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Rachel Finley
574 TNRB
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801) 422-3598
prspecialist@byu.edu

Center Alumnus Embraces Entrepreneurship

The Christmas gift Nick Barrett gave his father-in-law two years ago has become a gift that will keep on giving—and to more people than the original recipient.

Barrett created a web site to keep tabs on the activities and events of their ever-growing family. The site, now called TheFamilyLetter.com, was an instant yuletide hit. Family members can post photos, write notes, share recipes, and even create a master calendar to avoid missing birthdays and anniversaries.

“It started with my wife’s dad’s side of the family,” Barrett recalls. “His site initially had three hundred hits a day. Then the whole family signed up and was using it.”

Barrett expanded his services the following Christmas season to include his mother-in-law’s side of the family and his own parents. Then, with the encouragement and enthusiasm of family members, Barrett and his wife were inspired to launch the site as a professional venture and take their project public. The duo entered their idea in last year’s Business Plan Competition. The support and positive feedback was encouraging and they planned to forge ahead. However, reaching that decision was challenging; starting his own business was one career option that had never appealed to Barrett.

“Before I was a part of the eBusiness Center, I had always wondered, ‘Why would anyone ever start their own business?’” he says. But after participating in the eBusiness Lecture Series, working for the center and interacting with largely entrepreneurial business professionals, Barrett began to understand the attraction of starting a private business.

Now, after launching his own online business, Barrett is even more convinced and committed to advocating the entrepreneurial spirit. “People think they can’t do it, but that’s not a valid excuse,” he says. “Anyone can do it. It’s really fun. I’ve caught the spark—it’s addicting.”

To preview the site, visit www.thefamilyletter.com.