Many people have no idea what they want to do when they grow up. Mark Sherwood was not one of those.  Fifteen years ago, when he was just starting his first job in New York City, he wrote in his journal what he wanted his career to look like over the next 30 years.  At year 10, he wrote down that he would own a media company.

Sherwood now runs his own niche media company, Postman Right Media, LLC. The company owns ParentsGuide of Las Vegas and ParentsGuideLV.com, Deluxe Taxi Ads, LVNVjobs.com, DineLV.com and Las Vegas Golf Directory.

Sherwood graduated from BYU’s Department of Communications with an emphasis in broadcast journalism proper in 1995. His “track” was media sales & management. While at BYU, he was the Display Advertising Manager for The Daily Universe.

Sherwood left BYU for New York City, where he worked for two years at a television “Rep” firm. He then transferred to Philadelphia where he worked with ad agencies in the Mid-Atlantic, particularly in political advertising. He left television for newspaper, and worked for The Philadelphia Inquirer, in various sales and sales management positions, for eight years.

“The training at the Daily Universe made that jump possible,” Sherwood said.

“It was easy to see where the large metro newspaper business model was headed so I left to take an equity position in a weekly newspaper in Staten Island, New York,” he said.

While in Staten Island, Sherwood launched a “new homes” magazine and corresponding Web site.

After the Las Vegas Review-Journal tried twice to hire him, Sherwood finally went to work there as the advertising manager in charge of all automotive advertising.

He left that newspaper to run the sales operation of an outdoor advertising company in Las Vegas before starting Postman Right Media, LLC.

Sherwood explains his desire to start a publication for families.

“My oldest child is almost 12 years old, he said. “I have been thinking of starting a family publication for about that long.”

Sherwood wanted to launch this type of magazine three different times—once in Philadelphia, once in Staten Island and once in Las Vegas. In each case it didn’t make sense for the organization he worked for to invest in starting or acquiring a parents’ publication.

“When I knew I was finally going to be running my own media company, a parents magazine was one of the products that I wanted in my portfolio of assets,” Sherwood said.

Sherwood did his homework before starting this new venture.

“Before I launched, I looked at several successful family magazines across the country,” he explained. “Atlanta Parent was the one that I was most impressed with, so I flew out to Georgia on a best practice visit and spent some time with Liz White, the 25-year veteran publisher of Atlanta Parent.”

Sherwood said seeing what worked and didn’t work in Atlanta was a big help.

Sherwood gave another hint to those looking to start their own businesses.

“Obviously the market has to tell you that it makes sense,” he said. “I was fortunate to be in Las Vegas because there wasn’t a true monthly family magazine in the market.”

Sherwood credits his BYU education for helping him get where he is today.

“Getting my education and ‘real world’ experience from BYU professors like Russ Mouritsen, Dallas Burnett and Ralph Barney was absolutely critical to my success,” Sherwood said. “So much of what I learned in the communications classes came from the actual experience of my professors. Their curriculums served as very solid career advice.”

“Working at The Daily Universe, as both an account executive and later as the display advertising manager was the best experience I could have asked for,” Sherwood said. “The advisors of the newspaper gave us lots of responsibility, expected results and rewarded our sales efforts. To this day, working at The Daily Universe was the best media sales job I have ever had.”

Sherwood gave more helpful advice for up and coming entrepreneurs.

“Because I wanted to be an owner, I was much more entrepreneurial as an employee,” Sherwood said. “I launched multiple new products and initiatives that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising revenue, and that in turn gave me the confidence to someday do the same thing for myself.”

“When you are doing it by yourself there is a lot less room for error,” he advised. “Unless you have a lot of capital to burn, I would recommend that anyone who wants to start their own business should ease into it.”

Sherwood shared a personal example. “I formed my LLC three years ago, but I didn’t quit my day job for another two years,” Sherwood said. “The other thing I did that was helpful was I worked at a couple of small, owner-operated, media companies so I was able to see and feel what I was getting into without taking on so much of the risk.”

As a side note, Sherwood recommends picking up the book Bootstrap Business, co-written by BYU graduate Rich Christiansen for all those starting a business on their own.

“I have read dozens of business books and this is easily the best ‘how to’ book for successfully starting your business that I have ever read,” said Sherwood.