Jeff decided to just turn on the microphone and start talking about whatever entered his mind. He rambles on about risk, passion, money and gurus on this episode of the How to Quit Working Show. 

Julie Busha had an old family recipe for a new kind of condiment. Her dream was to take it to the market — in a big way. By being stubborn, persistent and working hard and making sacrivices, she got it into over 600 grocery stores across the country. Then she went on Shark Tank seeking a $150,000 investment and what happened shocked her. On this episode of the How to Quit Working Show, Julie tells us about her experience on Shark Tank as well as what she’s learned from growing Slawsa from nothing to what it is today. 

Keep the conversation going! Join the How to Quit Working Circle on Facebook

When issues arise for you in your life and in your business what is your knee jerk reaction? Do you have a tendency to blame others or do you ask what role you’ve played in the situation? For many of us pointing fingers, looking around to see who the easy target might be is an easy and almost second nature response. How is that reaction helping you or hurting you as a business owner?

When we look to blame others instead of taking responsibility we’re giving our power away. If your business is in a negative situation or a situation that is less than perfect by blaming someone else for the predicament we’re saying to ourselves and the world, “this happened TO me. I had no control in creating this situation.” If you had no control in creating the situation than you have no control in rectify or fixing the situation either. Not a positive position to be in while running a business.

Looking to others as the cause of the issues in our business takes our focus off of the desired outcome which in most cases is to deliver a great product or service at a profit. Looking to our employees, vendors or customers as the cause of our problems makes us focus our attentions on that person. If we think it’s our employees we focus on getting rid of the bad employees and finding better employees. If it’s our vendors we think about how we can get better vendors and discredit the vendors we use. If we’re blaming our customers for being cheap or not wanting to purchase our product we focus on the lack that is coming into our organization. In most all cases these aren’t the areas we should focus. Does this mean that you shouldn’t make sure you have the best team, absolutely not. Does it mean that you shouldn’t make sure that you’re getting all you can from your vendors in the way of price and serve, no. What it does mean is that we need to consider what part WE plan in our issues.

As a business owner we’re the person creating the business. It is our brain child. We’re the captain of the ship and we need to always take full responsibility for what is happening in our organizations. If we’re successful as business owners we’re the first ones to take the credit, but often when things don’t go as planned we aren’t willing to take the fall.  As the LEADER of your company you are the person who’s in charge of your success and your failures. If you are able to ask yourself, what role did I play in this you’ll see progress. When an employee steals money instead of reaching out in blame, which is a normal reaction, we might ask ourselves, did I do a poor job hiring? Did I not fully background check this person? How can I hire differently in the future to better serve my business. If you find out you’re being charged twice as much as you should be charged for product you’re purchasing from a vendor you might think, how can I do a better job of price checking so that I’m paying the best possible price for the highest quality product.

Focusing internally gives you power. It allows you to see that you have a choice in your business. You always have choices and that power to choose will allow you to see that you are the ultimate creator of your business and your destiny in business. When we choose to blame others for our failures we step away from the essence of who we are and what we were designed to create.

Back in the late nineties Nellie’s husband Phil had an idea. He thought there had to be a way to help small businesses incorporate and start their businesses online. With 100 bucks in a spare bedroom, Phil and Nellie started a business they later sold for 20 million dollars. On this episode of the How to Quit Working Show, Nellie will tell us how she did it and how you can too.

Keep the conversation going! Join the How to Quit Working Circle on Facebook

Nellie Akalp is a passionate entrepreneur, small business advocate and mother of four. Through the various “Do-It-Yourself” and “Business-Startup” services she has founded since 1997, she has formed over 100,000 corporations and LLCs for small business owners.

Her last company was acquired by Intuit in 2005. Today, she and her husband, Phil, operate CorpNet.com where they help entrepreneurs start a business, Incorporate, Form an LLC, set up Sole Proprietorships (DBAs) and maintain a business in compliance with state filing requirements for a new or existing business.

