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As featured in: The Morning News
of Northwest Arkansas |
Original Article Published: Sunday, September 05,
1999 |
"Entrepreneurs seek
niches on the Web" |
Becca Bacon Martin
Business Editor, The Morning News |
* ...Other entrepreneurs continue to look for niches that might have been left unfilled by
major players.
Take Will
Louden, for example. |
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Louden, who cut his teeth years ago on a Texas Instruments personal computer, owns and
maintains four Web sites, two of them trading on the growth of Northwest Arkansas –
nwahotspots.com, primarily an online portal to other area Web sites, and nwaliving.com
which serves up the scoop on apartment listings, University of Arkansas bus routes and
information on utilities for newcomers. |
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"Our firm has experienced our share of bumps in the road," says Louden of
Virtual GraphX, which is physically based in Fayetteville. "But I must say I have
never been a one man business." |
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"As any entrepreneur starting out, there are those things that you must do, for one
so that you’ll know first hand and for two because of often limited resources. There
are times when it can feel like you’re all alone, but then there |
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| are those around you that remind you of the vision." |
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Virtual GraphX, (now VGIS DOT NET, Inc.) like any business, wants to "maximize market
exposure for advertisers" and "return a reasonable profit to our
shareholders." But Louden says his business uses a unique mix of the Web and
traditional methods to try to reach that goal. He has just released a fall 1999 coupon
book – Volume 3, No. 2, he points out – that is exclusively distributed through
advertisers – "or better yet, we challenge (customers) to log onto our Internet
system and print them off," Louden says. |
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"We have been carefully redesigning and developing this project for some time
now," explains Louden, who studied computing at the University of Arkansas. "We
study our competitors products, we focus on their strengths, we note their weaknesses and
then refine and constantly fine tune our own systems. This philosophy has helped
strengthen the quality of our business relationships as well as our products. |
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"Recently", he adds, "we launched a unique online user survey as a
permanent part of nwahotspots.com. Our users are smart ...people who know what they want.
We have received some excellent ideas." |
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"My view of the Internet is that it is a sort of modern-day gold rush or industrial
revolution," says Virtual GraphX president Louden. "What industry that has come
before has allowed so many people, countries, etc., to come together and share so
much?" |
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Five years in the Internet industry translates into decades in traditional
industries," Louden says. "All we can do at this point is fuel the growth
fire." |
*Portions of this article have been
edited for feature editorial content of other firms mentioned in the original article.
This portion of the Virtual GraphX, Inc. article has been re-published in its entirety
with the full consent and permission of: Republished
with the permission of the Morning News of Northwest Arkansas.
© Copyright 1998, Donrey Media, Inc. |
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