Malai Roper has always loved teaching. She loves helping kids learn. She’s been in education for 14 years and even though she’s not in the school classroom, she’s continuing to help kids and their families through her tutoring business, The Art of Learning.
Tell Us About What You Do
I’m an eduprenuer (as I like to call it) which means educator + entrepreneur. This is my 14th year as an educator, and five years ago, I started tutoring students as a side hustle. Well, in October, I decided to launch full-service online tutoring and test prep company for busy, overwhelmed families.
What Are Your Passions? What Do You Love Doing? Business or Personal.
In business, I’m incredibly passionate about education and children. I started The Art of Learning as a way to help children beyond the classroom. My family calls me the “kid whisperer”. I believe there’s a special light in every child.
Personally, I’m an enneagram 7 – The Enthusiast. I love adventure and trying new things. Some of my passions are yoga and meditation, painting (with guidance), and traveling.
What is one wealth building, debt elimination, or personal finance tip that you would share with the community?
Learn from others! No one size fits all, but tuning into the experiences of others is beyond valuable. Also affirm your wealth by saying “I dwell in a sea of abundance.” – Florence Scovel Shinn
What’s Been The Hardest Part of Your Journey?
The hardest part of my journey has been transitioning from the education space to the entrepreneur space. For years, I’ve been immersed in all things teaching, and we have our own teacher language and acronyms. Teaching also has its own set of groups and organizations. The entrepreneur space is somewhat similar – there’s a certain language and groups. I’m navigating between the two right now and learning as I go.
What’s Been The Most Rewarding Part of Your Journey?
The most rewarding part of my journey is meeting so many AMAZING women in business! Columbia has a growing community of women founders and CEOs. I’m inspired and it keeps me motivated.
How Has SOCO Supported You On This Journey?
I’m new to SOCO and it’s been a great space to connect with the entrepreneur community. Working from home had its perks, but walking into SOCO energizes me. Everyone has been extremely supportive and I’m looking forward to the journey ahead!
2021 is coming to a close and we’ve got dollar signs in our eyes. Prices are up, labor is short, and supply chains are crazy. Beyond all the external issues, the end of a year is a great time to step back, evaluate our spending, and find ways to do more with the money we have. So that’s what we did in this edition of Slack Sessions.
Everyone wants more, but why?
Behind every goal and motivation is a purpose. And we wanted to understand why our members want to manage their money well and save. Here’s what they had to say.
For some, family and faith is their focus and drive:
For others, they want the security of a financial safety net:
And for the sake of those sweet two words, “financial freedom:”
Tips, hacks, and tricks
We wanted to talk about practical tips. Things people do when money gets a little tight or they want to save more.
Tip #1-know where your money is going:
Tip #2-cut out those impulse buys by shopping smarter:
Tip #3-mental health affects financial health:
Getting rid of debt
Eliminating payments on debt and loans is a major way to free up cash. We asked our members for their debt elimination ideas.
First things first, pick a strategy that works for you:
Understand how you use money and the impact that has on your life (both good and bad):
Keeping a tab on your money
All the ideas and tips in the world don’t do much good unless you’re keeping a check on your finances. So we wanted to know how often our members check on their finances.
It can be a weekly, or monthly task:
Or it centers around a major financial deadline, like taxes:
Plus, a little motivation never hurts:
What does 2022 look like for you financially?
As we wrapped the conversation up, we covered one of our favorite topics: goals. What do our members want to accomplish financially?
They want to build on their safety net:
And plan for amazing trips with their families:
And save for retirement as self-employed folks:
Love great advice, conversations, and coffee?
If this conversation spoke to your soul (like it did ours), you should come see SOCO. Book a tour, get a day pass and see what we’re all about here. Maybe you’ll see some of the folks from this conversation in real life. We’re more than a coworking space. We’re a community. And we’d love for you to be part of it.
Starlitt Miller knows what it’s like to hustle. She’s a serial entrepreneur who built an accounting and bookkeeping business. She’s been a valuable member of the SOCO community for many years. Now, Starlitt is changing things up in her career and life. She’s participating in an entrepreneurial fellowship program through Visible Hands, which seeks to empower founders of color. In the first round alone, Visible Hands received more than 900 applications.
Recently, Starlitt went to Tulsa, OK for an in-person meeting with other founders and members of the fellowship. When she came back to Soda City, we asked her a few questions. Here’s her response and why she’s pursuing this new hustle.
Give us the elevator pitch of what you were doing prior to joining the fellowship? And give a little background on how you got there.
I was providing operational accounting and workflow strategy services to small businesses. This was being done through a variety of methods and touch-points. Setting up an accounting system, fixing/cleaning accounting system, training and supporting the support personnel and owners.
