“Personality goes a long way with everything ,” says Micah Weber when explaining his early successes as a small business owner. Still, the importance of talent and hard work doesn’t seem lost on him either.

In July the 29-year-old Tonawanda resident with a desk job at Ingram Micro decided to take his two talents, skateboarding and photography, and start his own business: Zen Seven Skateboarding.

“This year I really got back into skateboarding again,” Weber said. “So that’s when I decided to go for it. I started designing, started getting contacts, finding distributors and partnering with people that already do it.”

By using photographs he’d taken himself, Weber designed a pair of skateboards and started selling them locally. He says his photography has helped him quickly gain a following online and generate some interest in the boards he designs.

“I’ve had my photography website for the last five years,” he said. “A lot of that fanbase has transferred over because they see this new project that I’ve been doing, so it’s a really nice transition.”

Micah has used that online presense to his advantage early on. He set up a website, a Twitter account, Facebook page, and even an online store. Still, Weber says the most important part is meeting people face to face at local skateparks. “Social networking has done a lot of the business for me,” he said. “But I like actually going there and skating with people, people seeing the board, people seeing the shirt, and being able to talk.”

By talking with local skaters, Weber says he has been able to get people excited about the company and his designs. That communication has even resulted in a local skate shop, Phatman, carrying his boards. After meeting a friend of Phatman’s owner, Weber got the chance to pitch his idea to the store.

“I typed up a business proposal and I met with him,” Weber said of the meeting. “He liked everything he saw, saw a lot of potential in what it could be and it went from there.”

Weber currently has two designs for sale, with plans for a third design ready by the new year. His first design, a picture of an gas mask on a basketball court, came from a series of photos from his website. Micah says his second design, a Zen Seven logo money clip holding a hundred dollar bill, has been well received.

“People really love that design,” he says, noting that he thinks it will be more popular than the first. He sold out of his first design but is happier with how the second one turned out.

Weber says he was nervous about the quality of the boards and if people would like the ride, but the response has been good. Made by a company in Arizona, Weber said the boards are Canadian maple and the photos have translated well on the boards, which have attracted a lot of interest overseas.

“I guess boards overseas are really expensive, and I’m able to sell them at a cheap price,” he said, noting that he recently shipped boards to Ireland and Switzerland. People have purchased boards not only to ride, but to display at home or even in the office.

Still, Weber’s work is meant for the kids who have been so enthusiastic about his work. He said an order of Zen Seven tee shirts sold out in just over a day, and he’s even sponsored one rider, Shayne Witmer.

“He’s the type of kid that other kids will stop and watch,” he says of Witmer. “So I just throw him free boards and people see what he’s riding, then they buy them. It’s continuous.”

Weber says he is extremely happy with the growth he’s seen over the last few months, but he’s only looking up.

“People really dig the idea so I just want it to grow,” he said of the future. “Locally it’s starting, but I don’t want to stop there.”