Q 1. Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business. Please include what your business is all about, in which city you are located and if you have offices in multiple locations/ cities.
Ans: Our core values are driven by a desire to improve the quality of life for our customers. Smart Home Worx brings sophisticated technology to homes and businesses, creating new levels of comfort, convenience, and peace of mind to your daily life. With a dedicated staff focused solely on service, our commitment to responding quickly to your needs is second to none. We’re a collective of hard working doers and dreamers, whose modus operandi is “If it can be done, we can do it.”
Q 2. Kindly give us a brief description about yourself (it should include your brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major achievements).
Ans: Smart Home Worx is comprised of a group of A/V technology professionals. We have a combined team of experienced Home Theater Designers, Home Automation Engineers and Audio Visual Technicians that have been professionally trained and seasoned with years of hands on experience. Collectively, we have over 35 years of combined experience on staff and 3000+ satisfied customers throughout NY, NJ, PA and CT. With two convenient locations we serve all four states. We can help create any Audio Visual or Home Automation system for your home or business space. We offer many of the most professional and up to date system brands in the industry.
Q 3. What inspired you to (start a new business venture) or (to make significant changes in an existing business)? How did the idea for your business come about?
Ans: In short words, I wanted freedom. Not only financially, but also I wanted more control over my life in general. However, while I always had this idea, it took me some time to figure out the exact way of doing this. At some point I was looking at the cables behind my TV and computer table and thought how nice would it be if all of this became organized. I kind of liked to mess around with my electronics, but I hated the idea of going through all the wiring and disconnect something I even had no intention to touch every time I wanted to plug a pair of headphones into my computer or an Xbox into my TV. I wanted all of this mess gone and have a simple and easily accessible layout instead. However, all of it required time and I didn’t feel like doing it myself. But I was willing to pay someone to do it for me. And then it clicked in my head. I realized that I must not be the only person in the world thinking this way. Why not start doing what I already like and get paid for it. At that moment I knew I saw the way of getting closer to my Dream of Freedom and I started taking steps in this direction.
Q 4. What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
Ans: Never stop learning, be open to new ideas and opportunities and never stop on what you achieved, something can always be improved.
Q 5.What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
Ans: Discipline, ability to think out of the box and always try to learn something new, because you never know what opportunities it can lead you to.
Q 6. How many hours do you work a day on average?
Ans: 12
Q 7. To what do you most attribute your success?
Ans: As mentioned above, self discipline, out of the box thinking and never stop learning.
Q 8. How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
Ans: While online presence and newspapers/magazine ads are a great and efficient way to promote what you are doing, a word of mouth plays significant role too. A happy client will most likely share his experience with friends, colleagues, neighbors and quite often this works better than a greatest advertisement you might put out there.
Q 9. Where did your organizations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?
Ans: Our main starting capital was our enthusiasm and dedication to the idea of reaching our goals. A lot can be achieved with this, the rest will come along.
Q 10. What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
Ans: Being open to new ideas, never stop learning and stay disciplined.
Q 11. Where you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
Ans: Definitely a larger company with bigger operation and network of clients. Our plan is to expand and grow.
Q 12. Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
Ans: Apple Inc
Q 13. How important have good employees been to your success?
Ans: Very. You can be as much of a genius as one can be, but if your team consists of people that are not interested, not motivated or simply don’t understand what are they doing, you’ll get nowhere.
Q 14. How long do you stick with an idea before giving up?
Ans: Until all possible solutions are tried and the idea proved to be not worthy. That’s if I liked the idea in the first place.
Q 15. What motivates you?
Ans: My family. They are very important part of the reason I started my own company.
Q 16. What are your ideals?
Ans: Efficiency, reliability and proactiveness.
Q 17.How do you generate new ideas?
Ans: By looking at what the top players in the industry are doing and trying to come up with a way to make it even better. It doesn’t mean that we constantly offer bunch of improvements for what others have done, but things like this help to learn how to think out of the box and may lead you to creating or offering something really unique.
Q 18. How do you define success?
Ans: Achieving your goals.
Q 19.How do you build a successful customer base?
Ans: By making sure each client knows that you are able to answer any question he/she might have about your field of business and can provide a professional and reasonable solution for any project your client might have in mind.
Q 20. What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
Ans: Freedom and responsibility. You have full control of how your company is growing and the result is only up to you.
Q 21. What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
Ans: When your client keeps getting back to you with new projects even years after the original installation was complete and you are his number one contact in everything related to your field of business.
Q 22. What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
Ans: It is just easier for some people to be a great specialist from 9 to 5 and then forget anything work related until the next day. I can’t and don’t judge this point of view. Sometimes, I actually strongly support it. An entrepreneur on the other hand is willing to work more if it is necessary and take responsibility for the decisions he or she made and quality of the work done.
Q 23. What kind of culture exists in your organization? How did you establish this tone and why did you institute this particular type of culture?
Ans: I don’t care how is the job done as long as it is professional quality work done on time. I’m also trying to lead my workers instead of bossing them around. I think it helps to make the results better and working process easier for everyone.
Q 24. In one word, characterize your life as an entrepreneur.
Ans: Proactive.
Q 25.If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
Ans: Probably, I’d be more careful in making decisions. However, certain things can be learned and understood only after you run into them, unfortunately, sometimes even more than once.
Q 26. How has being an entrepreneur affected your family life?
Ans: It is not always easy to explain to your family that you are going to be busy more than you expected, but usually, they are very supportive.
Q 27.What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage fear?
Ans: The fear of failure which is managed by doing everything to avoid it.
Q 28.How did you decide on the location for your business?
Ans: We started with market research. Once we knew there was a high demand for our type of services in certain areas, it was much easier to make a decision.
Q 29.Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur?
Ans: In my opinion, the formula is being flexible and aware of the latest innovations in yours and related fields of business.
Q 30.If you could talk to one person from history, who would it be and why?
Ans: Joseph Stalin, believe it or not.
Q 31.Who has been your greatest inspiration?
Ans: I can’t say it is one person. Probably, it is a combination of characters I met and learned about at some points of my life. No one is ideal, but at the same time you can learn something from anyone.
Q 32.What book has inspired you the most? (OR what is your favorite book?)
Ans: Jim Morrison’s Adventures in the Afterlife by Mick Farren.
Q 33.What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made?
Ans: Thinking of people better than they deserved.
Q 34.How can you prevent mistakes or do damage control?
Ans: By knowing as much as possible about what I’m doing and never make a decision based on assumptions.
Q 35.What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
Ans: I play and write music, read, hike and travel.
Q 36.What makes you happy?
Ans: When those I care for are happy.
Q 37. What sacrifices have you had to make to be a successful entrepreneur?
Ans: Personal time and time with the family by most part.
Q 38. If you were conducting this interview, what question would you ask?
Ans: Hard to tell. I think you asked them all)
Company Detail:
Company : Smart Home Worx
Contact : Eugene Koval
Address : 9304 Voits Ln
City : Philadelphia
State : PA
Zip : 19115
Phone : 215-600-3358
Email : support@smarthomeworx.com
