Full disclosure: Russ Potterfield and PrintNinja are clients of Caledon Virtual. Connect with PrintNinja on Twitter and Facebook and with Russ on LinkedIn.
What do you want to be when you grow up? It’s a question we hear a lot as kids, and even some in our 20’s. You hear lots of ambitious answers; “President”, “police officer”, “firefighter”, “astronaut”, “inventor” among others. How many of us actually follow through with those dreams? At least one guy has. Russ Potterfield is a native Columbian whose LinkedIn profile identifies him as an Inventor and Entrepreneur. Having worked with Russ and his company PrintNinja for the past couple of years, there’s no more fitting titles to describe him with.
When entrepreneurs have an idea, that idea is typically something that assists or improves an industry. Some of these are ideas that have the potential to revolutionize how things are done. We believe that’s what Russ has done with PrintNinja. His idea for PrintNinja is simple. The company is based in the United States (Columbia, specifically) while its print shop is located in China. This allows PrintNinja to offer ridiculously low prices on all of its products. When Russ had this idea, he didn’t visit China to set everything up. He moved there. MOVED TO CHINA. Take a second to soak that in. Russ believed in his idea and plan so much that he moved to China; and took his family with him (which says amazing things about them).
That’s what true entrepreneurship is all about. Believing in yourself and your idea so much that you jump in with both feet and don’t look back. You can accuse us of being biased when discussing Russ since he is a client of ours. We obviously believe in PrintNinja as well, otherwise they wouldn’t be a client. However. Spend 15 minutes talking with Russ and you’ll note the same things we already know.
We firmly believe Russ is a model example of what an entrepreneur should do if they’re serious about their ideas. Of course, not every entreprenuer’s idea will take them to China; but they should be willing to do whatever is necessary to bring their idea to fruition. It’s why the list of truly great entreprenuers is not incredibly long. What do you think are the hallmarks of a great entrepreneur?
