Michael S. Starnes
TCX, Inc., President
M.S. Carriers, Inc., Chairman/CEO
1. What advice would you give someone starting a business?
"The advise I would give any young entrepreneur wanting to start their own business is number one, know your product, know your service, be properly
capitalized and be totally committed to what you want to do. I think you have got to be creative and innovative along the way because you never know what
is going to happen. You have the least unexpected things happen to you. I remember when I was starting M.S. Carriers I was still operating in my home. I
would be down in the kitchen and a customer would call and I would answer the phone M.S. Carriers and they would say "I need
dispatch". I would say "o.k., hold on for a minute." I would put them on hold, run up to my office and answer the phone in a different voice and say "dispatch"
to make them believe I was really bigger than what I really was because I wanted them to think I was a secure company that was financially sound and I really
wasn't except they didn't know the difference. I think you have got to be creative when you are starting a new company and just do whatever it takes to
make people believe you really are good at what you do and committed and financially sound and that is some of the things I did and those are stories I like to
think about looking back twenty-three year ago when I started this company, be creative and be committed to what you are doing and give it one hundred
percent and you can be successful."
2. Why is Memphis good for entrepreneurs?
"I really think Memphis is great for entrepreneurs because we have had a lot of entrepreneurs over the last fifty or a hundred years. Starting back with people
like Clarence Saunders who started the first modern grocery store chain. We had Kemmons Wilson start Holiday Inn. Fred Smith of FedEx and Pitt Hyde of
Autozone, so we have got a lot of role models in the Memphis market that I think have inspired other entrepreneurs to want to live America's dream and maybe
those guys inspired me because I am living America's dream. I have been very lucky to be here in Memphis; which is America's distribution center. That is what
I do so it has been great for me on a personal basis to be in Memphis because transportation is so important here and it has helped me to grow and expand my
company and become a national player in one of the biggest trucking companies in America. I have been very fortunate to be in Memphis and so have a lot of
other people, I love Memphis and I think it is a great place for people to grow and expand and start their own company."
For More Information: http://www.mscarriers.com
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