Tag Archives: entrepreneur

5 ways to increase your earning potential as an entrepreneur

20 Jul

In previous posts I established the limitations of self-employment and the restrictions it can have on your earning potential.

But the question is…how can you increase your earning potential as an entrepreneur?

Delegation

First up is delegation. Having people work for you not only helps to spread the work load but allows your business to reach a wider range of people. Bringing people on board to work for you gives you more time to focus on working ON the business, rather than IN it!

Systems

Now that you’ve taken yourself out the equation you can replace it with systems. Creating a system is a great way to ensure your business remains running even when you’re not there. The success of the business is no longer solely reliant on you, it is now reliant on the system. This ensures that your business can be run and managed by anyone. This is advantageous because it helps to create continuity.

Distribution

If done correctly, distribution can take your business from 0 – 100 ! If you have a product your main aim should be to put it in front of as many people as possible. That way it increases your chances of sales. No matter the idea or product, with the right marketing and distribution your business can take off! Obviously it takes a lot of hard work but when you look at the examples of successful businesses you can see they have mastered the art of distribution e.g McDonald’s.

Ownership

This way is more for the creative ventures such as writing, painting, music etc. By creating a unique product which you claim ownership over, means you have the right to sell this on for profit. This means that even after the original effort has been completed you can still benefit from the work you put in. For example, writing a book may take you months or even years to complete but if written well, could provide you with regular income for years to come.

Repeatable services

Creating a business that requires your client to come back month after month will help provide your business with a steady income stream. For example, monthly subscription services are a great way to gain that commitment from customers. It not only provides customers with a guaranteed service but it also helps stabilise business income. Gaining commitment from customers through direct debits is desirable to help generate a regular income for your business.

So there you have it! 5 ways to get you thinking about increasing your earning potential as an entrepreneur. All of these suggestions can contribute to your set up for a lifetime of residual income.

Please share any more tips below!

Natalie

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Ambitious Women; Let’s hear from Jackie

18 Jul

Name | Jackie Taiwo

Tell us a random fact about yourself | I taught myself to play the piano when I was 12 and was pretty good for a few years, but I haven’t touched a piano in over a decade now.

What is your current occupation? | I work full time building my new business, Melariche (www.melariche.com), an online makeup & skincare catering to women of colour. On any given day, I may be working on web design, marketing & sales strategy, brand curation, operations management, social media…the list goes on and on. We launch in August, so everything is super busy, but it’s so fulfilling to work on a project that you’re passionate about and believe in.

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Would you class yourself as an ambitious woman?| Most definitely. I’m always in pursuit of a goal I’ve set for myself whether that be in my personal life or career related. What’s interesting though is how I have been able to jump onto new opportunities without looking back. I studied engineering college, but decided to work in corporate finance after graduation. After working a few years, I then decided to pursue a joint law-business graduate degree (thinking I would move into business role within the entertainment industry), and by second year of grad school decided I just had to leave the country and was hired by an international law-firm willing to relocate me after graduation. I was able to transition at each stage because I did not believe my path was limited by my current experience at that time. And I think having ambition is being able to see a vision for yourself beyond what society or your environment says you should do.

Have you always been ambitious? If not what was the turning point for you? | I think my ambition was engrained in me early by mother, who passed away in 2002. My mother was born in the deep south in the height of Jim Crow (quite literally born on the land her grandparents were enslaved on), but she was not someone who let her circumstance limit her vision. At 19, single and pregnant, she moved to the New York by herself to give her family more opportunity. She worked hard, got married and was able to buy a home with ten years. Fast forward to 1981, five kids later, a single mother now, she decided to get her bachelor’s in nursing while pregnant with me and graduated with a degree from one of the best nursing programs in New York. I watched her step up in the community whenever it was needed. Our local HeadStart program needed a bus driver to take local kids (including myself) to the school. With six kids, a full-time job, she made to time to volunteer to drive that bus. I can name countless instances where she was first in line to help those in need. Like so many black women, she all did this without seeking recognition and was not incredibly vocal about her achievements. I doubt she would have even called herself ‘ambitious.’ She did what she thought was necessary to provide for herself, her family and her community. But her ability to see & create opportunity has had a big impact on me. She did not let her struggles define her and that’s a powerful mindset. In my toughest times, I think this type of ambition has been so powerful in motivating me to push on.

