FredMcKinnon.Com

Preface: I saw a “tweet” from Dave Ramsey the other day that said “Business Owners – Share Your Story Often, Your Team Needs to Hear It”.  (or something like that).  I “retweeted” it and decided to do it right here.  So for today, the Worship Leader/Music Guy in me puts on the Entrepreneurial Hat to tell the story of how HPP Enterprises was born.

I’ve always been a little entrepreneur.  I was that kid on his bicycle trying to win the grand prize at school for selling the most wrapping paper or all-occasion cards.  I can’t begin to count how many cases of “Caramel, Almond, and Krunch” candy bars I moved.  By high school the neighbors closed their blinds, shut off the lights, and locked the doors at the sight of my pedaling up their drive way as if I were the re-po man from the furniture store.

Rewind to somewhere around November 2004.  In addition to leading worship for our church I had been operating a music company called “Highest Praise Productions” and it’s web-hosting subsidiary, “HPP Christian Web Solutions”.  That’s a different story altogether … several, actually.  My older brother, Rob McKinnon,  called and his line was something like this:

“Fred, you’re knowledgeable about the web … can you help me find some Lego Bionicles for Ethan’s birthday … they are sold out everywhere”.

That request changed my life.  I googled and searched.  I scoured Ebay.  I sorted Ebay by “completed listings” and saw that every time somebody listed these, they SOLD.  As hard as I was trying to find an answer to Rob’s question, all I could think of was this “new question” that raced through my mind:

“Where can I buy these in bulk so I can resell them”?

Randy Elrod, one of my mentors, has a saying:
“Find where your passion intersects a need and you may have an entrepreneurial opportunity”.  (see his blog post)

I can’t say that I had a passion for selling Legos, but I did have a passion for making supplemental income and starting businesses.  My wife, Joy, often says that if I had a job with a million-dollar salary, I’d still be meddling around in little business opps.  It’s in my DNA.

I don’t think that I was much help to my big brother.  But his request was a big help to me.  My searching quickly turned to “where to buy wholesale toys” instead of “who is selling Bionicles”.  And that search was the beginning of HPP Enterprises.

(be sure and checkout Part 2, “My Gamble, and How It Paid Off“, that will be published next).

(this FreePlay Friday banner was submitted by Jon Morris – if you’d like to make a FreePlay Friday Banner, send it to me and I’ll feature it here with a link to your blog!)

Hey Everybody,

Welcome to “FreePlay Friday” – where I take the day off posting on worship leadership and just ramble about anything random – life, family, politics, business, sports … and ask you to do the same!

My E-Biz and 4th Quarter Holiday Shopping:

For those who have followed my blog for any length of time you know that in addition to my role as a Full Time Worship Director for my church, I also own an e-business of sorts . I’ve always been active online, from creating sites like HighestPraise.Com and TheWorshipCommunity.Com to running a full-blown web hosting firm (which has since been aquired by a hosting company in Tulsa, OK) and several e-commerce shopping sites.  As we enter into the busy 4th quarter (holiday shopping) I’m making a shameless, selfish plug to keep me in mind as you are ordering online for your friends, kids, and loved ones.  As my co-workers at the church often say, “if you can buy it online, Fred probably sells it”.

If you’d like to get the newsletter (blog) or twitter updates when we have a special, check out these resources.  (BTW, I’ve got about 3 boxes of returns and open-box specials I’m about to blow out below wholesale cost!)

HPP Enterprises Blog Newsletter
HPP Enterprises Twitter (Tweeting Deals)

To give you an idea of the diversity, here’s a small sampling of some of the orders our e-biz has fulfilled this week:

• Speck See Thru Hard Shell Case for 17″ MacBook Pro (Aqua) from Ebay
• Speck ToughSkin Case for 3rd Gen iPod Nano from Amazon.Com
• LEGO BATMAN, the VideoGame for Nintendo Wii from Ebay
• LEGO BATMAN, the VideoGame for Nintendo DS
• LEGO BATMAN, the VideoGame for PS2
• DECT 6.0 Digital Cordless Phone System from HPPEnterprises.Com
• SLAPPA Ballistix Aura Shoulder Bag from Amazon.Com
• Canon WaterProof Case for PowerShot SD870 from Amazon
• SeeThru Hard Shell Case for Motorola 9QC from GetSkinsNow.Com
• UltraLinx Clamps, Ground Bars, and POTS Splitters from HPPEnterprises.Com
• Myst Masterpiece Edition from DiscountKidsGames.Com
• Lego Rock Raiders from DiscountKidsGames.Com
• Speck 13″ SeeThru Hard Shell Case for 13″ MacBook (Pro) from GetSkinsNow.Com
• UNIEA U-Suit Leather MacBook Pro Cases from GetSkinsNow.Com
• Garmin NUVI 360 GPS from HPPEnterprises.Com and Amazon.Com
• BebeSounds Angelcare Movement Sensor and Sound Monitor for Babies (HPPEnterprises.Com)

As you can see, it’s an incredibly diverse group of products that we have from multiple distributors.  Check out (and support) our e-biz when you’re shopping.  Feel free to IM or email me if you don’t find something you need.

Our Listings on Ebay
Our Listings on Amazon.Com
HPPEnterprises.Com (electronics, telephony, accessories)
GetSkinsNow.Com (Apple laptop, ipod, cell phone, electronic cases, gadgets and accessories)
DiscountKidsGames.Com (computer software and video games and accessories)

In closing, (and if you read this far, you really must be a friend!) … I realize this isn’t the fun, happy, cut-up FreePlay Friday post … but every now and then I like to share what’s going on in the e-biz, and ask that you consider at least checking our pricing and availability when you’re shopping.

How about you – this is how the McKinnon’s earn extra income … most people need it these days.  Do you have something “extra” you do to supplement your income?

Go for it … got nothing to say about this?  Just share your own, random FreePlay Friday thoughts!

Hey Everybody

Pardon the off-topic interruption … but wanted to let you know about a great opportunity for you to do two things:

1.  Find some great deals
2.  Be a blessing to me (and my family) at the same time.

As must of you know who’ve read my blog any amount of time, I operate an e-biz called “HPP Enterprises” which sells products (mostly electronics, electronic accessories, iPod, iPhone, Apple MacBook, computer software, games, etc) on multiple storefronts, including GetSkinsNow.Com (cases and accessories), HPPEnterprises.com (electronics, components), DiscountKidsGames.Com (games, software), and on 3rd party sites like Amazon, Ebay, and Pricegrabber.

Yesterday I decided to create a “twitter” account for the e-biz which will be used to send out updates of special deals and sales.  For example, we have cool cases for the 3rd Gen iPod nano for less than $10 (both leather cases and toughskin or clear plastic cases).  We also got a great deal on 7″ Audiovox Portable DVD Players for $89.00!

If you’d like to be notified about deals like this, follow the twitter feed and/or the blog feed for HPP Enterprises.

Some of the products are shipped from my office on St. Simons, but many are dropshipped directly to you from the manufacturer or distributor, which is how we can have really low prices (and how I can have this business to supplement our ministry income).

So … I’d like to ask all of my friends … if you’re in the market for electronics, computer games, video games, or any type of electronic accessories (cases, chargers, etc), keep me in mind.  You can always surf the sites, or even contact me directly … maybe you’ll get a special COUPON CODE for a discount if you blog about the purchase!

As for the content here on the blog that counts most … thanks for allowing me the opportunity to pitch this commercial … more worship leading tips, worship confessional, and ministry/leadership info soon to come.

Thanks, gang!
Fred