Sunshine Blogger Award – I’m Officially Awesome

You are reading one super cool blog right at this very moment.

That’s right, I’m officially awesome.

Why?

Because the fabulous Tabitha over at ConcreteIslandista has nominated me for a Sunshine Blogger Award, and now I’m more awesome than ever.

Ok, ok, I’ll reel it in a bit. I know, the confidence is overbearing. I do that sometimes, and then I annoy myself. So I gander that I’m also annoying others. Then again, you could just chalk it up as a cute and endearing personality trait that makes you want to come back and read more of my stuff.

There, I just convinced myself, and you, that I really am awesome.

On a serious note, yes I sometimes get serious. It’s really heartwarming and an honor to be thought of and nominated for this, especially from someone whose blog I truly enjoy reading. So thank you Tabitha for the nomination!

Here’s the scoop on this award.

This nomination is from bloggers to bloggers. The award is given to those who are inspiring and bring sunshine into the lives of their readers and fellow bloggers. (I’m gushing)

Rules

1. Thank the person that nominated you and post a link to their blog on your blog
2. Answer the 11 questions from the person that nominated you
3. Nominate some other bloggers for this award and give them 11 questions to answer
4. Notify the bloggers you have nominated.
5. List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo

Now that we know what the award is all about, let’s get to it! Drum roll…. The QUESTIONS!

Why did you start your blog/business?

I started my business 6 years ago because I wanted the freedom of working for myself. I have always been a hard worker and it didn’t make sense to give that away to someone else in order to build their success when I could do it for myself.

As for the blog, I’ve been blogging on and off for about 10 years as a creative outlet. I really got serious about it in 2016 after my brother passed away and I needed to do something to help me deal with grief and not lose my mind. Sometimes I wrote about the pain and others I wrote about lighthearted things to block out the sadness. No amount of therapy could ever do for me what this has done.

What has been one of the most exciting things you have done with your blog/business?

I’ve been able to travel the country full-time with my family for  four years. That kind of freedom is amazing and I still sometimes have to stop and look around and recognize how amazing that is.

What has blogging or your business taught you?

Business has taught me that patience and perseverance are the number one thing that will help you succeed. After being in the online marketing industry for over 15 years, I can tell you who in my circle of friends and colleagues has the 2 Ps. They are the ones who continue to succeed and have longevity. And that doesn’t mean they don’t have failures. Most of us have failed miserably at several businesses and projects, but we pick up the pieces and start again. The ones who give up will never be able to answer the “what-ifs”.

Do you have any guilty pleasures?

I have a ridiculous penchant for picking out and watching B Movies. Once I start watching one, and I know it’s super crappy, I just can’t stop myself. I will watch until the very end when I feel totally dissatisfied and annoyed for wasting the time. I get it from my father who used to have an addiction to renting movies. He would go to the rental place down the street every Friday after work and come home with 5-10 new flicks, most of which were made for rental (ie: crappy B movies). I’d grab them after he was finished and I’d watch them all.

And that is the story of how I became addicted to B Movies.

If you could give your younger self advice, what would it be?

I would tell myself that I was just as good as the non immigrant kids. I would tell myself to ignore the bullies because one day they would be in dead-end jobs chugging a 6-pack every night to forget how crappy their lives were and you would be slaying.

What has been your favorite travel destination?

I am in love with Oregon and Maine. They are both very eco-friendly places and great for people like me who love nature, hiking, mountains, rivers, snow. I could go on an on about them. They each have awesome little beach towns with a ton of personality and really cool architecture and history. They both have towns named Portland which are great places to discover on bike and foot. Both Portlands have amazing food, and the people watching, especially the hipsters, is second to none. If you want a good idea of what Portland, Oregon is like, watch Portlandia, because the stereotypes are hilariously spot on.

What are some of your favorite topics to write about on your blog?

Categorizing my blog has been very difficult, because I write about whatever I want to. So the best way to describe it is a “lifestyle blog” even though I’m not thrilled with that. I write about my business, my culture, things I know, things I’m learning, my travels, my love of coffee, my running, my family and dealing with grief. It’s a mouthful, I know.

One of my favorite topics is writing about entrepreneurship and how it relates to my culture. I started a series after writing What It Means To Be a Latina Entrepreneur that features other Latina Entrepreneurs like Alex Tabar, and that has been very satisfying and entertaining.

When are you at your happiest?

When I’m in nature and when I’m with my family. I also love when we go to camping rallies with our friends and spend hours talking around a campfire while our kids run around and play in the woods.