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What is your biggest achievement to date? | My 4-year-old daughter has to be my biggest achievement. She’s beautiful, super smart and headstrong. Outside of that, I would say quitting my job as a corporate lawyer after 5 years. Yes, quitting was a huge achievement for me. I was so unhappy and not living in my purpose but I was incredibly afraid to quit. Overcoming that fear was huge feat and I’m so proud that I was able to do it. Fear can really cloud your ambition, so letting that go was a major step for me and has allowed me to progress to where I am today – one month away from launching Melariche!

What is your long term vision for yourself? | My vision is massive. I want to grow Melariche into a ‘Sephora for women of colour’ and really shake up the beauty industry which has ignored women with darker skin for far too long. I want to eventually build Melariche stores all around world. Our tagline is ‘Celebrate Your Beauty’ because our brand represents beauty in all colours and sizes. Women are constantly told that they need to a look a certain way in order to be beautiful or to be successful. I want to challenge that notion by encouraging women to look however they want, wear whatever makeup they want, do their hair however they want, and that’s okay and beautiful because it’s YOU and you have been and will always be enough. Live life on your own terms and break the mould!

It’s also incredibly important to give back and I’d like to start a program that empowers vulnerable women to see possibility beyond their immediate struggle and pass on the mindset that my mother gave to me.

What have you sacrificed or willing to sacrifice to achieve your vision? | I’ve given up a lot of my time. I work on Melariche in every free moment because there is always something to do. The to-do list never ends. This unfortunately means I struggle to be present when I’m with my daughter and husband, and at times I’m afraid I won’t feel the effects of this until years later. But my husband is incredibly supportive and every day I block out time that is just for me and my daughter (working on putting the phone down!).

What advice can you give to other ambitious women that want to pursue their dreams but are afraid to do so? | Optimism. Remove the word “can’t” from your vocabulary. The power of being positive cannot be understated. Talk about your vision confidently – even if you don’t have the resources – focus on what you can accomplish and make a growth plan and believe in it.

Also, I think it’s important to pause and set aside a few days to literally write down your 3-year or 5-year plan, whether it’s for your business or career.  Write down what you want to achieve and be as detailed as possible about how you’re going to achieve it – force yourself to be realistic, take note on your strengths and include a plan to work on your weaknesses. Have someone you trust read it and to help determine if the plan you’ve set out will actually get you the results you seek. Also, write down contingencies for each stage, knowing that even if you execute your plan perfectly, sh*t happens beyond your control requiring you to pivot. But when that time comes you’ll be prepared because you know there’s a plan B.

 

Want to hear more from Jackie?

Follow her on Twitter Instagram & Facebook

Website: www.melariche.com

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Are you ambitious? business minded? or pursuing  your passion?

Want to be apart of this series? Express your interest by emailing quietlyambitious@hotmail.com or messaging here  

 

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Ambitious men; Let’s hear from David

11 Jul

Name | David Morgan

Tell us a random fact about yourself | I have a very rare, unreleased R&B album, fully recorded in my shower.

What is your current occupation? | I’m a full time writer/artist/musician/human. I like to create anything that I possibly can, as much as I can. I currently have a number of projects on soundcloud, with “Genesis” being my latest release.(http://soundcloud.com/DavidFnMorgan).

I am the author of 3 books (Light, Love, and Life) available at www.LightLoveLife.co. The first 2, Light and Love, were self published and the 3rd, Life, my personal favorite, was published by Austere Magazine. I am also into writing video treatments and directing my own visuals. I currently don’t have the proper resources to make things as big as I imagine, but you can watch my videos at www.youtube.com/c/DaveMohicans

Would you class yourself as an ambitious man? | Yea, I guess so

Have you always been ambitious? If not what was the turning point for you? | Yea, ever since I was young, I was always determined to make whatever I want to happen, happen. Whether it be tying a blanket around my neck and teaching myself how to fly (hurting myself multiple times in the process lol) or just trying to learn something new, I was always determined to do whatever it took, regardless of what anyone else said. But the moment it hit me that I am truly ambitious is when I realized I was willing to work harder than anyone else for my dreams. What others considered too hard or too tiring, I considered normal. I can’t count how many nights I’ve put sleep to the side in order to finish a song, story, or whatever I was writing at the time. Even in the face of defeat and when things aren’t going exactly how I want, I push through and continue to strive to make my vision a reality. I’ve seen many others quit along the way when it gets tough, but I refuse to fail. After I figured out that no one is going to hold my hand and protect me from the hardships of life, I had no choice but to go hard. I’m not exactly where I’d like to be but I know for fact I’m going to get there. I couldn’t tell you how I know, but I just know. I think that’s what ambition is.

