Growing up, I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur. Being a good writer and artist seems to be something I was born with. In fact, I went thru majority of my schooling in performing arts schools that I had to audition for!
Unfortunately, after spending so much time around artists, I didn’t realize the peculiarity of my skills, and I also didn’t know how to use artistic skills in the marketplace.
My schools taught us how to be better artists by working on how we illustrate, doing graphic design, sculpting, working on tints, using colors, drawing shapes, and creating tones. They didn’t work on how we market or sell the artwork. As a result, along with many of my classmates, I entered the workforce into a job that had nothing to do with my skills!
Guess where I went? DRUMROLL PLEASE….
I joined the military.
In April 2006, I left for the US Air Force as a Public Health Technician. I spent 9 years in the military, and the whole time, I wanted to start a business. My creativity was raging inside, and I used writing and painting as an outlet for it when I could find time. In 2010, I went to Iraq and met my husband there.
He was a Ghanian citizen who was working in Iraq. We kept a relationship after I left and one year later, I traveled to Ghana where we got married.
The immigration process to get my husband to America was tough. It took us 10 whole months! After he got here, there were legal stipulations for immigrants that inhibited him from working. As a man, he felt really uncomfortable without working, so he was plotting and studying about ways he could make money.
After he got his work permit, he hit the ground running! He took our personal lawn tools and began using them to help others like a mad man! LOL.
After people got more familiar with his character and his consistency, he grew a reputation. In addition to lawncare, they started asking for handyman services, and he did a good job, so the business continued to grow.
When I would get off of work, I’d create flyers, do social media marketing, and anything I could to help the business to grow. I even went door-to-door to drum up business! It wasn’t easy, but we made it work.
In 2015, when my military enlistment was over, I decided to separate. What was a lawncare business had evolved into a full General Contracting Company! Since 2015, we’ve been full-time entrepreneurs while raising two young children in a modest middle-class lifestyle, and the business continues to grow. We’ve been building something that helps others and that we can be proud of, and I know many other people who want to do the same.
After five years in business, I spoke to my husband about my dream to help others start, run, and grow their businesses by publishing helpful resources online, and he supported me as I started How To Entrepreneur. Now, I work full-time to create resources to support you as you start, run, and grow your business, and I hope to offer more and more support to you along the way.