She’s a farm girl turned serial entrepreneur. Today’s guest Erin Smith is a business strategist and as mentioned serial entrepreneur. Her story began when she, of course was growing up on the farm, but then as a young adult she was climbing the corporate ladder like a lot of us have done, or are currently doing. And then she read a pivotal book: Rich Dad, Poor Dad. We know the book. It’s written by Robert Kiyosaki, one of my first guests on So Money®. And it was after that great book that she finally learned the meaning of financial freedom and changed course. Because to her financial freedom had always been about a job and 4% annual raises. But now she realized at a young age that it was about ownership.

By her late 20’s Erin got her realtors license, she was the owner of two homes. She then created a part-time petsitter business, and within two years the part-time job became a six figure income with 12 employees. Five years after that she sold the pet company and opened a mobile spray-tanning business. Nine months later she had created another successful business venture, and since then she’s spent time helping and investing in others and their ventures. She’s taken products to market, launched online businesses, has taken on massive marketing changes and plans for businesses in a variety of industries.

And since her dream is to help others, she created The Starters Club, which aims to help people wherever they are in their journey of entrepreneurship by working closely together and connecting entrepreneurs to the resources they need to help grow their business. She’s also written a new book, Master the Start: 10 Steps to Get Out of Your Own Way and Create Your Dream Business. She’s also, because why not, she has started a podcast to accompany the business. It’s called “The Starters Club” and there she talks about entrepreneurial topics and interviews great guests.

Takeaways from our time with Erin:

• Her broad experience from real estate, to pet-sitting, to spray tanning. She has a variety of businesses under her belt, and she shares her “ah-ha” moments for all of these startups and why they ultimately worked.
• Managing your finances as a budding entrepreneur. Maybe you’re still working a 9 to 5 thinking about starting a business, or currently toying with the idea — tooling with the idea — how do you balance your finances to address your real life, your current life, and your hopes and dreams?
• Erin is not just an expert on starting businesses, but also the exit strategy, right? She managed to sell multiple businesses. So how do you know you’re ready for that part? And how do you make the business that you have attractive to potential buyers?

If you’d like to learn more about Erin Smith, visit her website www.thestartersclub.com and follow her on Twitter @TheStartersClub.

My favorite quote from the interview: “It’s not how much you know or how much money you have. It comes down to 1 simple factor ‘how badly do you want this?” – Click To Tweet