Entrepreneurs! What’s Your Story?

I am an entrepreneur in Chicago with a retail store, Roscoe Village Bikes and a website, LittleIndependent.com. Owning Roscoe Village Bikes inspired me to open LittleIndependent.com.

As I watched my inventory sit at the bike store, getting marked down as we tried to make a sale, I thought of a solution for myself and other independent store owners who may experience the same problems. Little Independent’s mission is to be an advocate for independent retailers while giving savvy shoppers and easier way to find great independent stores and sale merchandise.

Shopping independent stores means better service and more in depth knowledge of the products being sold. Customer service and inventory decisions are not being made at a distant office but right there in the store by a person who is invested in the business’s continued success.

Since sending invitations out last week, we have created profiles for seventeen stores and they have uploaded listings, with many options to provide optimal service to their customers. Little Independent launched June 1st.

If independent stores can work together, we can certainly do more than any of us could individually. Little Independent gives independent stores the online equivalent of having their store on Main Street.

My husband and I own a vineyard in the premium Mount Veeder Appellation in the Napa Valley.

WE OFFER THE UNIQUE EXPERIENCE OF CREATING A BARRELS WORTH OF WINE WITH YOUR PRIVATE LABEL. Each year, we offer less than 25 barrels of cabernet sauvignon . Our grapes are not available to the consumer and are highly coveted in the wine trade.

We take you from grape to bottle using our mountain cabernet sauvignon. After about 2 years, you have APPROXIMATELY 24 CASES OF CAB WITH YOUR PRIVATE LABEL.
Our vineyard is hand farmed, hand picked and the wine is hand crafted by our rock star wine maker, Jeff Fontanella.

WHY WE STARTED THE BUSINESS: We sold our grapes through contract at first (2007 & 2008). We realized that we had very little control even though we were paying for the land and the farming. The contracted winery buying the grapes called all of the shots….farming practices, when to pick at harvest, etc. WE WANTED TO TAKE CONTROL BACK….AS WELL AS TURN A PROFIT.

Starting a business in our current economic climate was gutsy (2009). It had to be the right product for the right audience. We decided to CARVE OUR NICHE IN THE LUXURY MARKET BY OFFERING PRIVATE LABEL WINE TO INDIVIDUALS THAT HAD THE PASSION AND THE MEANS TO CREATE THEIR OWN WINE.

It turns out that there is definitely a market for our product. To date, our clients are wealthy men who have just about everything except for a premium wine with their name on it that is NOT AVAILABLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. This experience is on every wine lovers bucket list.

I started my own business so that decisions would be mine, for better or worse. I would be in the driver's seat not a passenger. I would only be limited by my own imagination.

The opportunity I fulfilled was the chance to have my two sons work alongside me, so they could learn by actual hands on experience what it took to both run every aspect of a business and how one goes about building a business from scratch into a successful one.

I am also the author of "It's My Money".

After selling my six year old franchise business in 1997 and then traveling for a few years, I started looking around for a business to buy. I was working with a business broker associated with the largest business broker franchise in the country and the experience was so amateurish, so unpleasant, so unprofessional, so utterly unsatisfactory and ultimately unsuccessful that I thought to myself, "if I can find a decent, ethical business broker, I should be able to franchise his business and, if the standard of service in the business brokerage industry is what I experienced, I should be able to easily take on that competition."

It was post 9/11 corporate America and I was laid off. I had just closed escrow on my first home – about a five minute drive from the old office. I was devastated and scared but I knew that the time was right to strike out on my own. My mother was retired and bored and made the perfect business partner. We worked out of the family garage day and night and within six months, we were profitable. Necessity often breeds invention.

I started out to be a novelist. But my novels quickly hit worst-seller status. One even made the UPI’s Ten Most Underrated List for that year, along with the New York Knicks, who never even made the playoffs and a Meryl Streep movie about a dingo that ate a baby.

I was supporting myself with a business career while waiting to achieve best seller status (along of course with wealth, fame and beautiful lovers). Then, about 20 years ago, my agent suggested I write a business book. Which I did. I quickly found myself in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and literally hundreds of other publications. One day the phone rang and the voice on the other end asked me if I’d speak at their convention. For a one hour session, she offered a fee that was over a third of the advance I’d gotten on the book. Did it. Loved it.

LOVED IT!

Today while I still write as sideline, I have a very successful speaking and training business. I never enjoyed writing half as much as I love training.

I never planned to become a trainer. But now I can’t imagine doing anything else.

When breast cancer treatments threw me into menopause with drenching night sweats and I could not find anything comfortable for sleep, I started my own company. I knew if I was having this problem, thousands of other women were sleep deprived too. I took a year to source and plan and then launched my e-commerce store and have been lucky enough to enjoy success from the get go!

I have been in the furniture industry for 35 years. Early on I started hearing the same question being asked over and over again by many different customers. These customers owned homes or apartments or RVs or even boats with very narrow doors, stairways, halls or elevators. The question was,"Do you have any sofas that will fit in my home?" None of the stores I worked with could ever help those customers. The only thing I could do was to direct them to IKEA or some other store that sold inexpensive knock down sofas that could be taken apart to fit through narrow entranceways.

For people looking for cheap furniture that answer was fine, but most people were looking for something better. They wanted solid hardwood frames, a choice of lots of high quality fabrics, cushions that wouldn't lose their shape after 3 years — in other words they wanted good quality furniture that would fit down their narrow basement stairs.

After 10 years on the retail side of furniture I moved into a new position that got me involved several large furniture manufacturers. I approached one of them with my idea for making high quality RTA (Ready to Assemble) sofas. They were very interested but six months later came back to me and said they could not do it. They could not figure out how to design an RTA sofa that would look like a normal sofa, be easy for a single person to assemble and disassemble, and not cost considerably more than a normal sofa.

Three years later I took my ideas to an acquaintance I had been introduced to who built custom upholstery in his backyard shed. Two weeks later Glenn and I had completed our first prototype. Glenn worked 5 days a week at his regular business. On weekends I would drive 6 hours from where I lived in Virginia and we would work 18 hour days on Saturday and Sunday. Then I drove back to Virginia until the following weekend.

