By: Victoria Neal

John Chuang, 33
Company: MacTemps, Inc.
Year Started: 1986
Start-Up Costs: $5,000
1998 Projections: $130 million
Best Advice: "Commit to the business - don't just do it on the side. If you have a vision and really believe in it, you should commit to it wholeheartedly."

While they were attending Harvard Business School in Boston, John Chuang and his two partners started a Macintosh-equipped desk-top publishing business in their dorm room. Although they started the business to make a little money on the side, these fledgling entrepreneurs quickly learned that there was a huge untapped market out there.

In 1986, having outgrown the dorm, the trio opened a nearby storefront location with a $5,000 bank loan. The business quickly became popular with students and local business owners, many of whom didn't own Macs themselves. This knowledge gap presented Chuang and company with an interesting business opportunity: there were plenty of people who knew how to use IBM-compatible PCs, but only a handful were familiar with Macs. So in 1987, the team shifted gears: They converted the company to a temporary employment agency specializing in Mac-trained personnel and renamed it MacTemps. By 1988, MacTemps also had locations in New York City and San Francisco.

But there was still a worm in the apple. The untested nature of the business made banks reluctant to approve loans. "Our first loan of $5,000 took months of hard negotiating," says Chuang. "We were essentially kids seeking a commercial loan, and we had to do a great deal of convincing that we would pay it back before they gave in." The company now has offices in 35 cities in seven countries and has since expanded its staffing and placement services to include creative, Web-authoring and PC-trained personnel. It seems success may be anything but temporary.