I started off by solving my own problem of needing to have agency of my time. I knew that I was overqualified to bookkeep and could leverage those skills because they are needed by many.
I learned many hard lessons around how to start and grow a business as a solopreneur that makes sense for you.
I started a bookkeeping business (Star Accounting and Business Solutions, or SAABS, which is still operating). I quickly learned that the value that I needed to provide and was best fit to provide was broader than that [bookkeeping]. It’s in the overall operational accounting structure and how it impacts the operations of the small business that added a lot of value.
I witnessed what the lack of automation and technology systems on the backend could look like and the negative impact it had, and was really drawn to solving that problem.
SAABS evolved into assisting on the backend with more financial and workflow strategies and developing accurate records and best practices.
What’s been driving you for the last few years?
Such a great question. Prior to the fall of 2020, my goal was to build a profitable, self-sustaining business that would eventually not need me.
There was a lot to learn and establish foundationally to make that happen, and since I just got started and made the leap, I had to navigate the evolution of the business to get it close to that point while running it. My driver is my personal goal to have ownership and agency over what I am doing, to become financially free, and show my daughter that you can create something from nothing without relying on the permission of others or for them to say “yes,” and assign a dollar value to your time and work. While I knew that SAABS might not be the business to get me to financial freedom, it has been the vehicle to growing as an entrepreneur while financially caring for my daughter and me.
After the fall of 2020, my drive is similar but a little more assertive in not questioning whether or not being an entrepreneur is the right path.
The additional motivation is finding a way to create the passive income necessary to free time to live and spend time with family, friends and contribute to impactful causes. So the value that the company provides is not resting on the shoulders of one person, and the customers will be serviced no matter what.
Okay, let’s talk a little about the Fellowship. First, how did you find out about it?
I learned about the fellowship during its early stages of development from my good friend. I started following the firm on social media and subscribed to their communications to stay up-to-date.
Tell us about the Fellowship. Who is supporting it? What’s the purpose?
The fellowship is created and facilitated by VisibleHands (VH). VH has a pre-seed fund and the 14-week program to help support overlooked talent of color and women in the venture-backed tech startup space. VH has received the support of many leaders from all of the country that have provided their time through advising, workshops, funds, and assisting in organizing within their first year.
The funding is in the millions, and VH has grown pretty quickly in its first year. Notable names [of supporters] are Liberty Mutual, Goldman Sachs Launch with GS, JP Morgan Chase & Co., and Bombas.
Atento Capital out of Tulsa, OK was also a great supporter and hosted and financially covered aspects of the in-person orientation that kicked off the fellowship program.
Atento is interested in bringing people of color and their businesses back to Tulsa and revitalizing the Black Wall street area. They are offering investments in early-stage companies and incentivizing a relation to Tulsa.
What was your thought process behind applying? Was it a no-brainer decision, or did you have to think about it a bit?
I was hesitant at first for a few reasons; I do not have a tech background, I wasn’t sure what it would mean for my service-based business that was paying my bills, and I never imagined building something that I would raise funding for.
The decision became a no-brainer after I had a call with one of the General Partners (GP) and understood more about what the program may look like and considering the $25,000 pre-seed investment they would provide during the fellowship. After speaking with the GP, I realized that even if I leave the fellowship without a clear direction on a tech solution (in my mind the worst case), I knew that I would learn a lot as an entrepreneur, and I was already feeling the need to learn and grow.
Running my business had caused me to be stagnant in learning, and I was already feeling the urge to expand my knowledge. I knew that it would be challenging because I had no clue about the world of venture-backed startups, let alone how to build a tech solution.
The other piece would be learning from other people that are in the community. I knew enough about the GP’s to know that their network is rich and has quality people in it, so I assumed the cohort would reflect that, and I was correct!
Tell us how it’s felt to be surrounded by other people building something?
Being in the community with other fellows has been the best part. Each time we get to connect through Zoom calls (individually and in a group), it’s refreshing. The orientation week was awesome and the best way to transform from being on-screen to connections with real people.
I realized that we all have similar fears and insecurities even with the varying stages of the companies/ideas and experiences. I believe the true power and magic is with the people within the cohort. The experts are great, but it’s not the same as building connections, helping, and sharing with other fellows.
After the week of in-person, we all went home and back to some semblance of isolation. It’s there where the challenge seems to grow. I am constantly encouraged when I connect with a fellow in a real and vulnerable way and vice versa.
You’ve changed your hustle a bit to make this new path happen. Why are you doing this and what are you hoping to accomplish?
