We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kevin Forrest. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kevin below.

Kevin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I would hope that my legacy is that my career and longevity show others that you don’t need a lot of money to start an maintain a successful brand. Planning, determination and creativity can go a long way. I wanted to create the blueprint and share it freely, so that those generations that come after me won’t hesitate to take entrepreneurship to another level.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I started my career in 2006 producing music for independent artists from Jacksonville to Miami, Florida. While working in music, I noticed how hard it was to be taken seriously by mainstream media when you aren’t signed to a label. I started finally gaining traction in music when I did a song called “The Ghost” with Mr. Al Pete. That gave me the leverage to seek other opportunities. A good friend of mine Fur King the Designer, was able to get me an interview on XM Sirius Radio that took my buzz to another level. I used that buzz to create k4sent.com as a platform for artists to be spotlighted that would normally be ignored by the mainstream. In 2011, I spring boarded the success of that platform into a digital and print publication, HFL Magazine, to feature both mainstream and independent talent and businesses around the world.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn that I it was possible to handle every aspect of business alone successfully. When I first started K4S Entertainment and HFL Magazine, I did everything by myself. Website coding, formatting, interviews, graphics, social media, marketing, networking, all of it. I was making a lot of headway but I was becoming overwhelmed, burnt out. I hit a wall where I didn’t feel like I wanted to do anything. It was at that point I realized that in order to be successful you need a team that shares your vision. You need a group of individuals you can trust and delegate tasks to. It’s important to have a solid team that allows you to be in multiple places at once. You can expand and grow without feeling pulled in every direction. I’m thankful for the people I found that I have worked with over the years. Especially my lead marketing consultant Danielle Carroll of Danaya Azure Radio. We have done amazing things together.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

That is an interesting story. As a black business owner it can be hard to start a business because of lack of resources. Many of us aren’t fortunate enough to have a lot of people in our circle to assist with funding because their resources are exhausted for their own expenses. A lot of times we have to use a bootstrapping technique, piecing capital together by taking small amounts of money from personal finances to get started and just pray that the business is well received by consumers and can start to fund itself. When I first got started I was working for a temp agency making 10 dollars an hour. I was the only consistent income in my household. I had to figure out what amount I needed to fund the most important aspects of the business I was trying to create. I saved for eight months to print my first issue of HFL Magazine and sold it from the trunk of my car. The sales from that issue allowed me to pay for other expenses and implement the plan I created to turn the magazine into what it is today.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.k4sent.com/hub.html
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/k4s_ent
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/K4SEntertainment
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/k4s_ent

Image Credits
Photos on stairs by: Mannushkah Remy of M.A.R.’s Photography Accessories provided by Danielle Carroll and Tiffany D Ware