How a sports club can become a springboard to self-employment, why an empty email inbox makes the best impression and why joysticks are great for gaming in front of the window? Stefan Petri, one of the two founders of TutKit.com, takes you on a journey through a life full of passion for the digital world.
Stefan, you've been a full-blooded entrepreneur for 11 years. Why did you take the step into self-employment and what did you do before that?
When I started training as a web designer in 2002, I came into contact with Photoshop. My first small project was a tutorial site called PSD-Tutorials.de. Incidentally, the best domain names were already taken back then. The site had hardly any visitors at first, I was probably the only one for the first few weeks. But then it got bigger and bigger, and when Matthias realized how much potential it had, we both decided to quit our jobs and concentrate on just one thing: our e-learning portal www.psd-tutorials.de. We already had a good 20,000 members back then. And ten years later, we already had over 400,000 registered. Without Matthias, I probably wouldn't have dared to put all my eggs in one basket. I am extremely grateful to him for that.
I am a trained office administrator. That gave me the opportunity to work with computers at the time, because in 1997 there was no computer-only training. Fortunately, I was employed by ASC Göttingen, the largest sports club in Lower Saxony, shortly before I became completely self-employed. My first task there was to revise the entire club website. I was able to incorporate the experience I had gained directly into PSD-Tutorials.de. And by switching to a CMS, PSD-Tutorials.de really took off. That's why I'm really glad that I ended up at ASC Göttingen.
Together into the future
Why and how did TutKit.com come about?
We had over 80 products in our store in 2015. A year before that, we thought to ourselves: If we continue at this pace and keep adding new products, it would be nice if our customers had the choice of buying a product individually or having full access to all products as part of a flat rate. I know this from my own experience: When I didn't have a telephone flat rate, I hardly made any calls at all to save costs. As soon as I had a flat rate, I felt like I was on the phone half the day - which is still the case today.
The product and customer behavior have also changed over time. Can you describe this transformation process for us? In other words, from the single video to the DVD sent by post to the streaming flat rate?
When PSD-Tutorials.de was founded, the first self-burned DVD came out just 3 years later - with my best Photoshop tutorials. Because the DVDs went so well, I was able to have them professionally pressed a short time later: 1,000 units on a Euro pallet! That was really exciting. I was extremely excited when the first delivery arrived.
Years later, we realized that the trend was moving more and more towards downloads. So in 2011, we tried offering all products in the store as a download version. And lo and behold, customers were downloading more and more every day. They had their goods immediately and even saved money. Since 2020, we no longer offer DVDs. 99% of our customers buy downloads, the rest buy the USB stick version, which is manually recorded and sent by our accounting fairy.
However, we will only offer the stick version for a maximum of one to two years. The effort involved is considerable, and customers have faster internet from year to year anyway. And as our bookkeeping fairy will soon be taking her well-deserved retirement, the timing also fits internally, of course.
Where do all the tutorials, assets and work files that are offered on TutKit.com actually come from?
Mostly from our team. But as the saying goes: if you can do everything, you can't do anything right. That's why we also buy in content. Most of it is even created exclusively for us. We are very happy that we can rely on over 100 trainers and content creators. When customers write to us saying that they would like to have a particular piece of content that is not currently available on TutKit.com, we can respond quickly and often this content is online with us just a short time later.
Programmed for fun from childhood
Let's take a trip back in time: What was your biggest career aspiration when you were ten years old? Are there any recognizable parallels from today's perspective?
I always wanted to work with computers. When I was nine years old, our parents bought an Amiga 500. Matthias and I only played games on it at first, but a little later we also created our first pictures and even animated films. Even then, it was clear that we had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit: we had a pump in the garden for watering. It was actually our job to pump the water into a large barrel. But when our friends came, they were allowed to do it for us. As a reward, they could play Amiga games with us afterwards.
We were the first in the village to have a computer. That was really cool. And it was also funny: as our mother was always asleep in the afternoon, our friends weren't allowed in the house during that time. So we held the joystick out of the window and played from there. What fun times! Today, when everyone has a smartphone, it's hard to imagine.
Running: the family operating system
How can we imagine the work between you and your brother, who is also Managing Director? Is there a clear division of responsibilities, main areas of activity or perhaps even fraternal conflicts?
As working on computers has always been my hobby, I concentrate on the technical side of things, while Matthias is now really strong at creating help videos. He also draws up contracts and clarifies legal pitfalls. Matthias is also much better at managing staff than I am. If it had been up to me, there would probably still be two of us today and we wouldn't be as good as we are now. Matthias always provides impetus when it's time to strengthen the team.
Instead, I'm usually the one who answers the many emails or looks after the live chat. As for me: when I program a new feature from the hip, I don't wait long for feedback and take it online. Sometimes, however, it's a backwards process because my brother loves perfection, but I prefer to save time and can hardly wait. Then the office temperature drops by a few degrees because Matthias can be in a really bad mood in such cases. But it only happens about twice a year. The last time was almost 6 months ago. So it will soon be time again. :-)
Your agency 4eck Media has the DNA of a family business, because Doris Petri, your mother, also works in the back office and in payroll accounting. How did that come about?
