How You Can Start Your Own Business.

Making It on Your Own

Mike McKinney, the president of Cassette Works in Pasadena, California, tells his story.

Mike, who wanted his own business since he was in his early 20s, tells from first hand experience what it takes to build a business. There’s more to it than making money.

Mike McKinney tells it all:

“I saw having my own business as a way to achieve my goals – personal and financial. I’m not a static person. Life is not static. If you’re not moving ahead, you’re falling behind.

You people wanting to get something going must be willing to sacrifice. They must be willing to fail temporarily. You probably learn most from your failures. It gets down to attitude and approach. You have to set your mind and not let anything get in the way.

The question, must one posses a capital investment, depends on what kind of business you plan to go into. Some ventures require a huge capital investment. I had nothing when I started out. To say the least, it was a motivating situation!

What you need is a clear, concise, one-sentence idea. You have to get a workable idea. You have to educate yourself as to what you need to learn.

And you need to learn your business inside and out to be effective.

My strength in college was research. Awareness of your strength helps you know where to get the information you need – whether from people or from books. My library is filled with biographies and autobiographies.

You can learn so much from other’s experience and the pitfalls to avoid.

When I started, I didn’t know where my first pay check was coming from or really where to look for it. So I made phone calls and wrote letters to people or organizations that might need my service. Soon they started calling me.

By the way, I didn’t frame my first dollar – I needed it too badly.

Being responsible for my own business has been a character-building experience. I’ve learned things that I would have learned in no other way.

The responsibility forces a lot of introspection and self-criticism.

First, it takes perseverance. You need to take what you do seriously – a 100% commitment. Lasting success doesn’t happen overnight; it has to be earned. That takes time. You have to keep refining and improving yourself and your services.

I think the other side of the coin is resourcefulness, because there are plenty of times when you need flexibility and creative solutions to keep you in the game.

Success is not a point you reach; it’s a process, a way of thinking, a way of life. Success is dictated by certain universal laws and principles that have been in force since creation. And being laws, they apply to anybody. The better you tune your thinking to mesh with those laws the more successful you will be. It’s all learned.

There’s no substitute for hard work. Whether you’re working for someone else or yourself – hard work is always rewarded.

It’s also better to trade short-term success and profits for a firm foundation built over time. Money is important, sure, but if you take care of what needs to be done and give your clients real value, you don’t need to worry about making money. It’ll come!”

Well you’ve heard it all from the horse’s own mouth. Now you know you too can make it. You’re smarter and unique. You too can shine!

To your success... Meet you at the top!