We continued to work like this for over a year. At the end of that time we had a product that looked great and was easy to assemble. The only thing we could not be sure of was whether the costing was where it needed to be as it was impossible for us to get realistic high volume costing from suppliers for a line that had never been made and had no valid sales projections.

When we were ready I was able to set up an appointment with the top furniture industry financial expert to get his opinion about our products. We rented a showroom. The financial expert came in and took a seat. There were over 20 pieces of furniture in the showroom. We asked the expert if he could pick out which of the 20 pieces were our RTA designs. He picked out 10 of the pieces and was then informed that all of the pieces in the showroom were our RTA designs, including the plush leather sofa he had been sitting on.

Our financial expert arranged a meeting for us with a company that at that time was the largest furniture manufacturer in the world. They agreed to license our patents and set up a new division just to make our products.

This furniture was produced from 1993 until 2001 with worldwide sales exceeding $25 million. There was only one problem. The company lost money on every piece it sold. The product was targeted to compete with IKEA at the low end of the market and was sold through catalog houses, mass merchants and other discounters.

In 2003 Glenn and I got back together. This time we came up with a new design that was less expensive to manufacture and even easier to assemble. Instead of licensing the patents I was determined to build a self-sufficient company that controlled all product design, manufacturing, marketing, sales and customer service. It would also differentiate itself as far as possible from its closest competitor, IKEA.

Where IKEA's sofa prices range from $299 to $599 Simplicity Sofas starts at $799 and ends at $4000. Where they have 2 or 3 fabrics per sofa style we have 150 fabrics with more arriving each month. Where their sofas take 1-2 hours of assembly, ours can be completed by a single person in less than 15 minutes and there is a YouTube video link on our homepage showing an 8 year old boy assembling one of our largest sofas by himself in less than 5 minutes.

To maximize profit margins Simplicity Sofas does not sell to retailers, wholesalers or discounters. Everything is shipped direct from the factory to individual consumers all over the U.S. and Canada.

Selling direct to consumers has several advantages besides the higher profit margins. Probably the biggest advantage is that it allows us to institute a joint customer service/marketing policy that is unique to the furniture industry. Its purpose is to increase sales through its reputation for customer service rather than through discounted pricing.

The furniture industry has a well-deserved reputation, built up over several decades, as having one of the worst overall records for customer service. One big reason for this is that, despite continual warnings by industry analysts, furniture companies continue to compete primarily on price and to depend on deep-discount sales to bring in customers. This leads inevitably to low profit margins which leads to cost-cutting and one of the first costs to be cut is often customer service.

At Simplicity Sofas customer service is a revenue-generating department, not a cost of doing business. The company is set up to provide a level of customer service never before seen in the furniture industry, a level of service that can only be provided by a manufacturer working direct with its customers. The company is able to track how many new customers have been brought in by recommendations of family and friends or through positive reviews on blogs and independent web sites. In addition, after more than 1500 customer served, the company has never had a negative review.

The end result is that Simplicity Sofas opened its doors in November, 2007, two weeks before the official beginning of the recession. During the recession the furniture industry was one of the hardest hit sectors of the American economy. Hundreds of long-term furniture companies shut their doors and most of the remaining companies suffered huge sales losses, particularly small businesses.

In less than 3 years, during the heart of the recession Simplicity Sofas' monthly sales rose from $0 to more than $100,000. Sales rose so rapidly that after less than 2 1/2 years the company had to move to a much larger manufacturing facility to keep up with the steadily increasing volume of orders.

I was introduced to the internet in 1996 when I asked a local company to network my computers. While the tech was at the house I asked about "that internet thing" so he hooked that up as well. I had no clue so I asked him what to do next and he introduced me to his favorite chat room.

Meeting all the people in the chat room was fun and I learned how they posted photos and made their text look different. It wasn't very long before I started setting up my own free website on Geocities – like all my online friends. My mother told a couple of people that I seemed to have an eye for color and design, she referred my first client in 1998.

By January 1999 I was making websites part-time while working a full time job. In the fall I was approached by an individual who was looking to invest in a web business. He turned out to be my venture angel and from there I was able to go full time, open an office and hire a couple of graphic designers.

That's the story – it's been over a decade and I learn more every day. I'm very lucky to have fallen into and in love with this business.

This is how I started iVi Scents Nontoxic Bath and Body

Step 1: I Was Laid Off From My Job

I was working as a middle school history teacher when, during the height of a national recession AND a state budget crisis, I received news that I (along with thousands of other new teachers) would be laid off at the end of the school year. I had put everything I had into teaching: my time, my life, my money, and my heart. I was devastated. At that point I had two choices: I could either cry and let my world come to an end, or I could hustle. Because I'm a fighter, I chose the latter. I took my situation to the Lord, who gently reminded me that He had rescued me from even bigger dilemmas in the past. Comforted by this fact and resting on Faith, I knew everything would be okay.

Step 2: I Discovered My Plan B In iVi Scents

The only thing left to do was to figure out exactly what it was that I was going to be doing and how. Ironically, the idea for iVi Scents came to me just two months before I was laid off when I was in search of two things for my classroom: 1) a cheaper and better smelling way to create plugin air fresheners, and 2) a hand sanitizer that didn't smell or make my hands look like a dried up, funky lemon. While in search of these two solutions, I discovered a wide variety of products that could also be made safer, better smelling, and a whole lot cuter. The second thing I discovered was that many commercial companies are aware that their products are toxic, but ignore it in the interest of a higher profit. Floored by the fact that, for years, I had been putting products on my skin that were often worse than industrial detergents, I decided to make my own nontoxic products and share them with others.

Step 3: I Became A Chemist Sorta

As a bath and body junkie, I had plenty of experience purchasing these kinds of products, but very little experience making or selling them. So, I spent the next four months researching, experimenting, and testing constantly. It was hard and free time was nonexistent. I was playing teacher by day and scientist at night, basically working two full-time jobs. Eventually, my diligence paid off. Although there were very few successful projects and lots and lots of failures, the successes were a big hit and ultimately became the exact blueprint of the products you know and love today.