When I started my own business on the side - so I took one day a week for my business alongside my regular job at the sports club - I still did the bookkeeping myself. As a trained office administrator, I can do that too, even though I don't really enjoy bookkeeping. My mother is an experienced bookkeeper, so at some point she took over this part after work or at the weekend.
Then the management changed at work, which affected the working atmosphere. That's when Matthias and I offered our mother the chance to work for us full-time. Her colleagues and the new boss were wide-eyed when she resigned from one day to the next and said that she already had a much better job.
Conviction as the strongest driver
What would have to happen or when would you say: "Wow, we've actually made it"?
I say that every day. And I say it when I have proudly worked through my email inbox. My goal is always an empty inbox. Okay, I help myself with a trick from time to time: I use the Boomerang extension in Gmail. This allows me to push more time-consuming emails into the future. It's also very handy if I've sent someone an email but still haven't received a reply.
When we were developing TutKit.com, I wanted to tell the world several times that we had finally made it. In the end, everything was delayed by a year. But now I'm very proud that it was worth the effort and that we have a really brilliant portal online that can now be expanded much more easily.
What is your personal motivation for working for the company on a daily basis alongside your private commitments and your own family?
For me, my job is more of a vocation. I love working in our company above all because I know that we are doing something good. We are expanding the skills of all our members. Anyone who spends just a little time on our website is given many new skills and finds it much easier to cope with the increasingly complicated world of work.
That's why I'm always happy to receive emails from customers with questions. It shows me how interested people are. And then I can help them find solutions. What's more, we now have a brilliant team that always makes me proud. Of course there are sometimes knocks from our employees, but often rightly so, because everyone only wants one thing: for us to become even better as a company.
Feeling at home times two
The agency is based in Waren, but you live in Rostock. Why is that?
Love, of course. :-) Six years ago I was still living in Göttingen. I spent 13 years there, and at some point Matthias managed to guide me to his adopted home of Waren. I lived there for five years - until I met my partner from Rostock ...
Now I live here on the Baltic Sea, and it's only an hour's drive to Waren. I'm now even a father, so I work from home more often. That works very well. Incidentally, 75% of our employees work from home. This means that almost all of us live this mobility, which is why Corona has not been able to stop us from our passion to be there for our customers and members at all times.
The balance between work and time out
In a nutshell: How do you ensure a healthy balance alongside the stress, computer-heavy work and responsibility for an entire team?
On the one hand, my dog Ringo and my daughters ensure that I get enough fresh air. There are also really good YouTube videos to keep fit with instructions. I do this at least twice a week - and all I need is a mat.
Being close to the customer is something that is particularly important to you as Managing Director. How many times a day does your cell phone ring?
It's fine now, as our employee Susann takes almost all my calls. After work or at the weekend, I get one or two calls a day. So that works. At the same time, I'm very happy to help and I'm always pleased to hear that customers are extremely satisfied with our support.
The right instinct for the next bestseller
What has been your most successful product to date and what makes the difference between a product "performing" or not?
The most successful product to date was our first photography training course. It came out in 2010 and we were able to buy many more products with the proceeds. But you also have to admit that it was simply a different time: YouTube wasn't on everyone's lips yet and new products were almost all selling well.
Now, ten years later, it has become much more difficult. We always make sure that our new products are in tune with the times. Our cartoon Photoshop campaign, for example, is a real perennial favorite. But who knows for how much longer. As soon as Photoshop can do this out of the box, this product will no longer be needed. So you always have to look at what might be in demand and then you can't wait too long, you have to produce and publish it.
What would you get up in the middle of the night for?
When my daughter calls for me at night. And, of course, when TutKit.com is offline and I have to make the server fit. Fortunately, that has never happened yet.
All good things come in threes
Please complete the following statements:
If I could give my former self one piece of advice today, it would be to ... buy Apple and Tesla stock. :-) No, seriously. I would have told him: Have the courage to launch TutKit.com much earlier. Preferably ten years earlier.
I recommend aspiring founders to ... work on the business on the side if possible and see if it goes down well. If it does flop, at least you won't be out of a job. I started like that myself and always took 100% time for my business on Mondays. Take a mentor and attend Dirk Kreuter's sales offensive, for example. But: never become a knowledge giant and application dwarf. Once you've completed your training, get into action for many months and put what you've learned into practice. I know so many people who attend training courses every month but haven't put anything into practice yet.
I've always known that ... you get further with kindness. Keyword: Dale Carnegie.
Profile: Stefan Petri
- Marital status: cohabiting with my partner and mother of my children
- Children: 2
- Year of birth: 1981
- I live in: Rostock
- Favorite food: all children's dishes :-)
- A channel I like to follow: Quarks from WDR
- A quote I often repeat: Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
- Trained profession: office clerk. At the time, there was no IT specialist until a year later, otherwise I would have chosen that.
- Number of hours of sleep: 7.5 hours (11 p.m. in bed and up again at 6:30 a.m.)
- Dress code: rather sporty and casual
- Pet: Ringo, medium schnauzer