Many students at Colorado Mesa University may have the idea to start a small business. Some have already done so. One mass communications senior, Logan McLeenan, has started his own profitable business with a childhood friend.
McLeenan and his business partner Matt Scofield, a CMU alumnus, started 14k Media a few years back while they were both taking classes at CMU. Scofield graduated a year and a half ago, and McLeenan is going to graduate this coming December. McLeenan and Scofield have been friends since fifth grade and all the pieces seemed to work out for them to begin their company.
14k Media is a film company that makes short films and short documentaries, used as marketing material for companies. The company focuses on other companies and businesses in Grand Junction that need help creating marketing material.
“I was already doing it [14k Media] on the side, in addition to school and was doing freelance work on the side,” McLeenan said. “I went all in at the beginning of my junior year and decided to go completely on my own. It was a safe move, but I felt like it was a move I had to take in order to further the business.”
McLeenan suggests that it is worth taking the move if it feels right because it is better to go all in and learn from that journey, than to contemplate whether it will be a good idea or a bad one.
Mcleenan was making money and going to school full time.
“I still saw the value in going but it was challenging staying when I knew that I would be okay without school,” Mcleenan said. “I think it’s nice having that degree to fall back on […] a little bit of security.”
Entrepreneurship isn’t necessarily a done deal once money is being made because the market could crash, business could be slow, other competitors can come and try to take the clients, etc., making a number of outcomes possible when starting a business.
Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone, but it is an option for those that are ready to work and love the grind.
“I loved it before I made any money,” McLeenan said. “It was an added bonus that I was able to make money, do what I love and continue to do it in place of a job.”
McLeenan suggests that if you love it, the money will be a bonus to the work that is being done.
14K Media has been able to subcontract interns on certain projects and this has helped their company during the busy season.
“You have to do it in order for it to be successful. You have to go head first and go all in because if you don’t your business won’t take off the way you want it to,” McLeenan said. “You just have to go for it.”