What is your biggest achievement to date? | I would say my biggest achievement is putting myself in a position to be as creative as possible without having to compromise much of my time working for anyone else. It wasn’t easy, but it has been worth it. I had to make the decision that I was not going to do anything that didn’t leave me feeling fulfilled once I was finished. The past 7 years of my life have been dedicated to nothing but creating. I didn’t realize that until recently. Literally everyday, I have created something. It isn’t the most lucrative occupation, but wealth isn’t all about money anyway. It has definitely been a process though. I’ve had days where I question if I’m doing the right thing. If I should just go back to school. If I’m “behind” in terms of “growing up” compared to my peers. Everyone has those dark days, but the sun always comes back up, and when it finally starts shining for me, I realize I am doing exactly what I was made to do. That’s the greatest feeling. I know there’s a lot of people who go their entire lives without knowing what their purpose is. I figured it out early. That’s my biggest achievement.

What is your long term vision for yourself? | My long term vision is to be able to make a sustainable living solely off of creating things and putting positivity into the world. I want to make more music, write more books, create cartoons, clothing, everything! lol Seriously though, there’s a lot of things I would like to do and I pray that life leads me down the path of being able to accomplish it all.  I don’t want to end up making a lot of money but living a life I hate. I’ve made a few life changes. I recently stopped smoking and drinking just to have a clearer vision and more control over how my life goes. I think this will allow me to hold myself fully accountable for my success as well as my mistake. I won’t have any excuses as to why I did something dumb. I may dabble every now and then, probably only when there is something huge to celebrate, but as of right now, I feel great without my vices. As far as a written plan, I’m working on that. I never really know what each day will bring, so I kind of just go with the flow with no laid out steps necessarily, but keeping an end goal in mind. I’m getting better at planning though because it definitely helps.

David Morgan

Photo by Morganne Nikole

What have you sacrificed or willing to sacrifice to achieve your vision? | I sacrificed getting a degree. I went to Texas Tech University for a couple of years until I finally accepted the fact that my passion for creation was 1000 times stronger than my urge to go to class. There were days I would just skip class completely and record 2 or 3 songs in my dorm room, and it only got “worse” (better in my opinion because I was fine tuning my craft) when I moved into an apartment. To most people, it wasn’t the smartest decision, but I’m 100% sure had I slaved away in school, I wouldn’t be where I am now. I wouldn’t have had the time to write 3 books, or make all these mixtapes, or perform at all the shows I’ve done. I’d probably have a job and a lot more money, yea. But I know for a fact I would not have been able to accomplish what I’ve accomplished so far. I wouldn’t feel fulfilled. By no means am I advising anyone to drop out, but that’s a sacrifice I made that I believe turned out for the better.

What advice can you give to other ambitious men that want to pursue their dreams but are afraid to do so? | Don’t second guess yourself. Get rid of all doubt. The most important thing is self-confidence. If you truly believe you can do something and you really want to do it, go for it. Don’t let “No” get in the way. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be worth it.

**Featured image photographed by Najee Rashad**

Want to hear more from David?

Follow him on Twitter Instagram & Snapchat @DavidFnMorgan

Website: www.DavidFnMorgan.com

*** 

Are you ambitious? business minded? or pursuing  your passion?

Want to be apart of this series? Express your interest by emailing quietlyambitious@hotmail.com or messaging here  

 

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8 reasons why quitting your 9-5 to become self-employed is a waste of time 

1 Jun

We all dream of a life where we can sit back and do what we want. We all want to live lives where we can truly experience our dreams and do the things we love. We don’t want to be told when to wake up and when we can go on holiday. We just want control over our lives. This is why some people are drawn to self-employment and the fantasy of becoming ‘their own boss’.

