#41 Solopreneur Success with Nikki Chin

Path to Progress with Paul Heintzman and John Ackerman

Nikki Chin, the founder of Spark Spring, an online marketing company, tells us how to successfully navigate the business world as a solopreneur.

Ever been scared to take a leap of faith and start a business by yourself? Nikki gives great advice on how to be a successful solopreneur!

Solopreneur Success:

• Nikki moved to Louisville to reduce her cost of living, and to pursue her original dream of being a sign-language interpreter.
• She originally learned to sell as an insurance agent before starting Task Guardian, a digital marketing company.
• Nikki's pet peeve is people who try to do everything themselves and don't ask for help in business.
• We learn the reasons a company should choose Wordpress over another web builder such as Wix or Squarespace (Wordpress will grow as your company grows).
• How Nikki has built successful businesses while attending "The School of Hard Knocks" and why she believes anybody can be successful without going the traditional college route.
• Nikki's key to doing great is to make everything a game/competition (gamification).
• To self-teach herself, Nikki used Moz.com to learn how to be a successful marketer/web designer.
  • She recommends others use online learning platforms and find a mentor if they skip the college route.
• If she could go back and do it again, Nikki would skip college and go straight into the workplace, but does regret missing out on some of the relationships colleges provide.
• The problem with most entrepreneurial failures is that people give up and are not persistent. To learn more about not giving up, check out our episode with Jon Matar.
  • "It's the journey not the destination. Once you get to the destination you're bored."
  • "Fail fast and optimize what is good."
  • As we learned from our conversation with Matt Kenney, when you're young you can afford to fail because you have the rest of your life to make it up.
  • John's mindset when starting his business was the worst thing that could happen is he goes right back to where he was with his previous employer.
• Remember to focus on what you love and what you're passionate about because you don't want to be miserable and filled with regret the rest of your life.
• Nikki prefers Facebook and Instagram for both personal and business but has not jumped on the Snapchat train yet.
  • One thing everyone can learn from Facebook is their constant drive to keep improving.
• One of her keys to getting new clients is to ask for testimonials from her friends and existing clients.

Last call questions and answers:

• Best career advice:
  • Never give up
• Advice to entrepreneur:
  • Have the guts and skill set to be successful.
• What advice would your 60-year-old self give you today?
  • Charge more at Task Guardian and be more selective with her clients.
• Best thing spent money on the past 6 months:
  • Rocky Patel Edge cigar. Get from J Paul at Oxmoor Smoke Shoppe
• Financial vice:
  • Going out to eat.
• What media do you recommend:
  • Essentialism by Greg McKeown
• Favorite drink:
  • Yuengling! Like Phil Brun, Nikki swims well in all waters.
• What do John and Paul love about Drunken Money?
  • John - being able to educate people without financial backgrounds about personal finance and entrepreneurship.
  • Paul - being able to create and keep learning every day, while hanging out with awesome people.

Special shoutouts and show notes:

• Yuengling, America's Oldest Brewery, is Nikki's favorite beer and one of John and Paul's gotos when they're on vacation.
• Scary Mommy, a blog Nikki helped that originally got her into the marketing world.
• Kale & Flax - a friend of everyone on the show and the designers of John's redesigned website.
• Wordpress - Nikki recommends companies use Wordpress to build their websites, even though the learning curve is steeper than other platforms.
• Executive Presence - a book Nikki highly recommends for women professionals.

Enjoyed this episode? You can learn more about Nikki Chin at GoSparkSpring.com. If you enjoy hearing about startups companies, check out our episode with Jon Matar. If you want to learn more about online marketing or SEO, check out our episodes with Tarik Nally, Guardian Owl, and Jenna Ahern.

Have any topics you want to be covered or entrepreneurs you'd like us to interview? Let us know! You can email us at [e-mail] or [e-mail]. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin. Please be sure to subscribe to our weekly mailing list at drunkenmoney.com/subscribe.

About Nikki (from LinkedIn):

Nikki is a professional with a focused career in the advertising industry; experience includes a variety of environments and roles.

Her skill set includes digital marketing, branding, websites, client services, operations management, account management, team management, business development, community management, human resources, insurance industry, basic accounting and more.