Are there any social causes you are passionate about?

I’m passionate about so many causes it’s ridiculous. There’s so much work to be done in the world.

Stepping onto soapbox.

One thing I am very passionate about is children, parenting and our school system. As a former PTA president, I was at my youngest son’s school several hours daily, and I got to see what most people who don’t see. Teachers have zero authority and coupled with terrible and nonexistent parenting, it’s a nightmare. We place our kids, in good faith, in a system where they are co-mingled with kids whose parents just don’t give a damn and we hope for the best.

If you get a great teacher, you’re golden, because they really put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into giving your kids a good education. Not to mention they have to balance that with teaching basic manners to the ones who show up without them and as the years go on, that number grows.

I was lucky that I was always there, but the things that our kids deal with on a daily basis from bullying and drugs, to being exposed to very adult issues and situations is alarming. People don’t even realize that we went from the schoolhouse approach where everyone knew each other and the teacher was an integral part of the community to this institutionalized system that resembles the prison system. The cafeteria: like prison cafeterias. Going outside for recess: like prison recess.

It feels as though the goal is to create little test-taking drones. We are fed the notion that it prepares them for the real world, but the only place in the real world that is like the school is prison.

This wasn’t so terrible 30, 40, 50 years ago, but it keeps getting worse. And we keep throwing money at it and creating programs and testing and yadda yadda. But I honestly don’t know that any of that will matter. The fact still remains that the core is bad and nonexistent parenting and I honestly don’t know how an institution of that magnitude could effectively change that.

I could go on forever, so I’ll get off my soapbox now.

What is one fact about yourself that many people don’t know or only people close to you know?

Oh boy, there’s a REASON why most people don’t know these things.  I’ll stick to the safe stuff and leave my skeletons in my closet where they belong all nice and snug.

I travel around the country full-time with my husband and our youngest son who is 14. We have been blessed to have the opportunity to see this great country and meet some amazing people. It has taught me that most folks are decent and we all have many things in common regardless of where we stand politically. Right now there is a lot of division, but if you stop reading all the internet memes and really just TALK to people, you’ll find that each party will become enlightened to the other’s views and positions. And sometimes, you’ll even figure out that the nonsense that is fed and promised to us by the political machine is just plain old marketing.

What are your future goals?

Total world domination, of course.

Seriously, I have so many crazy goals. After I finish building out my empire (yes I’m serious), I plan to semi-retire on a ranch, adopt a sibling group of children and travel with them half the year.

And now…

Here are my nominees:

Fabiola of My Heart of Mexico

Danielle Isom of Making Time

Rocio Chavez of Your Sassy Self

Marisa Hernandez of MexiMoments

Claudia Batres-Flores of Sour Then Sweet

Victoria Fillippo of Filippo & Gamboa

Carmen Amelia Singleton of Hasta Que Llegaste Tu

Jessica Collazo of Elogios a mis Locuras

My Questions for the Nominees

1. What do you like most about blogging?
2. One song you’ll never stop listing to?
3. What things are you most grateful for in your life?
4. If you were offered an all expenses paid vacation to one destination in the world, where would it be and what would you do there?
5. What’s the story behind your blog’s name?
6. What’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever done?
7. Where are you from, and what is the most common stereotype or misconception about your home town/region/country?
8. How do you like your coffee?
9. What is your favorite childhood memory?
10. What excuse are you making about something that you know you can overcome?
11. If you could go back and thank one person in your past, who would it be and why?

I’m looking forward to reading all about my nominees!

I’d also love to know your answer to question #6. Have at it!

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via WordPress http://www.danay.net/sunshine-blogger-award-im-officially-awesome/

Latina Entrepreneur: Alex Tabar

Favorite 2017 Aprils Fool’s Tech Pranks

5 Things You Need To Know Before Starting a Business

I fail at personal phone calls.

Everyone who makes up my personal circle of family and friends can attest to this. Even my kids will tell you I don’t do phone calls.

I’m a texting kind of mom.

Yesterday was a different story. Once in a blue moon, I take a few hours and make some calls and catch up with my peeps. So I spent an hour catching up with my friend of over 20 years, Niki, and then I made several more calls.

My last call was with another friend, Jesse, who asked me several questions about starting a business.

One of her questions was, “What if I’m not cut out for this stuff?”

If you’re not sure whether you want to take the plunge and start a business, check out this post, 5 Signs You’re an Entrepreneur. You’ll figure out very quickly if starting a business is right for you.