Step 4: I Built A Virtual Network Entirely Through Social Media

The success of iVi Scents is deeply rooted in Social Media. iVi Scents was officially launched August 11, 2009 – the day our first YouTube Product Review went live. In fact, my first sale was from a person who watched that review on YouTube. As a result of a few successes, I began creating videos, blogging, and tweeting. I must say, there is something about social media that is slightly addictive to me. To my surprise, the feeling was mutual

Step 5: I Became A Full Time Hustler and Serial Entrepreneur

The road has been rough, but I have finally found my true life's calling in entrepreneurship. I have built a company that I am proud of: We are able to create products that are good for people, we are able to give love and respect to all those we come in contact with, and we are able to provide job security despite economic uncertainty. My goal, vision, and prayer for iVi Scents is to contend with the best and the brightest companies, to flourish as a rose among thorns, and ultimately to change the way that businesses interact with consumers on a massive scale.

And That's How It's Done

This is my story. This is how I did it. It's the story of how my part-time hustle eventually became my full-time gig. It's how my dreams were actualized and my potential realized. It's how necessity was the mother of my invention and how the Lord was the Father of my faith. I pray that you, too, are able to overcome your fears and do whatever it is that you have been called to do.

—
Love,

Aarin Elizabeth

For twelve years I was a property manager for apartment complexes all over the state. My husband and I worked for the same company. While in the process of divorce we agreed that I would be the one to no longer work for the company.

I took my 2 daughters and with no child support, alimony or other source of income, moved 70 miles away and started my own business.

At the new location I was offered a salaried position at a higher pay then I had ever had before but realized they were hiring me at "the top of the ladder" leaving me no place to grow. I did not want a job. I needed a career. I felt being self-employed would offer me the flexibility I needed to be home with my children when I needed to be.

I knew nothing about saving, investing or financial planning and had never owned a CD, mutual fund or anything other than a savings account. I told myself that even if the business didn't work out, the knowledge and experience I would gain would be worth it since what I would learn about managing money would help me to raise my children.

I found that I really enjoyed helping others determine the goals that are most important to them and help them put a plan in place to accomplish those goals and be financially secure.

I built the business from scratch to one of the top asset management and financial planning practices in the country with the company. I also became one of the few Certified Divorce Financial Analysts in the State, and have testified in court as an expert witness for divorce.

With approx. $200 million in assets under management and 1,200 clients, in 2007 I sold my practice. I am now a national speaker to help business owners do a better job for their clients and improve their bottom line and help individuals live a successful life and realize their dreams. I remain one of the few Certified Divorce Financial Analysts in the state. This enables me to help better assure a fair split and that the person hiring me understands what their financial life will be like after the divorce. Since I have "been there", it is important to me that divorce settlements are fair.

I have been quoted in many local and national publications including USA Today and The Day and have been a speaker for major corporations such as Pfizer, General Dynamics and Dow Chemical. I have also been a guest on several live TV and radio call in shows.

My husband and I started our business because I couldn't find a job that interested me after being laid off. We had talked about being entrepreneurs since we were dating (more than 34 years), and finally decided it was time! We determine if we kept letting life get in the way, we would never realize our dream. So at 52 and 54 years old, we put the corporate world behind us. We created a personal property inventory service because so few have this much-needed document. The main reason is that they don't realize that even with insurance, one needs to provide a list of each item they want to have replaced. We fulfill the need for this information for home owners, renters and business owners. Our Turnkey Business Package followed once we established a professional service. This company assists others start their own inventory business so they, too, can help others be prepared for a disaster and properly recover. This opportunity – to mentor and coach others – fulfills our desire to help others while fulfilling their desire to be entrepreneurs, too!

Hello, I started my business for several different reasons. The first was because I have always wanted to be my own boss. The second reason I started my business was to sell my inventions and creations. I couldn't compete with the larger corporations, and decided that nobody would sell my things like I do. And last, but not least, because of my children. I want to leave a legacy behind, and not just a life insurance policy. It is important to me to show my 4 sons that nothing can stop them from being or doing anything they set their minds to. I hope I am an inspiration and an example to them.

My daughter Lucia (now 4) was working with a speech therapist for
the past 3 years to help her speech development. (She has had both
physical and speech developmental delays due to what the MRI showed was
reduced white matter in her brain.). The speech therapist suggested
that I put together a photo album for her with pictures of her family,
toys, body parts, and other objects that she could name by looking at
the photos in the book. Lucia quickly destroyed the album that I made
for her, so then I began trying to figure out a more kid-friendly
alternative.

I had the bright idea to create the Take Your Pix® board book photo
album (patent pending) with thick pages (like the kids board books that
Lucia loves so much). Now we're just diligently trying to spread the
word and help others. We could really use your help sharing our story.

My name is Michelle Dunn and I am a success story. I grew up in Rhode
Island, not in the best of circumstances. I was the oldest child in my
family and the only girl. Both of my parents worked and I wore a house
key around my neck on a dirty shoelace. Since I was the oldest, I
would get home from school first, and be there when my younger
brothers arrived. We would do chores while we waited for my father to
get home from his job. When my father would arrive home he would cook
us dinner, and we would either go fishing, go visit his friends or go
sit in the truck at the bar while he was inside.

I grew up without any confidence and was constantly being beaten down
and made to feel I was unworthy. I was called stupid, I could never do
anything right and any achievements I made went by unacknowledged. How
I envied the kids whose parents hung up the notice from the paper that
they were on the honor roll on the fridge for everyone to see.

Ever since I was very young, my goal in life was to gain my parents,
my teachers, my peers or anyone's acceptance, attention or love. I
wanted to be like the women I read about and saw on TV, I wanted to be
beautiful, smart and talented but everywhere I turned I was told I was
the exact opposite and that would never happen.