As CEO of CorpNet, Nellie is a strong advocate in educating small business owners and entrepreneurs about the importance of protecting their personal assets and enjoys discussing legal and business issues concerning everything from business startup through (hopefully) acquisition. She was named a Top 100 Small Business Influencer by Small Business Trends in 2012 and 2013. Nellie is a startup contributor at Entrepreneur, Forbes and Mashable and is a regular guest expert on The Fox Small Business Center.

J. Massey had a 380 credit score, 75 bucks in his pocket, and was squatting in bank owned property. Until he discovered real estate. When he learned how to identify and capitalize on real estate, his life turned around completely. On this episode of the How to Quit Working Show, J. reveals the four elements of real estate investing and how you can create cashflow with real estate no matter what your existing resources. 

Success is being able to tell your children they can do whatever they want and be able to be an example of that.

Learn how to get over overwhelm and become productive on this episode of the How To Quit Working Show with Heather.

There are a lot of gurus out there who will tell you that online business is the way to go, investing in real estate can actually get you faster results. Jeff explains the 7 reasons why real estate investing is better than online business on this episode of the How to Quit Working Show.

How to Quit Working Circle member, Elizabeth (Beth) Cody discusses the results she got using J Massey's cashflow program to begin investing in real estate. Get more information about how Beth created her real estate business at: http://howtoquitworking.com/cashflow

Communicating with Your Spouse as an Entrepreneur

Are you a wife? Are you a mother? Are you a business owner? Chances are you’re at least two on this list. So how do you balance all this? How do you create a dynamic company, spend time with your children and give your husband the attention he desires. It’s certainly not any easy task, but here are a few tips to help you juggle it all.

First, know what your goals are as a women. What are your core values? What kind of a wife do you want to be? What role do you want to play in your relationship. In regards to your children decide what you want to teach them. As parents it’s our responsibility to teach and guide our children to maturity and produce hopefully a very successful adult that will contribute to the world in a positive way. Next, think about your business. What kind of a business owner do you want to be? What role do you want your company to play in your life. Is it playing that role? Once you’ve established these boundaries and guidelines for your personal core values and goals you can approach each situation in a more intentional manner.

Create boundaries. I’ve found that I am very driven by my desire to create a really successful business. This rubs off on my husband and family. They are supportive of my efforts. My husband also is motivated by the entrepreneurial bug and that helps. It is wonderful to see my daughter emulating my behavior. I have found working from home is a positive and a negative. My husband who’s business is outside the home will often return home with the laundry still stacked in a pile and the sink overflowing with dishes and dinner yet to be made. He might think that I should have addressed those household chores during the day, but my goal was not to do housework, but build a business. Establishing clear boundaries for myself allows me to detach from the mess of the household and focus on the creation of a business.

Be clear with your spouse about income creation. When you start a business you aren’t instantly profitable. It takes time. Bring your spouse into the money conversation. Let him know what your projections are and how  you intend to produce a certain amount of income by a certain date, given that you are able to work on your business for the hours you’ve allotted.

When your spouse returns home let them know all that you’ve done that day. Working at home on a computer and for a portion of it on social media may send the message that you are “playing” on the computer. For a non-entrepreneurially minded person it is difficult to grasp what you are doing. Be very open with your spouse about what you are doing, how you are doing it and show them the work you’ve completed so that are aware that you aren’t just messing around.

Get your business to profitability as soon as possible. Once you make money your spouse will look at your business creation activity in an entire new light.

This is an encore presentation of episode 220.

Carlota Zimmerman took a few runs at creating a successful and passionate life of freedom before finally finding her passion and success as a coach. Carlotta shares her journey on this episode of the How to Quit Working Show.

Before starting her business, Carlota worked in the theater and TV news. Her first play, “Man at His Best,” won the 1991 Young Playwrights Festival, and has since been produced off-Broadway, and around the world. As an assignment editor/producer for CNN, FOX, NBC and ABC News, Carlota covered breaking news stories in Russia, Washington, D.C. and NYC. Her beats included the Kremlin, the White House and Capitol Hill. She also took part in the coverage of news stories as diverse and captivating as Monica Lewinsky, Elian Gonzalez, and 9/11. A native New Yorker, fluent in Russian, Carlota is a graduate of Wellesley College. She received her law degree from Indiana University-Bloomington Maurer School of Law.