A Profile of a Young Businessman

Designed by … Me! “My name’s Hugo Rojas, I’m 19, and I live in Bogotá, Colombia.  I’m studying marketing at a university, but I also have my own business, called GoRo. I started it in 2018 when I was in my final year of high school. This year, I’ve made $12,000 already. I design cases for popular models of smartphones and tablets. I started out because lots of my friends had cases that looked really good—mine was just black at the time. So, I went online and found a company that helps you start your own case design business. You buy the things you need from them, plus some example designs, and they send them to you. I think that cost about $3,400. I borrowed the money from my dad. The example designs were OK, but I decided I wanted to do it on my own. I really love birds, so they are the first designs I did. My family and my friends really liked my designs, but I had to think about how I wanted to sell them. My university teacher was really helpful—she gave me lots of ideas about the best way to market my designs. I sell them on an e-commerce website that specializes in handmade items. My brother is a website developer and he has helped me make my own website. That was when the business started to grow. The only problem I have is that it’s hard having a business and studying at the same time. It’s important that I finish college first, though. I can start thinking about the business more in another two years. Why is the business a success? Well, you only need to look at the statistics. In Colombia, for example, in 2018—the year before I started GoRo—about 23 million people had a smartphone. So, that’s 23 million customers who may want to buy a smartphone case from me. To be honest, I didn’t think it would develop at all. But I’m very happy that it has!”

Marketing ( n ): the strategies that companies use to get people to buy their products.

Website developer ( n ): a person who makes websites.