I did very well in school and was on the honor roll often, I was an
energetic child and was constantly in trouble for talking, fooling
around and fighting. I also had a period in 6th grade where I would
pretend I was sick every day so I could go to the nurse. I wanted to
go home, because I knew my mother was there and I wanted to be with
her. This just caused my mother and the school to be upset with me.

As a young girl we had different family members who would sometimes
live with us, one of them sexually abused me for a very long time. I
never told my mother until I was an adult but I did tell my father, my
aunt and the principal at my school. At that time, the response was,
just don't tell anyone, especially your mother, another response was
you're lying, you need to learn to behave and be more respectful and
go home. So the abuse went on and I started running away frequently.

I got pregnant at 17, the same year my parents moved away and left me
on my own. I quit high school and worked 2 jobs as well as receiving
state assistance in order to afford an apartment. I wanted to keep my
baby but had lost my apartment and was told by my mother that I had
created this situation so I had to deal with it on my own, so I could
not come and live with my parents. Being homeless, I had to give my
baby up for adoption.

I was homeless for a while, sleeping in the back seats of abandoned
cars, under bridges, in the woods or anywhere I could find. I worked
at Wendy's before, during and after my pregnancy and met someone there
whose parents let me stay in their basement. I went back to high
school to finish my senior year and graduated, my parents did not
attend. I then enrolled in a community college and went there for 2
years while working a full time job and a part time job.

I got married and eventually moved to NH where I continued to educate
myself with correspondence college courses. Living the life I led, I
have a very strong work ethic and am a very driven person. I am very
proud of myself and feel as though I have accomplished much in my
life. My biggest accomplishment was having faith and never giving up
on my self when I had no support, setting goals and meeting them,
turning my life around and becoming a smart, beautiful, successful
business woman, mother, and friend.

I started my own collection agency when I was getting divorced so that
I could be home with my children and be there for them. My children
did not have to live through the childhood I had, they have no idea
such a childhood exists and I hope they never have to.

I started my Credit & Collections Association when I started my
collection agency because I was looking for information on starting an
agency and not having much luck. As I found more and more information
based on my research, my thought was to create a place where credit &
collections professionals could go to learn more about the industry
without having to go through all the research and searching I had to.
It was my thought that if I had already done all this work, I could
save someone else the time and effort and they could become successful
more quickly if I shared my knowledge with them.

And so, my Credit & Collections Association was born. I am proud to
say this association comes from my hard work, blood sweat and tears
and has been in business since 1998. My members make my association
possible, they support, they help, they contribute and they care.
Without my members, there would be no association. I am now an award
winning author of over 14 books and a self syndicated columnist.

A few years back I got myself into trouble with credit card debt while trying to start a business. I had always wanted to be my own boss, so I made some foolish decisions while trying to make this happen. Sadly I reached a point where the debt far exceeded the income, so I had no choice but to give up. A few years later, as the Internet became popular, I once again had the desire to start my own business. I learned about affiliate
marketing (where you sell other people's products, much like a sales rep). After a few bad ideas, I ended up starting a debt-related website to share all the lessons I had learned the hard way. Now, about 10 years later, the website is still going strong.

We started Lab42 because we wanted to help other entrepreneurs succeed. We were built out of an incubator, and realized that market research was a key to the success of the companies around us, allowing them to pivot effectively. Market research often runs in the tens of thousands of dollars, making it unpractical for most small businesses. We decided to leverage social media in order to cut down costs and make the product available to small businesses and eventually help them succeed.

The NYT bestseller, Born To Run, almost single-handedly ignited a trend in barefoot running, walking, and hiking. But many potential barefooters are nervous about treading on unfriendly surfaces. And others, once they discover the benefits of being barefoot, want that "barefoot feel" all the time… and find that they can't get into stores or restaurants without shoes. Finally, many people don't fit comfortably in shoes; the shape of their feet doesn't match the shape of a mass-produced shoe.

To address all of those situations, I created a high-tech upgrade of the Tarahumara huarache running sandal and launched http://www.InvisibleShoe.com. With just a thin, strong, flexible layer of rubber beneath your feet, Invisible Shoes give you the closest thing to a barefoot feel, but with a layer of protection. You can wear them for anything from walking to running an ultra-marathon. And Invisible Shoes are custom-made to perfectly fit your foot, either with a simple DIY kit, or made professionally, by us.

Why I started the business is a classic case of accidental good timing. I had been making Invisible Shoes as a hobby when a local barefoot running coach, Michael Sandler of http://www.runbare.com, said, "If you had a website, I'd put you in our upcoming book." I pitched the idea to my wife, who summarily shot it down… so I waited until she went to bed and built a website ;-). Within 3 months of launching, http://www.InvisibleShoe.com was our full-time job, and now in just over a year we've sold over 5,000 pairs in 35 countries.

The rest, as they say…

Steven Sashen
CEO, Invisible Shoes
[email protected]

H.BLOOM's founding story is unique; our founders, Bryan Burkhart and Sonu Panda, knew nothing about flowers when they incorporated the business in 2009.

When we started selling flowers in 2010, Bryan and Sonu went to a local flower shop, picked up a bouquet, switched the labels, and sold it to our first customer – at a revenue loss. At the outset, we didn't have a cooler – a necessary but expensive tool for keeping inventory fresh in any floral business – so we used a dorm-room fridge. The flowers stuck to the sides, and we had to keep buying new batches – again, at a revenue loss.

Bryan, our CEO, is incredibly passionate about building a business that delivers delight to customers all across the country, and about creating an organization that fosters growth for young businesspeople and offers impactful work for creative thinkers.

As we've ramped up production and hired talented floral designers, quick-thinking floral buyers, and hardworking young salespeople, and built up to several hundred customers, we're just starting to see the very beginnings of what this business can do to achieve those goals.

I'm the founder of MeetingWave.com. My inspiration came when I started traveling for work and I would often find myself at a hotel where my options were eating alone in my hotel room or watching 30 other people eat alone at the hotel restaurant.
I would often wonder if there were any potential clients, fellow alumni or business contacts available for dinner of coffee. So, I decided to build and launch MeetingWave.com (described below). I'm also the co-founder of http://vrfy.me (see http://nyu.vrfy.me) which allows alumni or others with common affiliations to verify their affiliation once and then gain access to multiple deals, offerings and services for those affiliations.