After leveling with her about the non-sexiness and real work involved, she wasn’t phased and was still raring to go. Her next question was, “Where do I start?”

So I gave her a few tips and a breakdown of the 5 things she will need to work on to get her business going.

Here’s my list with some great FREE resources from Intuit QuickBooks, the #1 accounting solution for small businesses.

#1 Creating a Business Plan

The first thing you need to do is get your ideas down on paper and build out a business plan. You cannot skip this step. I have seen so many business ventures fail simply because they did not have a well thought out business plan. If you can’t or won’t write a BP for your venture, then you really have no business being in business.

You have to be able to communicate your ideas and processes for yourself and others. Creating a business plan will enable you to think through, research and forecast many important things like:

The QuickBooks Resource Center has a great article on the 7 Elements of a Business Plan which include:

• Executive Summary
• Business Description
• Market Analysis
• Organization Management
• Sales Strategies
• Funding Requirements
• Financial Projections

Do yourself a favor and spend a good weekend reading up on these, making notes and planning your research. As you go through these steps, you will learn more about your new business and what you need to plan for.

Once you are ready to create your business plan, head on over to Bplans.com and get a free business plan template to fill out.

#3 Picking the right structure

Another thing to think about is your business structure. The three main types of structures are Sole Proprietorship, Corporation and a Limited Liability Company. Each one has a specific function. For example, did you know that when you start a business, if you file zero paperwork, you are automatically considered a sole proprietorship?

There really are no benefits that I know of to choose sole proprietorship, since you miss out on many tax benefits and the protections of an LLC or corporation.

For example, if someone wants to sue your business, and you are a sole proprietor, all of your assets are at risk. That means your car(s), house, kids’ college funds, anything you own.

Read on about the different business structures and pick the one that’s right for you.

#4 Getting Funding

Once you have your business plan completed, you will know how much money you will need to get started. Remember you want to have enough to take you through the months or even years of the startup phase where there may be no profit.

The most common mistake new business owners make is not securing enough money to cover expenses until the venture becomes profitable.

You have several options, like tapping into family and friends, using your credit cards, finding a government loan, getting alternative or conventional loans. Each has it’s benefits and disadvantages, so it’s a good idea to learn about each option and the pros and cons.

Click here to learn about your options for securing funding for your new business.

#3 Picking a Location

I started my first legitimate business with my brother, Gene, when I was 23. By legitimate, I mean, it wasn’t two scrawny immigrant kids trying to sell stuff to our neighbors. We had a lot of those.

We opened an internet cafe that we thought would be a hit. We were both completely clueless and ended up singing a lease for a spot in a little shopping center that had zero traffic. We didn’t discuss or research things like street traffic and demographics of the area.

We worked really hard and poured everything we had both financially and energy-wise into it, it failed miserably. But we did take away some great lessons and we were young enough to start another venture that did succeed soon after.

Had we done our research on finding the right location, we could have avoided the miserable failure. Then again, we made so many mistakes with that cafe that we were probably doomed either way.

Do yourself a huge favor and research and educate yourself about the location.

#5 Know Your Numbers

I hate doing my finances.

There I said it.

I hate it, but I have to deal with it. I have someone who handles this for our business now, but when I was a solopreneur I did it myself. As much as I absolutely couldn’t stand it. So make sure you have a good grasp on your finances.

Invoicing

You need to get paid. Make sure you invoice your clients in a timely manner and follow up on those invoices as well. No one wants to make the “where’s my money” phone calls, but as a business owner you need to get over that asap. Check out 20 ways to get clients to pay their bills and invoices faster.

Use this free tool to build an invoice template.

Cash Flow

KNOW your cash flow. You can’t make any decently informed decisions without knowing where you stand financially at any given moment.

Here is a free cash flow template with examples. Use it.

Taxes

I know, it’s an ugly word. It will be even uglier if you don’t handle them. You know what I’m going to say. Suck it up and just get ‘er done.

Make sure you know about the 10 tax deductions every freelancer needs to know. One of my favorites is “Personal Development” (ie. learning and honing your craft).

Bonus Tip

Caffeine is a magical elixir that makes the hard work possible. Make sure you have oodles of coffee, soda or tea, whatever your caffeine poison is and get to researching and writing out your business plan. The only thing stopping you from creating a business is you.

And more coffee.

Don’t forget to check out Intuit QuickBooks on Facebook and Instagram for some awesome inspiration.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Intuit QuickBooks and #WeAllGrow Latina Network. The opinions and text are all mine.

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