By definition, someone that’s self-employed doesn’t work for an employer. They usually charge an hourly rate and they get paid for the work they complete. The amount of hours worked reflects the amount of money received. Examples of self-employed jobs include, builders, photographers or web designers. They essentially trade skills in return for money.

But quitting your comfortable 9-5 job to pursue a life of self-employment is a waste of time and if you keep on reading, I’ll tell you why.

1. Irregular income | Self-employment can be up and down. Sometimes business is booming and other times there’s nothing.

2. Difficult to plan for the future | The irregular income makes it difficult to plan for holidays or to buy big purchases. One month you may get triple the amount you usually make then the other month you could get nothing. This makes it difficult when trying to work out a savings plan because your income fluctuates.

3. More difficult to apply for credit | The criteria to apply for credit, loans or mortgages are a lot stricter if you are self-employed. Due to the irregular income; creditors are more cautious about lending money. Currently in the UK the self-employed need to provide 2 – 3 years proof of income before approval. So if you’ve just left your job and started to work for yourself and you want to buy a home in the next year or so…good luck trying to secure the mortgage.

4. No sick pay or annual leave | Being self employed comes with poor perks to the job. If you go off sick, so does your money. Want to go on holiday? Well unless you can complete the work remotely, it is likely you won’t be getting paid. Unless you can find a reliable person to take on the work for you, it is likely this particular income stream will stop until you return.

5. No guaranteed pension plan (unless you sort it yourself) | You have to become responsible for your own pension plans (and so you should).

6. No work life balance | You may find yourself working round the clock and putting in more effort than you did in your job. It becomes more difficult to establish a work life balance because your work becomes your life.

7. 100% responsibility and accountability | You are solely accountable for the business. If your customers are unhappy with your service they are coming straight back to you! However, a 9-5 job can buffer the brunt of disgruntled customers as the responsibility and accountability of the company are shared. This can leave you a bit more stress free than if you had to deal with it your self.

8. Limited earning potential | Although you become your ‘own boss’ your earning potential is similar to when you were working a 9-5. You get paid a hourly rate or salary for the year for the work you put in. Your income will always be relative to the time spent doing the job. For example, part time hours yields part time money. But the problem is that there are only 24 hours in the day and unfortunately you cannot work for all of them.  This means that your earning potential will always be capped.

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Self-Employed < Business Owner

A lifetime of self employment does not provide you with the same rewards as a ‘stable’ 9-5 job. It requires you to turn up early for the job, work overtime with little rewards, poor pension plans, no annual leave/sick pay and 100% of the accountability if anything goes wrong. Now for me, this doesn’t seem appealing.

The problem is, is that people don’t realise that your earning potential in self-employment will always be capped. Your earnings are based on how much work you can complete in a given time. So when you think about it, there’s only so much you can do, there’s always going to be a cut off point.

So in the long term, self-employment is a waste of time. Do you think the richest people on the earth actually work for their money? Think about it. Do you think Bill Gates actually hand made any of the Microsoft computers on the market today? No! He’s a business owner. He owns systems and he distributes his products. He has people work for him which gives him more time to expand his business and generate more profit. Do you think if Bill Gates was self-employed he would be able to distribute his products to millions of people as he does today?

Now if the rich are not working for their money, what makes you think working for your money at a lower level will give you financial freedom? It won’t. That’s why it should be our goals to move from employee/self-employed to business owners or better yet, investors! This is where you’ll start to generate residual income and be on your way to financial independence.

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Ambitious women; Let’s hear from Jacque

2 Nov

Name| Jacque Amadi

Tell us a random fact about yourself | I’m currently learning Korean, and I plan on visiting next year!

What is your current occupation? | Currently I do a lot of stuff, ha! I own a digital marketing boutique, but I also am an infopreneur, and an online shop owner.

Would you class yourself as an ambitious woman? | For sure! I think it’s possible to design your life to align with your vision, and everything I do is to reach my ultimate goal of being able to uplift and employ young women like myself.

Have you always been ambitious? If not what was the turning point for you? | I’ve always been driven to succeed, although there was a short period in college where I wasn’t very motivated to do much of anything. As a former straight A student, college was a huge change and I did give up. I didn’t drop out, but mentally I just didn’t want to be there. However I found my calling in entrepreneurship when I started making and selling bow ties on Tumblr (random, I know) and my passion was renewed! I ended up opening up an online vintage shop and things only went up from there.

