LTP020 Michael Vail, Have The Right Reason To Start A Business

Today’s story of success will leave you fascinated and inspired. Meet Michael Vail, a former inspector who left his high-paying job to pursue his big dream. Now, Michael owns many business including Cedar Sense, a well-loved online store that features all-natural cedar products.

As someone who’s worked at sawmill for quite a long time Michael thinks that cedar-made things have become a dying art form, which is a loss as they are environment-friendly alternatives. With consumers’ tendency to lean towards natural products, Michael sees great potential with cedar, which he’s really excited about.

Michael didn’t have it easy. He started with zero experience in handling a business, only equipped with things he learned from an Amazon training. When he was just beginning to build his business, he had to be away from his family, not to mention the anxiety of leaving a secured job. But he pursued entrepreneurship anyway as he didn’t want to have any regrets. Fast forward to present, Michael knows that he made the right choice.

After many years in the business, it’s not so scary anymore. There will come to a point that you almost expect struggles to come up. But here’s one thing Michael learned: as long as you have the right reasons, you will always, always, figure it out.

Entrepreneurship is not a walk on the park. A lot of successes are not even seen, but that shouldn’t matter. Just have the right mindset, build something purposeful, have a strong belief, and work on the right timing. And one final advice from Michael: don’t sit on the fence—either do it, or don’t.

Today’s Guest

Michael Vail is the owner of Cedar Sense. He started Cedar Sense in 2019 with one product in a few stores in Northern MN and on Amazon. He quit his career of 11 years to start his business with no formal education and not even knowing what an ‘LLC’ was before starting. Now, he’s grown it from $20K in sales in 2019, to $384K in 2020, and $840K+ last year.

He's mostly a one-man show but he’s proud to boast that he is hiring his very first full-time employee next month. This is a true milestone as employment opportunity is why he started his company in the first place especially when living in rural area and on the reservation, there is not much for career opportunities.  Michael intends to change that with Cedar Sense.

• The Michael Vail Project (Podcast)
• Cedar-Sense.com
• Facebook
• YouTube

What You’ll Learn:

• Succeeding from starting from scratch
• Being brave and taking a risk
• Becoming a purposeful entrepreneur