The Code­Tree has always been com­mit­ted to being an invalu­able resource for new and sea­soned online entre­pre­neurs. We con­stantly strive to pro­vide com­pelling, rel­e­vant con­tent as well as practical,‘how-to’ information.

In that spirit we decided to pro­duce a seg­ment that deals with the issues you face every­day as entre­pre­neurs and busi­ness own­ers. In this seg­ment you’ll hear from suc­cess­ful entre­pre­neurs explain­ing how they achieve suc­cess and what they do to, ‘keep the boat afloat’ in the cur­rent econ­omy.

How Kris­ten Eck­stein Does It …

Kris­ten Eckstein

Kris­ten Eck­stein, Exec­u­tive Pro­ducer of Imag­ine! Stu­dios (an arts and media pro­duc­tion com­pany) is a self-made suc­cess in the offline and online world. Kristen’s story started in 2004 when she had the fore­sight and where­withal to rec­og­nize an oppor­tu­nity to suc­ceed and the poten­tial to cap­i­tal­ize that oppor­tu­nity. Like many entre­pre­neurs, Kris­ten found a need in an indus­try that she is well versed in and then cre­ated prod­ucts and ser­vices to address that need.

When ques­tioned how a small busi­ness owner from North Car­olina achieves suc­cess in a sat­u­rated and cut-throat arts & media indus­try she sim­ply responds, “we cre­ate great art and enter­tain­ment that fires the imag­i­na­tion and makes a sig­nif­i­cant pos­i­tive influ­ence in the lives of peo­ple”.

Kris­ten describes her daily busi­ness activ­i­ties as; “a whirl­wind of activ­ity” between bal­anc­ing jobs, invoic­ing, cus­tomer ser­vice, meet­ings, prod­uct devel­op­ment and many other busi­ness tasks Kris­ten finds her­self wear­ing sev­eral dif­fer­ent hats. Today, Kris­ten remains involved with corporate-style graphic design, book design and book coach­ing as a self-employer with three inde­pen­dent contractors.

Sur­viv­ing eco­nomic challenges …

We wanted to know if and how the cur­rent US/World econ­omy has pre­sented any obsta­cles for Kris­ten and her busi­ness . She responds by stat­ing, “It has done noth­ing but make us more prof­itable. Not only are we in a busi­ness that oth­ers need to com­pete and stay in busi­ness, but we believe that though we live in this world, we have the abil­ity to tap into God’s econ­omy, and it is a lot more secure!”.

Every busi­ness owner is faced with the chal­lenge of cut­ting costs and expense wher­ever pos­si­ble; Kris­ten found that join­ing America’s Best Com­pa­nies proved to be a great cost-saver for legal and pro­fes­sional ser­vices. Addi­tion­ally, Kris­ten remains com­mit­ted that her com­pany only spend money in areas that will help grow the busi­ness or enrich the lives of others.

Objec­tives …

Call them goals, objec­tives, mile­stones … what­ever you call them, every busi­ness and busi­ness owner needs them. As a suc­cess­ful entre­pre­neur, you must be com­mit­ted to expand­ing your busi­ness. A busi­ness is designed to grow, if the busi­ness does not grow the busi­ness will wither. Among many ways to grow busi­ness, Kris­ten chooses to grow her busi­ness by con­tin­u­ally adding new prod­ucts and ser­vices that are inline with her indus­try such as her recently released Plat­inum Pub­lish­ing Pro­gram for book authors.

Cus­tomer ser­vice should be a pri­mary objec­tive for every entre­pre­neur; great cus­tomer ser­vice equals a great cus­tomer. Kris­ten is very pas­sion­ate about cus­tomer ser­vice, here is what Kris­ten had to say when asked to weigh in her opin­ion on cus­tomer service :

“My cus­tomer may not always be right (they may ask the impos­si­ble), but we take the time to explain every­thing thor­oughly. We have found that even if the cus­tomer isn’t right, good cus­tomer ser­vice takes time out to give the cus­tomer atten­tion, make them feel val­ued (as they should be), and explain sit­u­a­tions to them. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion is key! Espe­cially if we can­not meet a dead­line, I will con­tact the cus­tomer and let them know right away. We have found that if we com­mu­ni­cate clearly, they are a lot more under­stand­ing than we may give them credit for.”

Some sage advice …

In order to be a suc­cess­ful entre­pre­neur you must be vig­i­lant, tri­umphant deter­mined and will­ing to do any­thing required in order to achieve your dream, includ­ing per­sonal sacrifice.

Kris­ten Eck­stein leaves us with some of her expert advice:

• Are busi­ness ethics impor­tant? “Yes, if you have strong val­ues and put your cus­tomers first, they will notice and you will reap the reward of their con­tin­ued patron­age. If you always do things cheaply and do not take respon­si­bil­ity when some­thing goes wrong, your busi­ness will suf­fer immediately”.
• What is the ‘first step’ that new entre­pre­neurs should take? “Come up with a name! Your busi­ness name will iden­tify you, clar­ify your vision, and give you focus”.
• What are the ingre­di­ents to a good ‘suc­cess recipe’? “Equal parts Com­mu­ni­ca­tion, Respect, and Hon­esty”.

Con­tact­ing Kris­ten Eckstein:

Kris­ten Eck­stein, Exec­u­tive Pro­ducer
Imag­ine! Stu­dios www.artsimagine.com
I am Pub­lished! Pro­gram www.iampublished.com
Twit­ter http://twitter.com/imaginestudios