I started Chipkos because I knew that people were concerned about protecting our environment, but I didn't feel that an easy and proactive avenue existed to do something about it. Aside from just recycling or buying organically, I wanted to give people the opportunity to do more for our environment, but in an easy, fun and fashionable way. Chipkos sells sandals, but we also sell hope for the future; for every pair of sandals that we sell, we adopt 100 square feet of the rain forest. Chipkos sandals are a wearable badge that let you express your support for nature preservation, while showing off your unique and diverse style at the same time. The only way to create widespread change is if we all stand together, and I started Chipkos to give the public a platform to stand together, unified in our goal of protecting our natural resources.

Cliche Cosmetics is a dance focused cosmetics company founded by Jessica Lighter, a dancer and makeup artist. As a dancer, Jessica saw the opportunity for a cosmetic company geared toward the dance community.Cliche Cosmetics is also unique because it allows customers to customize their makeup at an affordable price. And after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, she had the perfect opportunity to build her dream while keeping her mind off of what she was going through. Since its creation in 2007, Cliche Cosmetics has participated in and sponsored a number of dance events and competitions including the Next Gen Insider and the Starbound National Competition, the largest dance competition in North America.

I started my business, professional organizing because I was always helping friends and one day they said to me, you really should do this as a business, I would pay you and I thought no one is going to pay me to do this and so I thought about it a little and then researched it and realized that Professional Organizer existed as I came across NAPO the national association of professional organizers.

I wanted to help other Moms who were just like me trying to raise children and keep up with maintaining a home.

There is so much more to organizing than how clean a house looks and that is my passion and my reason for doing what I do so that I can educate and teach people how to live simpler lives in a stressed out world!

The founding of Fortunes to Live By was inspired by a fortune from a cookie received nearly 40 years ago! I was recently engaged and at a Chinese restaurant with my fiance. My fortune was "Your future will be built on firm foundation." It couldn't have been more appropriate for me at that moment — my husband and I would be building a foundation for our lives together. I was young (by today's marriage standards) and in love. I tucked it in my wallet and started my new life. It moved from wallet to wallet over the years. and as far I can tell it made each adjustment well. One of the times I found it was seven years later when I was going through a divorce. I was about to become a single mother and my thought was that I'd be building a firm foundation for my daughter and myself. Thank goodness was I was part of the to working women era – I was happy to have a career and knew I could do a good job at building our foundation. Seven years after my divorce I found it once again. I was about to get married again and embark on a live-in blended family. Suddenly were were a family of four with two daughters! The fortune was meaningful no matter what stage of life I was in. After about 25 years of living in wallets my meaningful fortune moved out on it's own! I like to think that my foundation was solidly built but the truth is a life foundation can always be improved upon. I missed it and thought about it occasionally. At some point I had a vision of a vertical pendant that would hold my special fortune. I left my challenging corporate job a while back and transitioned into semi-retirement. My occasional thoughts turned to: I should do something with my idea, I have time in my life, I am capable, if I don't do it now I'll never do it.. etc. etc. Two years ago (15 years after I lost the fortune) I took action. I made the decision in April 2009 and seven months later I was introducing my product at the Women's Conference held by Maria Shriver in Long Beach, CA. A little bit about the product: The Fortunes To Live By products consist of a necklace and keychain the heart of which is a locket-style pendant which holds two "fortunes" (sayings) back to back in a window display. The purchase includes a starter set of fortunes as well as a template that allows fortunes to be easily created, printed and cut to size. When personalized it makes the perfect gift. But more importantly, it's something that allows women to wear (or carry) what matters most on any given day. It can communicate whatever is meaningful — an inspiration, goal, sense of humor… the sky's the limit.

Everyone always says, "Find something you love and the money will come." Living in New York is a food lover's paradise. I eat out 8 days a week and am always stumbling onto new places. About a year ago I started writing down specials at some of my favorite places. I didn't want to spend $100 all the time! Before I knew it what I loved became my book, 365 Guide. Drink. Eat. Save. Every Day of the Year. 365 Guide is packed with a food and drink deal for every day of the year in New York City. Now my love of New York can be shared with the world! So for me, finding what your passionate about really does inspire creativity to follow your dreams. It is just a matter of figuring out "how." So my advice…think about what you love to do. Write it down and let the juices flow.

I began my business in early 2009 out of necessity. The plan was always to start a consulting firm but the initial idea was to do so in 2011. I spent several years in the wedding industry working in luxury reception venues and took a promotion at another company in early 2009 with the intention of staying there for a few years to save up for the business.

Six weeks later, I put in my notice- with no job prospects, a terrible economy… and not to mention that my fiancee and I had just bought a house and were about to pay for a wedding.
Luckily, I had the support of my now husband Travis who said- well if youre bold enough to leave your job in these circumstances, why dont you go ahead and just start the business too?

I officially started OFD in May 2010 and its been an amazing ride. I spent the first few months devouring every small business workshop, etc I could get my hands on, as well as developing my business plan and offerings. My business has been built on my relationships from the wedding industry here locally and now I work with clients across the country. My business has grown over 100% in the last year alone, and Ive had the pleasure of traveling to Ireland twice in the last several months for speaking engagements. Last Fall, a local publication Style Weekly named me Top 40 under 40.

What I like most about my story is that I spent the first year out of college serving in Americorps (I worked in the inner city schools locally) despite all those around me against the idea. Im pleased to say that Ive proved them all wrong and happily enjoy my life as an entrepreneur, and Ive just turned 30.

I never imagined owning my own business. As a matter of fact, I was
content working in corporate America. I loved my job. When I went back
to school to get my MBA, I steered clear of the entrepreneurial track and
concentrated in operations management. Then, one day at work, we were all
called into the conference room for a meeting. We had no idea that we
were going to be offered the opportunity to voluntarily separate from the
company.