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What is your biggest achievement to date? | My biggest achievement? I left my full time job a few months ago, and just recently I finally started making as much on my own as I did there. That’s huge for me!

What is your long term vision for yourself? | Being able to employ other women of color. I don’t care what I’m doing, as long as I’m able to hire those who aren’t always given a fair chance.

What have you sacrificed or willing to sacrifice to achieve your vision? | I’ve sacrificed money for sure! But now, I’m willing to sacrifice time.

What advice can you give to other young women that want to pursue their dreams but are afraid to do so? Remember that life is short. This is morbid but you never know what will happen tomorrow…so do what you can while you’re still here!

Jacque’s Social Media | Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

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Ambitious women; Let’s hear from Chika !

28 Aug

Name: Chika Woodward

Tell us a random fact about yourself: I can speak Fijian. I lived in Wayasewa Island in Fiji when I was 17.

What is your current occupation? Owner/operator of Monpe Japanese catering service and a teacher of Japanese language and drum kit.

Would you class yourself as an ambitious woman? I am very ambitious to some extent. I would be even more so if I wasn’t married.

Have you always been ambitious? If not what was the turning point for you? Yes, I always had some sort of idea and plan. I would usually have to act on it straight away. Even if I was in school, if there was something I had to do, I would skip school and go and do it.

One time I got on the train to go to school and ended up in the middle of Tokyo. The journey took 2 ½ hours and a £60 train fare just to visit this place I wanted to see. I went places like Harajuku for amazing crepes, visited funky clothes shops etc. and then went to see a man who I was seeing at that time. Then I went home at night like I had just come home from school!

I’m not sure if that’s ambition or me being a selfish woman! Ha!

What is your biggest achievement to date? It’s difficult to say which is the biggest. I moved from Japan when I was 20. I had 2 children. Started teaching and carried on studying.

I had the opportunity to go on a free trip to Paris to compete in the EuroMusic Contest in 2014. Going to Paris was such a great thing to happen to my band. We came #1 in England for this online voting EuroMusic contest (please note: completely different from Eurovision!). This contest was organised by a French lady called Romy and her team. She managed to succeed in crowd funding to make it happen. (Check Euro Music contest 2014 for more info). Basically, they paid for all 10 finalists from Europe and flew us to Paris to stay in an amazing country house. We were fed well and played in an amazing venue! Unfortunately we didn’t win but if we did, we could’ve gone to Greece to record our music in an award winning studio with a swimming pool! It annoyed me that the band from Germany won because they didn’t even look happy! I would’ve been kissing, hugging and thanking everyone in the world if I had won!

I also have my own catering company. These are all big achievements in my life.

What is your long term vision for yourself? I’d love to have my cooking range in shops for people to buy and cook Japanese food at home.  At the moment, I’m working on the packaging and once I’m happy with it, I’ll start knocking on doors! Not many people cook Japanese at home in this country so my mission is to spread Japanese home cooking to Britain. It will be nice to see my cooking sauces in people’s kitchen.

What have you sacrificed or willing to sacrifice to achieve your vision? There are so many things I would have done differently if I weren’t married. I got married when I was 20 and had my first child at 21. I love the fact that I am still 37 and my children are old enough to cook meals for me! But I can’t be selfish now and put myself first. I tend to choose things that I can do while taking care of them. Things I learnt as I got older is that there’s always a solution to a problem. If I had to work but I needed to take my children somewhere, I would find the best way to do both.

Planning is the key! No need to give up what you want to do because you have children, you just need to be more flexible and organised. There’s always a solution.

What advice can you give to other young women that want to pursue their dreams but are afraid to do so? It is normal to be scared if you are starting something new or making a huge change in your life. I am lucky that I don’t panic or worry about things. But I know a lot of people do worry. You start thinking about obstacles and the tasks then it becomes too much to handle. As a result, you become too scared to act on it. If you are that sort of person, preparation helps MASSIVELY! Read everything, do research and ask people who are already in the position you want to be in. Have a trial. For example, if you want to be a journalist, find someone who is working in that area and shadow them or volunteer to find out what it is like and gain new experience and skills.

