When I was young, it was always my dream to start my own business. No alarm clock to yell at me every morning, no one to boss me around all day, and extra-long weekends would be the life for me! At age 28 though, I'm quickly learning that dreams are just that. What I wouldn't give to have a free weekend now. Just a single day when I'm not maintaining my website or playing catch-up on my hundreds of unanswered emails. When I had an employer, I actually had time to golf and even had a season pass. This year, after starting CiNcity Designs, I can count on both hands how many times I've hit the greens! Something isn't right here, I tell myself. You're your own boss now, Nic! Go see a movie, or take a vacation. Even my wife tells me that I work too hard. The truth of the matter is that I am a victim of my own success. There are too many people now that depend on me to make decisions and keep this E-train (as I call it) moving full steam ahead

The secret to my success is simple. A full-on marketing blitz using everything I know about the market I'm selling to. I live in a small town and cater to a specific community of car lovers. The kind of car lovers that live, sleep, and communicate on the Internet. They're part of the car clubs that only exist online and share everything about their car with anyone who will listen. Using this knowledge, I build my custom headlights for cars for the biggest online following and post pictures of them on my website. I have many unique designs and it was only a matter of time before people from these online car communities found them and began circulating them around the internet-free advertising! Also, since I enjoy the product I create so much, and enjoy sharing with others, I'm going to have a booth at Marketplace for Entrepreneurs in January, 2009, to display some of my custom head and tail lights.

My website came online and started recording traffic levels on the last day of May, 2008. Right away it started recording respectable amounts of traffic by way of web hits, or clicks. Starting with a couple thousand a week in the month of June, to a commanding 330 million in just the past twelve days! Web site hits do not translate to money in my pocket, of course, but it does mean that what I've done so far is working. People are coming to my website, looking at what I've done, and are telling people about it. A lot of people! All of this may sound good, and it is, but new problems now occur, like having to buy a dedicated server so that my website never slows down because of high traffic volumes, hiring employees to keep up with order demands, deciding where the next step in growth will be, and overall time management.

Owning my own business has brought me great joy. I've been able to watch my small project grow from out of my tiny condo and into a 1500 square foot shop with five employees in just a few short months. My faith in God and the support of my wife help me keep my sanity when I feel like the pressure is more than I can handle. My friends and family have been supportive as well, which helps make it that much easier to wake up every day and truly love what I'm doing. Also, the support of my community and the help from those who have walked this path before me have been very  helpful!

I've only been my own boss since the second week of June, 2008, so I don't feel I can really give anybody solid advice about starting their own business, but if I could share one thing, it would be to make sure your dedication is there. This is hard work and it's going to require your constant attention. I don't have any children yet, but I liken a business to having a baby and nurturing it until it can sustain itself without 24-hour care; there are no hours of operation, there isn't a pause button when things move faster than you'd like, nor is there is there a fast-forward button when things aren't moving quickly enough. Be prepared for the journey you're about to face,  but most of all, have fun! This is yours, and you deserve it!