At the time, I was pregnant with my second child. I was working eight to
ten hour days and driving one hour each way to and from work. Although,
the idea had never hit me, this was an opportunity to spend more time with
my family. I considered taking the package, but only for a moment because
I still had to help feed, house, and clothe my 2 children.

When I told my husband about the opportunity, he immediately said take
it! I still wanted to make sure that this was the right thing and I was
still worried about our financial future.

We are a military family, so we've moved around quite a bit. We've chosen
to buy houses at each location instead of rent. Some of them, we have
decided not to sell but rent out to other people. Unfortunately, we've
not had very good luck with property managers so we've managed our
properties on our own for the majority of the last seven years. We'd
talked about how much better we are at it than people we've hired and my
husband has always had an interest in real estate. We figured that once
he retired from the military, he would still be pretty young and he would
dabble in real estate; but this may be the time for me to take the
severance package and start our real estate business now.

With the economy in a downward spiral and job security questionable, we
decided that it was best that we choose his military career over mine and
I would go ahead and start a property management business, Absolute
Property Solutions, LLC. That was in 2008. The decision has been one of
the best I've ever made because I am more available for my family, I'm
offering a service that we found from experience was needed, and I'm a
much happier person.

A little about myself: My name is Tiffany "The Budgetnista" Aliche, and Im a preschool teacher/tomboy/travelnista/social butterfly/chatter-box, turned financial coach. I specialize in teaching fun and engaging financial literacy under my company. C.L.D Financial Life.

I began my business while I was still a preschool teacher. It began out of necessity, because so many people reached out to me asking for help with their finances. My father is an accountant and taught my sisters and I early on how to properly manage our money. I became pretty good at it, saving $10,800 in one year, while only making $12/hr, and saving $40,000 in 2 years while making $35,000/yr as a teacher.

People quickly took notice and asked me to show them how I managed my money. I started by helping my family and friends, then I began volunteering my services to churches, nonprofits, and other community based organizations. As a result, my expertise grew as well as my client base. I began getting paid for my services and started working with larger clients like, American Express, Columbia University, Princeton University, Newark Housing Authority, The Boys and Girls Club and the like.

I recently wrote, completed and published the first (of many) books, The One Week Budget. With book in hand, I've increased the number of my speaking engagements, seminars and workshops. This has enabled me to be able to do The Budgetnista full-time.

How I got the name, "The Budgetnista"…

Three years ago when I was registering my business, I was looking for a name to call myself. I Googled a number of names: The Budget Queen, The Budget Diva etc… Luckily, all of those names were taken. Desperate, I asked my youngest sister Lisa, who was 19 at the time, for a suggestion. She said, What about Budgetnista? The Nista thing is really popular now. So I Googled Budgenista and found nothing. Soon after I bought the domain name and trademarked the word! The rest as they say, is history…

I was 18 when I fell in love with real estate. My parents were buying their first house, and I realized how big of a financial opportunity their realtor came across just for being cordial while providing them with something they were already on the market for. I immediately went after my realtor's license. After college, the market crashed, and everyone seemed to be running away from real estate. Determined to make things work, I came up with the concept of a company that would purchase homes at a deep discount so they can be renovated and provided to investors and homebuyers. At 23, I pursued the manifestation of this concept and launched RER, LLC. Despite holdbacks typical of a small business— going completely broke from bootstrapping the company and pulling in below zero revenue the first year— the business is alive and kicking today, now overseeing millions of dollars in investment funding, initially solicited by dispensing free real estate consultations to eager investors. My company survived because I didn't listen when I failed the first try and everyone warned me against spending another dollar on a fallen dream.

I was in high school in the midst of quitting a fast food job I've had for just a few days when I promised myself that I'd never work for anybody other than myself— to this day, I've kept that promise.

Imagine starting a business in a country in which you’re not a citizen and have not mastered the language — starting a business in an industry you know nothing about — a place where you have no family, money or any contacts to help get you started at all.

Welcome to the amazing story of Geir Ness, a boy born in Oslo, Norway to a humble home and loving parents who taught him that the greatest gift anyone could offer in life is to love, care and share with those less fortunate. His mom taught him that you should never give up on your dreams, to stay focused on your goals, get a good education and with dedication and hard work you will succeed.

Early in his teenage years, he knew that he wanted to do something with his life that had meaning and would make a difference in the lives of other people. He started working as volunteer at a specialized school for handicapped and disabled children. This volunteer work gave Geir a lot of experience and a better understanding of how important it is to give love and kindness. In return Geir received from these kids so much more than he could ever expect. That experience gave him the compassion and dedication to want to do more with his life.

He realized that it will take more than compassion and inspiration, but also money. He always wanted to travel and see the world and decided to combine his desire and need for making money. He began his journey, overcoming obstacles most of us will never even encounter. He answered an ad in the local Oslo newspaper for tour guides in Mallorca Spain. He did not speak a word of Spanish nor had he ever been there before, but he thought he would give it a try.

After convincing the interviewer that he could speak the language and that he understood the culture, he was asked to wait for the Spanish teacher just to make sure he passed the written test. It was through luck the teacher’s car broke down and he was not able to travel into the city. With lady luck on his side he got the job and two days later he was on a plane to Spain. Once he arrived he was picked up by another tour guide and was instructed to be ready in the morning for his first tour with a Swedish Family. He could barley understand what the young man was saying, but he studied in enough Spanish in two days to understand a few words. The next day, he managed to communicate with the Swedish family and to understand their wishes. He carefully listened and would read his tour guide book and told the family what to see and do and even ordered a car using a few Spanish words. He is still amazed after all these years that he managed to do it.

After the family returned from their tour they were happy and told him he did a great job with restaurant and sightseeing suggestions.

After one week he was called in the office of the manager and he thought, “This is it, I am finished.” They know I faked it.” But as lady luck was on his side again he was actually promoted because the family he guided on the tour the first day was good friends with the company’s owner and they told him how nice and amazing he was. He was more than happy and excited. He also spoke pretty well, but basic Spanish since he used every minute he had to himself to learn the language.

After several months on the island he decided it was time to move on and deep down in his heart he had another interest – – acting.