If your dream seems too big, just take it one step at the time. Writing a plan helps. Get a large paper, put your goal at the top and write everything you need to do to reach that goal. Cross out things you manage to do. You can then see clearly when you’re making progress towards your goal.

I am happy when I’m doing something I enjoy. At the end of the day it’s not all about money, is it?

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“The Ambitious Man”; Recap part 9

12 Aug

Approximately 7 weeks ago my series on “The Ambitious Man” started. This series aimed to explore the lives of ambitious men and to find out whether this had an impact on their relationships. I think it’s fair to conclude that ambitious men make a lot of sacrifices such as sleep, relationships, social life, money etc. The majority of men I interviewed were not in a relationship as they felt they wouldn’t be able to dedicate enough time to their partner. The ones that were in a relationship spoke about the difficulties in managing time and the importance of finding a balance! I think the real take home message is finding the balance in your life and making sure that even though you’re pursuing your dreams you’re not doing it at the expense of meaningful relationships.

If you missed out on the series or haven’t had the time to read all posts in detail here’s a quick run-down of what was discussed!

Part 1: Ladies, can you really handle an ambitious man? Ambitious men have unhealthy obsessions. They spend a lot of their time working on their craft so they can be the best. This often means that there may be less time to spend less time with you. Women in relationships with these types of men need to be emotionally stable, live a life of sacrifice and be very supportive.

Part 2: Take interest in his vision. It was discussed that it is important to have a connection and a common purpose whilst in a relationship with an ambitious man. Taking time to find out what his vision is about will ensure that you’re both on the same page and working towards the same goals.

Part 3: Nadina spoke about how she supports her husband by taking care of the home and family. She advised other young women to be as supportive as possible and make sure you both take time out to reconnect.

Part 4: First up to share their experiences was Michael Tefula an author and entrepreneur. He spoke about how he quit his corporate job to become an entrepreneur. A lot of his time is taken up working on his projects and he felt that being in a relationship with his current schedule would be difficult.

Part 5: Joshua was our rom-com fan and multi-talented ambitious man from Nottingham. He spoke about his vision of changing a generation and his addiction to self-improvement. He spoke about finding the balance in his current relationship and making sure his girlfriend feels loved even when he’s away.

Part 6: Dominic was our sweet toothed project manager and entrepreneur from London. He spoke about making big sacrifices and working round the clock to achieve his dreams. He also spoke about the positive side of being in a relationship with his supportive fiancé who now is getting used to the fact he doesn’t work a 9 – 5.

Part 7: Simon was our midnight owl business owner and high school teacher. He spoke about his company “Show up” which showcases quality art form talent. His long term vision was to make the company into a worldwide successful empire. He also spoke about the fact that being in a relationship could potentially hinder your success because of the amount of time needed to make it successful.

Part 8: Jeiso was our director and business owner. He spoke about sacrificing his relationships, girlfriends, hobbies and social life to work towards his goals. He openly spoke about his difficulty in juggling his business and a relationship that unfortunately didn’t work out. However, he sees the positives in this situation and says he now has more time to focus on pursuing his vision.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone that contributed to this series!

Please leave your comments below. I would love to hear what you all thought about this series? More of the same?

Natalie

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“The Ambitious Man”; Let’s hear from Jeiso Part 8

5 Aug

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  •  Name: John sambo
  • Tell us a random fact about yourself: I really wish to meet an Alien? or take a one-way trip out to space just to see with my eyes what is truly out there.
  • What is your current occupation?: Director, business owner.
  • What have you achieved in your profession that you’re most proud of?: Failing with a strong attitude and never losing spirit. To me that is a great achievement, most people fail and give up. In terms of a more recognisable achievement, I would say opening a dessert parlour called, Dine Desserts.

