My Journey as a Female Entrepreneur

My Journey as a Female Entrepreneur

All entrepreneurs need to start somewhere. It's never too late to start your journey as an entrepreneur. I started when I was 28 years old. Better late than never. Before all of this came to be, I worked a 9-5/shift work. I worked in the food, finance and retail industries. That's when it started dawning on me, that I was hindering myself from my full potential of what I could earn, and what I could do but I had no idea what to do. However, summer of 2019, I met Kevin and that was such an incredible pivotal point in my life. He presented me with all these amazing opportunities to help me get out of the rat race. That's when I decided to make a change and start a side hustle.

My knowledge when it came to eCommerce and investments was very little. I knew that there was different platforms to sell on. I knew Amazon allowed 3rd party sellers. I knew you can invest in stocks, the different risks, that the market changes. I knew that both spectrums are a long term game. It's not an overnight process, it's not a get rich quick. It takes time, dedication, hard work, consistency, research and so much more. I didn't know how to start a business, what tools I needed or what suppliers to use. I didn't know what stocks to invest in or what to look for. The game changer was getting the training needed to learn start a business from beginning to end, and to learn what to look for in terms of stocks to invest. I took the time and invested in myself and learned everything that I could. I'm extremely glad that I did. 

Now, I know nearly everything there is to know about selling on Amazon and Shopify. I know the ins and outs of scaling an eCommerce dropshipping business, research, growing originals and private label products. Even though I have vast knowledge about each platform, I still take the opportunity to continuously learn and adapt. I've learned so much about investing, but I'm no where close to being an expert. I do well with investing, but I know if I want to grow, I need to continuously learn. You can only get so far with what you know, and knowledge is power!

 I decided to invest in blue chip. For those who don't know what blue chip is, it's a huge company that has an outstanding reputation. Typically these are companies that are well established and are financially sound companies that have been operating for years. I invest in blue chip because these companies have been around a long time, they have a large market share, and they are in sectors that are still growing. This makes it a good place to start when investing. Once I became more confident and had a better understanding is when I decided to move onto high risk investments.

With Amazon, I was able to scale to 1.5-2 thousand a day in under a year with dropshipping. With Shopify, I was able to do a few hundred a day. This was all possible because I was dedicated to my eCommerce businesses and I took ownership of what I was doing. I applied what I learned and used the resources that I had. I turned 1k into 26k in a few months (that's 2600%) in the OTC market (penny stocks), high risk but higher reward. I turned 1.2k into 7k in 6 months with low risk blue chips. All of this is possible when you're motivated, dedicated, and consistent with what you're doing and what you want to accomplish. 

My journey from being an employee to becoming a business woman was an absolute great experience. Not only was I able to grow my businesses, but I was able to grow as a person too. The experiences that I learned as an employee helped my so much in my business in terms of skills that I was able to apply. It wasn't just a straight shot, there were some hurdles and roadblocks, but because I was determined, I was able to find solutions or find a way to get through them. I enjoyed learning and seeing what I'm capable of doing. Now, I make way more than what I did as an employee, I was able to pay of debts much faster, I'm financially stable and I don't have to worry about if I can pay a bill on time or able to buy groceries. I'm not close to where I want to be, but I am much better off than where I was a few years ago. Most importantly, I got my time back. I'm able to do whatever I want, whenever I want, and do the things I enjoy doing.

 Let me leave you this piece of advice for any new entrepreneur- invest in yourself. You can only go so far with free resources, and research. Having someone to mentor and coach you DOES help close the gap of where you are and where you want to be. Believe in yourself even if the people around you don't. Be your number one supporter and don't give up. Be dedicated and consistent and you WILL see results. Most importantly, remember that this doesn't happen overnight, you need to work at it. 

WRITTEN BY: Leslie Lazaro