I decided to pursue this venture because I believe the best thing that I can do is solve a tool problem with a better tool and I am only one person, so I would like to scale the impact of my services by converting into a tech tool. The other side of this is the desire to build a profitable business.
While I am not saying that this is the only way to do so, it’s an opportunity that I have so I plan to leverage and activate in this space to work towards building something that will add value to a world that is bigger than myself.
You can learn more about Starlitt’s journey and Visible Hands right here and subscribe to her newsletter so you can stay up to date on all that’s going on.
Jessica is a digital marketer, a mom, a traveler, and she’s doing life better. We think she’s awesome, but we’ll let her tell you the rest of her story.
Tell Us About What You Do.
I’m the owner of DLB Marketing and have two awesome employees. We’re all creatives who truly love what we do. Whether it’s a business card, an instagram post, or a TV commercial, we love finding ways to show potential customers how great our clients are.
What Are Your Passions? What Do You Love Doing?
I started diving into personal development at a young age so I’m always looking to be the best version of myself. That’s where my company name came from. I started a personal mission to Do Life Better years ago when I felt “stuck” and uninspired. I have a podcast Do Life Better with Jess where I break down my triumphs and lessons learned from failures.
Other random facts. I have an awesome ten year old son. I am obsessed with traveling & spontaneous so you never know where I might be. I love good wine.
What is one wealth building, debt elimination, or personal finance tip that you would share with the community?
Find someone who inspires you or who is an expert at money and mirror what they do. For me that means, say “no” to the things I don’t need more often, save more, and invest for the future.
What’s Been The Hardest Part of Your Journey?
There’s so many things along the way that have been hard. I don’t know if I could name them all but I’m intensely grateful for every single difficult thing. It’s made me who I am. It’s convinced me there’s nothing I can’t do. When it gets hard, that’s proof you’re on the right track.
What’s Been The Most Rewarding Part of Your Journey?
I have to come back to the personal development. This journey has made me the person I am today and will continue to shape me in the future. Also, seeing my clients grow their businesses never gets old. We’re both winning at the same time and I love that.
How Has SOCO Supported You On This Journey?
I’m fairly new to SOCO but I have met some great people and look forward to meeting many more. Being a creative personality, the office spaces have been great for me when I need a change of scenery. I can choose where to work based on my mood and project which is so fun.
Work-life balance is a buzzword that’s been around for a long time. You see it in job descriptions and in Glassdoor reviews by over zealous (or disgruntled) employees. But what does it look like in real-life? How do we prevent work from overtaking our personal time?
That’s the problem we tackled this month. We’re an ambitious group, but when the topic is important, we don’t shy away.
How did we (you) get here?
We started the conversation by asking members to elaborate on their current state of work-life balance and how they go to this point.
Kids are great for setting (or forcing) work boundaries.
And it’s important to build work time around the things you’re passionate about.
Practical Tips to Keep Work at the Office
Now, we wanted to know about the goods. We asked members to share some tips and insight they’ve gained on how to avoid working all the time.
The response was awesome.
When you’re running your own business, it can be hard to fully disconnect. But having one day away can make a huge difference in your mental and work life.
Turning off notifications on your phone can eliminate distractions and prevent you from responding unnecessarily to emails.
And try not to work on your lunch break.
How to Disconnect from the Connections
Technology keeps us so plugged into work that it can be hard to ignore emails, projects, and other reminders that come through on our many devices. But there are ways to manage the information overload.
How the Pandemic Changed Work
Everyday you probably see an article about remote work or how COVID-19 has shifted the way we work forever. And there’s some truth in that. But we wanted to understand how the pandemic has affected our member’s lives and the separation between work and personal life.
Much of the change is good. Like causing us to slow down and enjoy the moments of life we may have breezed over before.
But working at home, alone, has plenty of challenges.
Establishing Expectations When You Want to Take Time Off
As a freelancer or entrepreneur, taking time off may seem impossible. But you have to do it. Seriously, you really should take time off. Working all the time is not healthy, nor should it be worn like a badge of honor (see our series on hustle culture).
Checking in with clients can establish a rapport and help you communicate when you’re unavailable.
Taking Steps for a Better Balanced Life
We had a great conversation, but candidly, if we don’t implement some of the things we discussed, it doesn’t do much good for us in our daily lives. Here’s what our folks said they’ll do to better manage the work life balance.
We Support Your Work Life Balance
In fact, we encourage it. We have conversations like this every month. If you’re already a SOCO member, you can join us each month for #Slack_Sessions
If you’re not a member but you want to be part of a community that supports you and talks about things that matter to your work, book a tour right here.