At young age he developed a passion and love for theater and film. With that in mind he decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. To make ends meet, he worked as a fragrance model at a major department store. His looks and accent caught the attention of the public, and he was constantly asked where he was from and what kind of fragrance was available in his homeland.

Realizing that Norway had no fragrance yet, he thought how cool would it be if he were the first Norwegian Fragrance designer and what a great way to honor his mom. His mom was always his inspiration and support and he decided that his first fragrance would be named after his mother, Laila. To show a deeper appreciation and love for her, he copied her signature and placed it on every bottle.

In a business world where only a few survive and where everyone will tell you why you can’t succeed, Geir was determined and ready to take on the challenge. He knew he had one thing he had going for him and that was the belief he had in himself and his ‘go-get-it’ attitude and to never to accept ‘no’ for an answer.

Selling most of his cloths at garage sales, reaching the limits on his credit cards and borrowing money from his only friend in the Unites States, Geir started his business in not only in an industry he knew nothing about, but also one that is less welcoming of new comers.

The odds of surviving were staggering; the odds of becoming successful were astronomical. But Geir Ness doesn’t know the meaning of words like “no, can’t and shouldn’t”. His determination to make his mother proud of his life’s accomplishments has pushed him to heights most would say is impossible. But for Geir, impossible is simply an opinion and that word does not exist in his vocabulary.

Armed with a $5 suit, a red carpet found in the trash and a photographer who couldn’t afford film for his camera, inviting his fellow students from the acting school to pretend to know him as the mega celebrity from Norway, Geir staged a publicity event at Nordstrom’s, ultimately landing him his first order of 1000 bottles. Nordstrom’s believed the order would last 3 months; instead Geir sold out in one hour and had a waiting list of 50 people!

Ever since that moment Geir was on a roller coaster ride of events from Beverly Hills to small towns across America. From disasters in manufacturing, to an industry that wanted to see him fail, to an absolutely grueling 300-day a year travel schedule filled with personal and motivational television appearances and radio and magazine interviews. Geir maintains the most positive upbeat and optimistic outlook on life you will ever encounter. Norway’s morning show “Good Morning Norway” featured him as special guest and Norway’s television network did a special on him for prime-time television about his incredible life journey and story.

Today, Geir has not only surpassed his goals but also helps many people he encounters. To make his appearances more special, whenever possible he and his mother Laila together make special appearances throughout the United States to promote the company he started and now is an established million-dollar fragrance company. Not only is he a successful fragrance designer, but Geir became a motivational speaker and speaks at schools and seminars throughout the USA and Europe to help others stay focused on the road to success. His success story earned the attention of Hollywood and he is currently having discussions with them to have his story turned into a screenplay and feature film!

In the words of Geir Ness…..”The American Dream can come true and it does not stop here, always more to come!”

Always remembering what his mother taught him, where he came from and his goal to help others, Geir donates both his time and money to a list of foundations such as the Los Angeles Aids Ride, Norwegian Cancer Society, Chicago’s Children Medical Research Foundation, Susan G. Komen Foundation and just recently he joined the I am 4 Kids Foundation to help bring awareness to education and the importance that each child can achieve anything in life as long as they believe in themselves.

To add to his efforts, last year he teamed up with Norwegian Olympic Gold Medalist, World Champion and 9-time New York marathon winner Grete Waitz to run the New York Marathon in November of 2009. Since Grete was not able to run due to chemotherapy, Geir ran the marathon on her behalf to raise money for cancer patients. He ran the marathon in an amazing time of 4 hours, 28 minutes and raised close to $300,000 for the charity. He always strives to make a difference and help the less fortunate to succeed.

At the end of 2009 Geir released his first pocket book “Letters from a Son to his Mother” which he dedicated to his mom. After all these years she is still his biggest supporter and always keeps encouraging him to pursue his dreams and goals. The book not only shows his love, dedication and appreciation for his mom, but also that you need the love and support to be who you want to be. His pocket book is available online.

Geir’s talent just doesn’t stop by designing fragrance and beauty products; since he has a passion for fashion, he wanted to incorporate it in his product line and he began designing handbags for “the woman on the run”. As it turned out it was a smart move on his part and his handbags are best sellers; always selling out in the first couple months once on the market. His handbags are sold with products which give the customer the chance to purchase an amazing gift set for the price of just the fragrance.

A year ago he added a new product called “No Baggage” which is an eye treatment and also a shower gel. Since he always strives to create new products, he is currently developing the first Laila skin care line.

Today the Laila Perfume Company is featured in gift baskets for events such as the Tony Awards, the Grammy’s, MTV Awards, Miss Universe, Miss Sport Football and the Euro-Vision Song Contest.

Geir continues his grueling travel schedule but had to reduce it to 285 days a year. With personal & television appearances throughout the United States, and since Laila Perfume is now one of the best selling specialty fragrances at Nordstrom’s nationwide, high profile boutiques and one of the top selling fragrances at Disney’s Walt Disney World Theme Park and Disney Cruise, most of his time is now spent at these locations.

From 1993-1995, Strauss served the Clinton Administration in the White House in the Office of Media Affairs under the Office of Communications, as the first-ever White House Radio Director. This Administration was the first to make talk radio a strong priority and we provided the talk radio community with direct access to the White House. As White House Radio Director, he was responsible for creating and implementing the radio communications strategy for the Clinton Administration. While working at the White House, he coordinated and produced President Clinton's weekly Saturday morning radio address, booked and implemented talk radio interviews for the administration, and coordinated live remotes and other radio events and projects for the Executive Office of the President.

Following the news of President Clinton's healthcare plan, Strauss realized the importance of talk radio in getting any message across on the radio, and proactively brought talk show hosts to the White House to be directly briefed by the President. This was the first time that stations were able to broadcast live at the White House (with the exception of Paul W. Smith of WWDB, who was the first to broadcast on the White House lawn a few months earlier).

