Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle! Never in my dreams did I figure a tough street girl from Hell’s Kitchen (HK) would end up living a dream life with financial freedom. Growing up in crime wonderland never afforded me anything monetarily, but gave me something much more valuable, the greatest entrepreneurial gift – a burning desire to make my life better. I had little supervision as a child, as was the same for many of my peers. We were left to our own devices most of the time

Creating a recognizable brand should be a top priority of any business, no matter your size or budget. The branding of your business will either attract customers or it will drive them away. It's that simple. Branding should be one of the very first considerations of a new (or existing) enterprise - yet it is shocking how little many entrepreneurs focus on the branding of their company and their products or services. Nothing screams "small time"to me more than a business ow

In a family of 12 children, my father, the oldest of six boys, was told at the age of 14 he was old enough to be on his own. He found a garage apartment and began working as a mechanic. He worked to learn the business then opened his own shop in El Campo, Texas at the age of 17. Shortly after, he met my mother and married her two years later. I was the oldest of four girls and had an older brother. My mom worked in the family business too by keeping the books and handling

It depends. Remember this always - "Entrepreneurs bring value to an idea." One of the most common types of startup businesses is when someone decides they want to make their hobby into a business. But let's be clear here. Not all hobbies translate well into a business that creates an income. I always advise fledgling entrepreneurs to follow their "interests", which may not exactly be a hobby. For instance, if my hobby was collecting sewing thimbles or drink shot glasses fro

The emergence and popularity of the TV show "Shark Tank" has helped to crystalize the thought processes used by potential businesses to evaluate investment opportunities in early stage or start-up businesses. I've received business plans on a napkin (really!) and business plans that are hundreds of pages. It's really quite simple to grab an investor's attention with the right mix of quality information about your business or start-up. First, we need to clearly understand what

So, what is it that makes someone leave the security of a paycheck and a 401K plan to jump off the cliff into entrepreneurship? I can’t speak for others but I will give you my reasoning. I worked for a very large consulting firm for many years and the thing I found most incredible was the environment where everyone gets a trophy. The end result in this culture is it breeds mediocrity. The person who planned a party might get the same recognition as someone who identified a h

Too often we will bring on a new hire that looked like a dream on paper but was actually a nightmare in disguise. I have more stories than I can count about hiring what seemed to be a mature, hardworking, level headed individual but in reality they had boiled bunnies in pots all over town! Why did I not find this out through an employment reference check? Because it is against the law for a previous employer to offer any information on a reference check other than the dates t

This is the time of year when I have to chuckle when people get excited they are getting their tax refund. It's like a gift from heaven our benevolent federal government sends you a refund, just at the right time when you need it! Few people realize if they are getting a refund they were paying too much in taxes all year long. Our brilliant lawmakers have saddled the American public with a tax code that is over 55,000 pages in which even the most astute tax professionals can'

We remember growing our career in management with a large Fortune 500 company when our Executive Vice President told us something one day. He said, “Execution is the one thing that separates the good from the great. Let me put it to you this way. If you don’t execute, you’ll be executed.” We guess it’s hard to forget that, but it still rings true in our mind today. Some of the best leaders and managers in business don’t achieve peak results because they simply don’t execute t

​9:00 AM comes especially early for kids or young teenagers. It is even more debilitating when your father is the alarm clock that has a snooze button you don’t want to press. Today by 9:00 AM I have run a mile, been at work for an hour, and had my first cup of coffee. But back then, not so much. There was always something to do around the house and my father made sure that we were up to do it. Of course, we were never in the best of moods in the morning and this reaction wo