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  • What is your long term vision for yourself?
    I want to continue being creative and most importantly being innovative.  My long-term vision is to be a very successful multi market businessman but mainly focused in tech and web based platforms. The question I always ask my self is how can you create a business that will add value to people’s lives?
  • What drives you to do what you do?
    I have a burning desire to make difference in the world and in my community through corporate social responsibility in Africa, Nigeria specifically. I want to be a Hero for my people, and for everyone else that needs it. I want to be great, I want to be the example, but most importantly to be the best version of my self I could possibly be.
  • What have you sacrificed or willing to sacrifice to achieve your vision?
    I have already sacrificed relationships, friends and girlfriends. My hobbies and social life has definitely been put on hold for the last 3 years. Countless hours of sleep, long hours of my time and a lot of money. However, I would sacrifice most of those things again and again to achieve my goals, because there is no other option for me but to be successful in what I have set out for myself.
  • Are you currently in a relationship? and how do you juggle your relationship with your work life? How do you think being single would change the pursuit of your vision?: I was in a relationship, until recently. The truth is I wasn’t able to juggle the two. It was always business, at home or away. When you have set goals and your so focused on achieving them, it is almost like playing a role in a movie an struggling to come out of character because you are passionate and have a strong desire. It takes a lot courage to invest your money, but then also a lot of energy to turn that in to a product or service, and even more energy just to maintain it. Having a new business is like having 3 new-born babies. You suddenly have no energy left for anything else, so it might seem like you are neglecting a relationship, or don’t care.The main benefit of being single is, it allows you 100% of your time and freedom. You can decide how to use it. Meanwhile In a relationship you automatically must dedicate time for your partner, you must consider them in all that you do, spend more, be proactive and use your initiate, remember things and go places. It is very hard to do that and run a new business
  • What characteristics would you look for in a woman? Feminine, Healthy, Self dependent (Not necessarily financially but also emotionally), Understanding, Loyal, Motivated, Kind and Non-selfish

Thanks for reading.

Check out Jeiso’s social media accounts

Twitter.com/jeisoartist 

Facebook.com/jeisoartist

Instagram.com/jeisoartist

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“The Ambitious Man”; Let’s hear from Simon Part 7

5 Aug
  • Name: Simon Patrick
  • Tell us a random fact about yourself: I sleep sometime 4 hours per night, & sometimes go 48-72 hours without sleep, due to working on my company.
  • What is your current occupation? High school Teacher/ owner of my own company ‘ShowUp’.
  • What have you achieved in your profession that you’re most proud of? Traveling to China to teach hip-hop, to people of all ages, for a well respected dance company. Being head choreographer, having to ensure the smooth running of day to day classes, while preparing choreography for Chinese TV events. Being in China, & allowing myself to be engulfed by the culture, language, & teachings, has benefited me in my career & day to day life
  • What is your long term vision for yourself? My long term vision is to have a worldwide successful empire. My company ‘ShowUp’ will be a successful global company, being the front running business of displaying & providing quality ‘art-form’ talent. Also having the ShowUp website being one of the top social media sites in the world, & it’s steaming site to be used by millions each day. I wish to open several dance studios for my dance company Dynamic-Dance-Classes, starting off in the UK, then later branching overseas. Also being directly connected, would be a photography/video filming studios for photographers & film makers to hire out. However, these spaces could be used for other events i.e sand competitions, dance congress, concerts.
  • What drives you to do what you do? having a strong passion for what I do, wanting to be successful.
  • What have you sacrificed or willing to sacrifice to achieve your vision? I’ve sacrificed sleep, social life, relationships. And willing to sacrifice nearly anything to achieve my success.
  • Are you currently in a relationship? And do you think being in one would affect the pursuit of your vision? I’m currently not in a relationship. I believe being in one can hinders your success, due to the amount of time (physically & mentally) you must put into being in a relationship. Your partner must have a clear understanding of what they are getting themselves into. In my opinion, a lot of thought should be put into this decision, and not decided with pure emotion. You must be realistic about the situation, & know if they will be able to handle it all, while being supportive.
  • What characteristics would you look for in a woman? Intelligent, drive/hard-working, always wanting to learn new things, open minded, kind, self-worth and creative.

If you want to see/hear more about what Simon does please check out his social media pages

Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC2jLx6IO9_hj9anTJDlG7CA
 Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/ShowUp01?ref=bookmarks
 Instagram: showup01

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“The Ambitious Man”: Let’s hear from Dominic Part 6

29 Jul

Name:

Dominic Emmanuel Dadson from Saaf London

Tell us a random fact about yourself:

New Orleans Is my favourite place on earth

What is your current occupation?

I make most of my money at the moment mainly via project management. I have several clients that I have contracts with who commission me to do work throughout the year in the music and media sector.

