online sales have increased by 100% each year and our dream is to tag every pet in the United States.”

OvernightPetTags.com is currently generating $6,000 - $8,000 in monthly online revenue and, according to Marco, requires only 7 to 10 hours of his time each week.

As Homepreneur of the Year, Marco is the winner of a $10,000 prize package, including a round-trip flight to Vancouver, Canada, three days in a beautiful luxury hotel, the Red Carpet treatment, a day of 1-on-1 expert consultation at CityMax.com HQ, and a complete redesign of his website. He’ll also receive a life-time subscription to CityMax.com for himself and five small businesses of his choosing.

Our two runner-up winners are:
Meredith Patterson (MeredithPatterson.com), an enterprising musical theatre and TV actress who has appeared on All My Children.

Michael and Mary Ferrari (UnusualThreads.com), a retired couple who are generating millions of dollars annually with their online celebrity fashions business.

Our runner-ups will each receive a custom redesign and website makeover ($1,000 value), plus a lifetime subscription to CityMax.com for themselves and three small businesses of their choosing.

Congratulations again to all of our inspiring winners!

If you know someone you’d like to nominate for Homepreneur of the Year (online home-based business, please email homepreneur@citymax.com.

Presenting the finalists for 2009 Homepreneur of the Year! We were overwhelmed by the amount of amazing entries, and thank you all for your submissions. You have some truly incredible small business website success stories and made it hard to pick just eight finalists!

From the Pet Tag Prince to Grandma Cuddles, these finalists come in all shapes, sizes, and ages! Now it’s up to you. Check out their stories on the voting page and help us choose who should be the Homepreneur (home-based business owner) of the Year!

We just received exciting news from CityMax.com Chief Evangelist and President Dean Gagnon that Milun Tesovic, 24-year old founder of metroLeap Media, was named the winner of the 2009 Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) in Kansas City, Missouri capping Global Entrepreneurship Week!

Dean Gagnon, CityMax.com Chief Evangelist and President made the trip down and was one of the awards judges who selected Tesovic as the winner. He explained how Milun blew away the field: “From his initial concept to becoming a real player in the business, Milun’s small business has skyrocketed in just 3 years to become a global leader. His website company reminds me of our own efforts at CityMax.com - a maturity and vision that left us awestruck and showed that entrepreneurs can succeed at any age.”

Tesovic defeated 32 contestants from around the world to take the premier award for students that own and run a business while attending a college or university. His online property, metroLyrics, is currently the 3^rd largest music website in the world. He continues to evolve the company’s flagship product, MetroLyrics with innovative lyrics applications and services that appeal to the sites 35 million unique monthly visitors, maintaining its position as the 3rd largest music website worldwide.

GSEA, an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) program, has attracted top entrepreneurs from universities around the world since 1998. Hosted by the Kauffman Foundation, applicants are selected to compete against their peers by presenting their businesses to a panel of judges comprised of EO members, business luminaries and renowned national business journalists. As the 2009 winner, Tesovic will receive $150,000 in cash and prizes, including access to EO’s global network and thousands of dollars in donated business resources and services. Congratulations Milun on all your amazing work!

When we planned our first annual Entrepreneur Spirit Day: A Celebration of Small Business we hoped it would be an event to remember – and was it ever!

Over 300 entrepreneurs joined us for a fantastic evening of music, mingling, and more! We can’t thank you enough for making this inaugural event such a blast.

To take a look at some great pics and for more information on the event itself, check out http://www.CityMax.com/celebrate.htm.