It’s wild out there and the struggle is real. Entrepreneurship is no joke, everyday is a new challenge, a new up, a new down, it never stops. The action, the drama, the energy is addictive and it’s why so many never want to retire from entrepreneurship. We’ve asked some very talented entrepreneurs to share some of those crazy stories with us.
R.a. Ellis
One client, who was also my friend, hired me to edit an erotic Christmas story for a contest they were entering. I began editing romance and horror genres, so this was not too unfamiliar. My friend was ecstatic about my work and won the contest, but because we didn’t establish boundaries, our personal and professional relationships became blurred. It ended our friendship and business relationship. From that point on, I have put rules in place regarding clients and their expectations. It was a tough loss. As my first client and the winner of that story contest, not getting a review or some sort of feedback I could use was damaging to my start, but good lessons were learned. Using the newly gained insights, I have kept forging ahead, gaining more knowledge and experience as I have continued. Read more>>
Dale Mbambi
Working at a financial services firm, you get to see a bunch of accounts and hear stories as to people acquired their wealth. This one guy in his small account had $11.4M dollars invested in Exxon stock. So every 3 months, the company would send him a $75K check. He would then use that money to fund his lifestyle. He didn’t work, he didn’t have to go chase money, he just receives a dividend check and lives his life. When I see how we hustle and trade in our time for money, it make me work harder to invest as much as I can to live the life that I want. Once I figured out the power of investing, I joined the business to share the knowledge to as many people as possible. Read more>>
Lynisha Senegal
One day I was sitting in my office on campus when the entire building shook. My first thought was an earthquake. Before I could even piece together what was happening, one of my staff ran up to me, wide-eyed, and said, “The roof just collapsed.” I froze for a moment. Surely they couldn’t mean our building? The building I had prayed over for 1.5 years? The one where I envisioned breaking barriers for entrepreneurs like me? I rushed outside and walked to the second building, my heart pounding. When I saw it, my worst fears were realized: the roof had caved in. It was sitting in the middle of the floor, leaving nothing but the open sky above. Read more>>
Yiyyleeia Ford
The craziest thing that has happened to me since owning my hair business was me going back to school for my license only for the law to change in my home state and this license was no longer needed! I originally started cosmetology school in 2012 at the age of 15 through a program in my high school named VoTech. In the state of Pennsylvania we are required to have 1,250 hours. When I finished high school in 2015 I had close to 1,000 hours. As a young 17 year old high school graduate the main thing on my mind at the time was having fun & exploring what life had to offer. Fast forward to 2021 I started to get back into my passion of hair and wanted to sell glueless wigs along with other hair extensions products but life happened with me getting pregnant just 7 months after starting my business. I, once again, put my hair dreams on the back burner. As the end of 2023 approached my passion for hair came burning a whole in my brain and heart as it had done in the past but this time I had to get serious and lock in. Read more>>
Robert Cox
One of the craziest things that has happened to my business was finding out about the shoutout that Bert Weiss gave Cookie Tingz over the air on radio station Q99.7. At that moment, I transitioned from being a spectator who observes the impact of social media in people’s lives into someone that was actually impacted directly. I was selling at festival through a local city government with my mother, and as I do at each event, I am striving to always make a positive, impressionable impact on the customer not just with the food but also with my presence. Not knowing who Bert Weiss was at the time, Bert came to our booth and when he experienced Cookie Tingz, it was like love at first sight. Some time later, I was at home on a Sunday and doing a retrospect on the business doings for the prior week and planning for the next. All of a sudden, my business Instagram account is going banana bonkers with notifications. I was confused because I was receiving hundreds of new followers at one time, but then I remembered that I did recently work with a social media influencer who had just posted the video to her IG feed. Read more>>
Firstkings Love
When I first was moved to look into the LLC I felt overwhelmed. Just thinking I couldn’t do it. Over-judging the process and the actual steps of getting started into that direction. Because I knew nothing about the LLC formation process I almost talked myself out of it. I knew to be obedient to Christ Vision. Once I got started it was easier than I expected. When it was finalized I knew God was on the move. For the first year I had a set up in the house I was living in. There was a few minor challenges getting licensed because I wasn’t the home owner nor was I even on the lease. Still yet I was operating my business. There was a deadline. I needed to be in a structure to operate in my county legally to obtain the necessary licenses to be in compliance with operations with the state of Washington. Read more>>