My name is Kirk Taylor, a serial entrepreneur blogger who is self-trained in everything I do. I’ve learned everything I know through doing it, not in a classroom. You could say I have a Ph.D from the school of Hard Knocks! That has taken me from broke to wealthy to broke again many times.
I’m best known for doing start-up companies that are bootstrapped from scratch. I’m experienced at everything from taking out the trash to being CEO of a multi-million dollar company that made INC magazines fastest growing private companies list.
Many people who worked in entry level jobs such as working at gas stations, bars and restaurants have come to work for me over the years and wind up with lucrative careers in established companies or operating their own business while making two, three and even four times what they were making before coming to work for me. I have a unique talent to motivate people who don’t believe in themselves to go beyond their wildest imagination.
My first venture happened at age 11, selling hamsters to pet stores. I did well for a short period, however, I ended up with way too much supply which reduced the demand and killed my business. My mother gave the hamsters away to get rid of all of them and I experienced my first business failure.
I graduated from high school in 1985, but not before I drove my first limousine, which I ended up buying a few years later. It was my prom night and would be the foundation to a major part of my future. The driver/owner of the car knew I was infatuated with the car so he took me to the mall after it was closed, stopped the car and let me drive the car around while he got in back with my friends.
At nineteen, I started my first limousine company. I went to 30 insurance companies looking for one that would write a policy for someone under twenty-five. Everyone said it would be impossible for me to find a company that would do it. I didn’t listen, they were wrong and I was right.
In 1995, my ex-wife continuously badgered me about a computer and the Internet. I couldn’t understand what good the Internet was too me. Finally, I gave in on a Friday afternoon in August and bought my first computer. I had to borrow a modem to get online and finally around 7PM was able to connect to America Online. I started my first website within hours and continued to work on it for a solid twenty-four hours until I could no longer stay awake.
I spent every available hour working on that site for the next couple years until a local investment banker set me down to talk to him about the huge opportunity that it presented. We talked for four hours that Friday morning and by Monday we had a deal to start developing the first real-time reservation system for the limousine industry. The company is now one of the most successful executive transportation networks in the industry doing as much or more than fifty million dollars a year.
Several years later, I duplicated the model in a different niche industry and in less than three years took sales of the new company to over twenty million dollars a year. It was on track to dominate the industry but in the middle of 2008, a perfect storm hit me and my company. We made it on INC magazines fastest growing private companies that year and I was awarded Entrepreneur of the year for small-midsize companies in Iowa. Unfortunately, the financial crisis, a natural disaster and a total meltdown of the automotive industry ruined the opportunity we were in front of. This was a major blow that cost me millions of dollars and buried me in debt, but better times are ahead, the future is extremely bright.
I’ve leveraged the power of the Internet in several businesses and I’m making it my entire business model this time with what has the lowest expense of any business I’ve done and has the most upside. 2012 looks to be the most profitable year and that means we’re going to have fun.
This is your opportunity to see what the life of a real serial entrepreneur is all about. Even better, you’ll discover that if I can do this, so can you. Join me, and make your footprint in the Online World.
