Patrice Morgan has spent the last five years producing a popular lifestyle magazine – and doesn't feel like she has worked a single day during that time.

"It has been very challenging over the last five years," Miss Morgan told The Royal Gazette.

"It has had its ups and downs. What has driven me is my love of people, and having relationships with them.

"If you have the personality to want to show up and listen to other people's stories all the time then you can stay in it for the long run. You have to love what you are doing. It hasn't felt like work to me."

To celebrate Show Off magazine's fifth birthday, Miss Morgan is holding a 'How to Become an Entrepreneur' seminar on August 29.

"I wanted to do something a little bit different this year," she said. "I didn't want to just have a party. I wanted to give something back to the community.

"I am often stopped and asked how I started a magazine. I have to go through a long drawn out story. This will give people a chance to come and hear what it is like to run your own business. The challenges you might face, and the tools you need to keep going. There will be several speakers at the seminar."

She said rather than being hindered by obstacles, she has been motivated by them.

"I am competitive," she said. "Whenever people told me 'no, you can't do it', or 'what are you doing in this market? There are enough publications', it fuelled my fire."

She said in the beginning it was hard to find a printer to give her competitive printing prices.

"Nobody in Bermuda wanted to let me into the market," she said. "The next thing was advertising.

"Most people had established their loyalty to one publication or another. As they got to know me, and they saw my ambition and my desire to bring this to the community the surrounding businesses have been pretty supportive."

This June the magazine moved from print to the web, to better cope with the economic downturn.

"It works more in our favour now to have it online," Miss Morgan said. "With people cutting back advertising, I don't have to worry about meeting those same fixed printing costs that I faced five years ago.

"So we are able to be flexible and still deliver the same information online. I think when the economy bounces back there is a possibility we could go back into print."

The magazine developed out of Miss Morgan's interest in fashion and design.

"I knew that when I got back to Bermuda after studying fashion design and merchandising in college, I would have to find a niche for myself," said Miss Morgan. "I thought I would start by producing a fashion magazine.

"Two issues into that people were telling me what they wanted to see more of.

"They wanted to read more about young professionals and what they were doing in their careers. They were interested in topics related to business, sport, relationships and health. They wanted a variety of articles to read about."

Miss Morgan listened to her readers and tried to deliver what they wanted.

"That is how it developed into a lifestyle magazine," she said. "It has been like that ever since."

She has found Bermuda to be too small a market to focus entirely on one subject.

Manpower has been one of her challenges. "It is very difficult to find people who want to work in advertising sales in Bermuda," she said. "Because it is a position where you have to have the personality for it.

"You have to be able to accept rejection and bounce back. Also, it is performance driven. You really only get paid in terms of how much work you put into it.

"In Bermuda's economy it is much easier to show up to a nine to five job. But in the sales world it is a different challenge everyday. Every day you have to convince people that your product is better than someone else's or that it has a better value. You have to come up with a better strategy to advertise. You have to be creative in the ways you market your product. Not many people can think marketing and sales at the same time."

She said it is easy to find people who want to write and take photographs.

"There are a lot of writers and photographers in Bermuda," she said. "We do have a very creative class of people. But on the sales end, I think we have a relaxed atmosphere in Bermuda.

"People aren't use to have to fight to get something. And my position is entirely customer service driven. I cater to business owners to meet their demands."

Miss Morgan is 27-years-old. She started the magazine straight after graduating from Clark Atlanta University.

"I have always worked for everyone else," she said. "Even before I left college I had multiple jobs. I knew what I was coming back to. After having experienced what was out there, I wanted to create my own market.

"I didn't learn motivation in the class, I learned it outside of class. The spirit on my college campus was very fast paced, entrepreneurial.

"There was a go-getter mentality amongst the students. They knew that life was not going to be an easy road, and anything they wanted they would have to fight for it."

She said the students at Clark Atlantic University fed off each other's energy.

Tickets to the entrepreneur seminar are $25. Other speakers will include Jack Sousa from Sousa's Landscaping, and also Lisabet Outerbridge from Rock Island Coffee and Duane Lowe of Lowe's Towing and Rahja Gilbert of R&G Trucking and Jahmillah Lodge of Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC) will be talking about small businesses.

There will be a light breakfast and the floor will be opened up to questions. The seminar will be held in the CedarPark Building on Cedar Avenue.

Further details about the seminar location will be revealed at registration, which is mandatory.

E-mail admin@showoffmagazine.net or telephone 535-9797. Show Off Magazine is available at www.showoffmagazine.net.