Before working at the White House, Strauss served as the Director of Radio for both the Clinton for President campaign and the Clinton/Gore transition team. One accomplishment that I am particularly proud of was when I created a multi-tiered 800-number that could be used to obtain breaking news-worthy campaign soundbites. This "rapid response" plan that he implemented helped me to land my position as the first director of radio at the White House.

Strauss left the White House in January, 1996 to start Strauss Radio Strategies, a communications, public relations, consulting, and strategy firm specializing in radio. This year, we are celebrating our 16th year of excellence in helping companies, organizations, and PR firms to realize the integral role of radio in PR campaigns.

One of SRS' greatest strengths is its relationship with the talk radio community. We have many longstanding personal relationships with talk radio show hosts and producers at the nationally syndicated, statewide, and local levels. We have worked with such national shows as Westwood One's "The Jim Bohannon Show", NPR's "Talk of the Nation" and "The Diane Rehm Show", Air America's "The Tom Hartman Program", American Urban Radio Network's "The Bev Smith Show", the "Ed Schultz Show", Doug Stephan's "Good Day", as well as many other nationally syndicated and local talk radio programs. In his own life, he connects with talk media by interacting with hosts on a regular basis to pitch them radio interviews.

In addition to founding his company, Richard Strauss has been a member of the DC chapter of the Entrepreneurial Organization for the last eight years, most recently serving as President of the chapter.

Radio as an industry continues to evolve and extend its reach. With more stations being purchased by large ownership groups, it is increasingly important to form working relationships with decision-makers at large entities. The Internet has infused more power into radio, especially since most networks and stations now stream live. There is also certainly more competition from personalized radio websites such as Pandora and mp3 players such as iPods.

The owner RON KOPF is as pure of a person as they come. He is all things good and honest – and he says, "As early as middle school, I had a passion for jazz. Being a musician, I've always known that I wanted to actually make my living playing this beautiful music. My Aha Moment was at 24 years old when I decided that I wanted to create a company of artful musical acts, using the very best musicians, in the corporate special event / convention industry, and set a new standard for doing business Having used the Ray Kroc business model, and learning from Dr. Deming that quality is really in consistency, I set out to create business systems to solidify the standard of my company's framework. It began with the branding of my acts, the promotional materials that would go out to clients, and the structure for how to take care of business at events. With all of this in place, I am now able to provide multiple acts for any given evening, and guarantee our clients the same outstanding level of quality. Now 18 years later, I'm always thrilled to grow with new ideas and creative concepts, as well as to express myself musically with amazing musicians."

I was living on auto-pilot. I was in a decent job working long hours on top of a 4-hour commute. The work was fine but I had no passion for it. And I never saw my 1-year-old daughter. I'd leave in the morning, she'd be sleeping. I'd come home at night, she'd be sleeping. And Days turned into weeks turned into months.

_You ever feel like that, when you feel like you're running in place and you know you want things to change but you don't know what to do about it? _

So there I was, lunch time on a beautiful Monday afternoon in Manhattan, sitting outside eating my chicken salad sandwich, and getting away from the constant noise for that moment, I realized "This is not the life I want, never seeing my daughter, 4 hour commute, exhausted all the time. This is not the dad I want to be", but I don't know what to do about it. I'm the sole breadwinner…I'm stuck…but I can't do this forever….it's just not acceptable. The costs are too high"

And right there, in that moment, I made the decision that I was going to take back my life- no more floating down the river. I asked myself, "What is one small thing I can do to get started here?" And I decided to start by having breakfast with my wife and daughter the next morning and go into work 20 minutes later than usual.

Well, the next morning happened to be September 11, 2001 and I worked on the 96th floor of the WTC. So when the first plane hit my desk, I was still in the subway on my way to the office.

It was terrible. My boss and most of my team were up there, but that small decision I made saved my life.

At first, I was stuck looking back – why me, why them? Then I realized I had to look forward with a completely new sense of responsibility – What do I want to do with this gift that I've been given?

But I want to point out that the most important thing is — I made the decision on Sept 10th when life was fine. A day that looked like any other day. September 11th just confirmed that I could never go back.

After that experience, I still had no vision of where I wanted to go. I thought of everything I could think of and was coming up empty. I did not know what my path was. I did not have a journey, and I had no clarity. However, because of what had happened on September 10th and 11th, I knew that I had to own that journey. I was open to new possibilities and always on the lookout for a sign or a lead. I was just having a hard time figuring out where to start.

And then one day, six little words gave me the catalyst I was looking for. We were in the kitchen on a weekend and my wife's friend Jen was over. I don't recall why but she casually turned to me and said, "You would make a great coach." Initially, that meant nothing to me. I said, sure when my daughter is older I'd love to coach her in little league and soccer. She said, "No you moron! You would make a great life coach."

I asked her, "What the heck is a life coach?" I had never heard of that phrase before, though it did sound intriguing. She went on to tell me that it was something she had recently learned about, and when she had heard of it she immediately thought of me.

I was flattered she thought of me but I wasn't sure what to do with the compliment. On any other day I would have likely thanked her and then let the thought slip past like so many hidden treasures that go unrecognized despite their unlimited but invisible potential.

But I was in a different place mentally. I had been on the lookout for a sign and I decided to latch onto to this idea and see what it might bring. I immediately went upstairs and started researching the term, and as I'm researching it more and more, it all started making sense I thought, this is exactly who I am, and for the first time, I felt pulled towards a world I felt compelled to be a part of.

Those 6 little words had unlocked a world of new possibilities for me, a world that 5 minutes earlier didn't exist for me. Yet it had been there the whole time. My entire life shifted from that one statement and I have never looked back.

I tell this story now as if it was a magical moment where the clouds parted and the sun shone through–and in a way it was–but I also want you to see that the day Jen stood in my kitchen was just an ordinary day. It was an ordinary day like any other day, but it was an ordinary day with possibility. Every day has that possibility inherent in it. What made this day different was my openness to that possibility.

As a result of that experience and the subsequent journey, I redefined myself as a Human WakeUp Call and created my company which provides coaching and consulting that helps individuals and organizations unlock their potential and create new possibilities for growth and success, without waiting another precious day.