BusinessReport.com

Growing up, Robert Maginnis always liked making his own money and looking out for himself. Now 21, Maginnis’ desire to be self-reliant hasn’t changed much.

Between his business management classes at LSU, Maginnis owns two businesses and manages a third from his apartment on Brightside Drive. A few years ago, he and a friend invested $12,000 in nine soda machines around the LSU area. That investment has grown to include almost 40 machines in Baton Rouge and at the University of Virginia.

“I always thought it would be difficult to balance everything, but I’ve gotten well enough adjusted to school so that I can handle it,” he says. “It’s all about being organized.”

Maginnis then turned his attention to real estate. Only a few months after earning his license, Maginnis made his first sale. Since then, he has made more than $750,000 in sales.

Never one to shy away from opportunity, Maginnis leapt at the chance to take over a T-shirt design business from a fraternity brother who had graduated and expected to relocate to Alabama. Maginnis says designing T-shirts has been his most rewarding business.

“I really like being able to be creative, to sit down and create the ideas people bring to me,” he says.

The business has been met with so much success that Maginnis plans to expand to other universities in the Southeastern Conference, including Alabama, Georgia and Ole Miss.

“Ultimately, I’ll probably sell it off when I graduate, but I’m really enjoying it and I want to grow it,” he says.

Though he has another year before he graduates, Maginnis says he wants to continue being his own boss in the future, again preferring to be self-reliant than to depend on anyone else.

“It’s really cool to be able to see my product out there,” he says. “I like to see the fruits of my labor, to be able to see people wearing my shirts or to put complete strangers in their first home. That’s why I get up in the morning,”