"If you work your business like a hobby, it will pay you like a hobby."
Jessica Rosario Tweet
Jessica Rosario is a business consultant and coach. She’s passionate about helping women maximize while growing a business they love. She helps them discover their strengths, creates action steps to accomplish their goals, holds them accountable, and educates them on how they can add value to everything they do. She is passionate about giving back to the community and has helped entrepreneurs with getting their business off the ground, implementing systems, defining pricing, and offering invaluable resources to small business owners. Among many of Jessica’s accomplishments, she is also a scholarship recipient with the Orlando MBDA (Minority Business Development Agency) which is awarded annually through the Enterprising Women of Color initiative.
Jessica is the creator of the Own It! Planner & Journal which are focused on time management, organization, and mindset. She co-owns a full-service janitorial commercial cleaning business with her husband and business partner. Jessica resides in Orlando, Florida with her husband and together, they are parents to three beautiful daughters ages 24, 20 & 18.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us today. Please introduce yourself to our readers. They want to know you, some of the background story to bring some context to your interview.
Jessica Rosario: I’m an ex-corporate leader who in 2019 walked away from a demanding corporate role of over 24 years in the financial industry after developing a passion to help aspiring entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. I’m a Business Coach, owner of Exclusive Cleaning Services LLC, Founder of Blossom of Central Florida Inc, and creator of the Own It™ Time-Blocking Planner & Journal line.
Like many, I climbed the corporate ladder looking for professional fulfillment and as it turns out, it wasn’t what I was expecting it to be. I spent years building myself as a leader, investing in the community, and focusing on outreach to find resources for those in need. I developed a passion for mentoring youth and volunteered my time at local nonprofit organizations and schools. After years of personal and professional development, I’ve grown several successful businesses from the ground up and I decided to follow my entrepreneurial heart by helping others take a step in faith to focus on building and launching their own business.
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your viewpoint, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Jessica Rosario: Great question! I believe entrepreneurs are made. Oftentimes I find that those who are feeling undervalued in their jobs, feeling like there is more for them, or are ready to create their career path, are those who have taken a step towards their entrepreneurial journey. They have identified a problem and created a solution after relentlessly looking for help.
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Jessica Rosario: I’m an integrator and strategic partner who loves to create systems, solutions, define goals and get things done. I have a no-nonsense approach to accountability which comes in handy when it comes to executing our dreams. I’m also a servant leader who goes all-in when it comes to developing my team. I love what I do!
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Jessica Rosario: My coaching practice currently serves women who are feeling overwhelmed and undervalued in their corporate careers and want to start a business that’s aligned with their purpose and mission in life. We focus on business strategy, implementing systems, goal-setting, improving productivity, and accountability while also keeping mindset as the focal point of everything we do to be successful. When I started my business, I knew I had a passion for coaching entrepreneurs, but I had not defined who that ideal client was. As time progressed, I knew that I was walking in my purpose when I began to focus on women who had similar backgrounds and felt like they were stuck and bound by the golden corporate handcuffs. As a living proof and being a corporate survivor, I know I’ve been called to show them the possibilities that are waiting for them on the other side of fear.
Thank you for all that. Now for the main focus of this interview. With close to 11.000 new businesses registered daily in the US, what must an entrepreneur assume when starting a business?
Jessica Rosario: That the journey will be hard! One of the biggest challenges I’ve seen entrepreneurs go through and have experienced myself has been a negative mindset. We allow negative thoughts to consume our mind and we begin to develop imposter syndrome, fears, limiting beliefs, and get stuck in a fixed mindset. Knowing that the entrepreneurial journey will come with ebbs and flows, is half the battle. It’s important that when those thoughts begin to creep in, we acknowledge it, we drill down to see what’s causing the fear and resistance and we address it head-on!
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Jessica Rosario: Of course! I thought I could be cheap when it came to investing in systems for my business. Did I pay the price? Oh yeah! In the long run, I paid with my time, effort, and financials.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain.
Jessica Rosario: Get a coach from day one! A coach won’t just help you accelerate your success, they will hold you accountable, encourage you when you feel down, motivate you to push forward when you feel like giving up. Most importantly, they will take you under their wing, help you identify your strengths, and develop your areas of opportunity. We do this as coaches because our success is a reflection of yours!
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Jessica Rosario: The worst advice is to stay incorporated until you retire so that you can keep your pension or retirement plan and the health insurance. This is not a growth mindset. Is health insurance as a solopreneur expensive? Oh yeah! But there’s something about doubling your income by becoming your boss that makes paying the health insurance premium so painless.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Jessica Rosario: The biggest shift I’ve seen since covid has been a powerful intention to grow in the online space. It’s not the same to network in person as networking online. The world is changing and we need to stay current with technology and online marketing while building ourselves as an authority in your industry.
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Jessica Rosario: The most common myth I’d say would be that many believe if you start a business, the sales will just come flying in. Big mistake! It’s important to know that our results are tied to our actions. If you work your business like a hobby, it will pay you like a hobby. Now, what do you think will happen when you treat it as a business where you are the CEO?
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Jessica Rosario: The most important qualities an entrepreneur must have are resilience, problem solver, resourcefulness, and willingness to take risks.
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Jessica Rosario: Some great tools I’ve used throughout the years are anything in the John Maxwell book lineup. It drills down on servant leadership.
There are so many websites, but two that are great are Forbes and Entrepreneur.
For entrepreneurial shows, I’d say ‘The Profit’, ‘Shark Tank’ and ‘Bar Rescue’.
As far as movies, ‘The Founder’ is amazing!
You have shared quite a bit of your wisdom and our readers thank you for your generosity but would also love to know: If you could choose any job other than being an entrepreneur, what would it be?
Jessica Rosario: An Executive Director for a non-profit organization focused on developing job skills, life skills, and financial literacy for women & youth.
Thank you so much for your time, I believe I speak for all of our readers when I say that this has been incredibly insightful. We do have one more question: If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore, but not a politician, who would it be; why?
Jessica Rosario: Brene Brown – Her passion to help others get past shame, fears and trauma is remarkable.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Jessica Rosario for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Jessica Rosario or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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