About this episode

Brian Burke is the founder of SellYourMac.com, a website that helps you to sell your Apple products in a way that ensures you receive top dollar. Brian recently received an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year nomination. Ernst & Young is one of the largest firms in the world and since Brian’s firm was nominated, I definitely wanted to invite him to unpack his story on this podcast.

Brian and his business have a very grassroots storyline, which we go through in its entirety. Why? It helps us understand what it’s like to grow a business without investment capital. Moreover, it allows us to see what it is like to startup a business that is so cash flow dependent. How do you recover from a situation that steals five years of profits from you? We’ll find out in this episode.

Brian shares his encouraging journey, which I hope will give you enough strength to continue on yours, if you are already running your own business. His journey had very clear indicators from his early childhood that SellYourMac.com was going to be his destiny. But I will let him share it all with you and allow you to connect the dots. This is Brian Burke’s startup story.

In this episode, you’ll hear

• Brian’s early childhood, how his father’s work ethic left an impression on him, and his early aspirations
• Creating an income for himself through selling beaded jewelry as a kid and selling cellphones in college
• Brian’s interest in the stock market and trading at a young age, his desire to work in an investment bank or for a hedge fund after college and what actually happened once he graduated
• His start with selling items on eBay, how it happened, what he sold, and how it paved the way for his future business, SellYourMac.com
• The importance of finding something you're passionate about and figuring out how to make a business out of it
• Working to prove that his phone business idea was viable to his parents (who wanted him to continue to find a career in finance)
• About the burden that debt can play when desiring to launch your business and how it is a ball and chain that will slow down anyone's progress
• Getting kicked out of his parent’s after his phone business inventory started taking over their basement, what he learned, how it motivated him, and the eventual birth of SellYourMac.com
• How and when his attention turned from phones to Apple products, from selling phones to Apple products on eBay, and what happened next

“If you are building your business in response to your ego it will inevitably fail.”
—Brian Burke, Sell Your Mac

Resources from this episode

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianburke4/
Sell Your Mac: https://www.sellyourmac.com/
Sell Your Apple Products at SellYourMac.com/startupstory and receive an additional $10 bonus when you sell your item.
The Startup Story on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestartupstory/

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EPISODE CREDITS

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Contact him today at https://emeraldcitypro.com/startupstory

Special Guest: Brian Burke.