What have you achieved in your profession that you’re most proud of? 

I think my 1st sponsorship deal with Roland for an online music show I created in 2008 always stands out. I was still at uni at the time and I put a great team together to create an online music show for unsigned artists. We had the likes of Katy B and Ed Sheeran and Labrinth on the show. They were all unknown at the time. I used my student loan to produce it and manage to get a good sponsorship from Roland and the BBC to keep the shows running for some time. We ended up being nominated for a spirit of London award and got a personal invite to 10 Downing Street to meet Gordon brown at the time.

What is your long term vision for yourself? 

To run an established record label and hopefully in the next 5-10 years that’s what I’ll be doing.

What drives you to do what you do? 

Everyone’s different but for me I think it’s genetic because not everyone can be an entrepreneur. It takes a certain type of person to believe in yourself and have that motivation to start a business. I haven’t had a 9-5 job ever. Probably only one time when I was 15 and I worked in Gap as a Christmas temp… But through school and college I was hustling to support myself playing in bands, churches etc. It’s not easy and I don’t recommend not having a steady income unless your 100% in what you want to do and totally believe in your own visions and ventures!

What have you sacrificed or willing to sacrifice to achieve your vision? 

Money! Putting up your own money to make things happen can  be the biggest sacrifice at times I’m working on a few different new projects at the moment and they all take money so unless you have investment from a millionaire or someone who believes in you the money may have to be a loan from a bank which is always risky…

Example being, last year I met a local music artist in Nottingham. She was at a stage where she felt she wasn’t making much progress and I kind of bumped into her and really saw potential. I was like we need to do something together; I believe you can do well. I put some money up and I got her into a studio and produced an EP with her and a real talented producer I know from London. I was also planning my wedding with my fiancé so she wasn’t too happy that I invested so much money which was understandable as it wasn’t a small amount it was quite a lot for us. But I was willing to sacrifice that. We’ve done the EP  and got it to number 4 on the iTunes R&B charts and from that I’m now co-managing her with a guy called Kwame Kwaten who’s a very experienced manager and much more connected than me in the music industry  (he discovered and managed Shola Ama in  the 90s and currently manages  Laura Mvula,). From teaming up with Kwame we  signed an album deal with a great producer called Yoad Nevo who has produced for some greats including Bryan Adams, Pet Shop Boys, Girls Aloud etc. We are still on our journey to success but that’s just a small example of how you can make things happen yourself with self-investment.

Are you currently in a relationship? how do you juggle your relationship with your work life? How do you think being single would change the pursuit of your vision:

 Being single at times could be easier because I wouldn’t say I’m where I want to be and still there are decisions I need to make which could financially affect us as a couple. But I think at the same time being in a relationship is amazing and if you can find the right lady who believes in you that can also be the key to give you the extra confidence you need to take your ideas to the next level. My fiancé is still getting used to the fact I don’t work 9-5 and this takes adjustment. Sometimes she expects me to drop what I’m doing  in the evening but sometimes it’s not always possible especially if I’ve got a big project I’m planning for that week. I could be doing it till midnight. So sometimes we take weekends away where I turn my phone off etc. She’s very supportive and she’s helped in a lot of ways. We’ve been together for over 2 years and a lot of the stuff I was doing when we 1st met was up in the air and there wasn’t much stability. But now things are more stable for me I can support her more like she supported me 2 years ago. It can be a blessing to be with someone that’s a bit more stable minded than you. It’s always good to have that backbone to help put things forward. We have an amazing honeymoon to look forward to and of course we’re going to New Orleans and then we’re cruising in  the Bahamas.

What characteristics would you look for in a woman? 

They don’t need to be anything like me. Opposites attract in some ways.  My fiancé and I are opposite people. The only thing we have in common is the love of mostly the same music, same food, watching movies etc. But we try to support each other’s dreams and aspirations. Her dreams are different. It’s all about finding the middle ground. She doesn’t want to be in a high position at work or have her own business necessarily. Her dream is to go out to Africa and train midwives on how to do things the right way as she is a midwife here at the NHS. It’s not always about making it as a millionaire; it’s about having the right heart and having a purpose. If you’ve got a purpose in life you’ll always be ok because you have something to strive and wake up for.

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