It’s amazing the difference that $250 can make. Particularly to an entrepreneur.
At one moment, Ja’Net Adams was sharing her experiences in repaying debt, and the next, she was seeing the possibility of a new career helping people get control of their finances.
Ja’Net Adams, the entrepreneur behind EMACK Consulting and Debt Sucks University, is a financial strategist and member of the Sparq coworking space in the Innovation Quarter. While speaking engagements make up the bulk of her work, Adams also works with corporations, educational institutions, government programs, and non-profits to develop financial wellness programs for employees, students, and families.
Adams’ hook is simple. She paid off $50,000 of personal debt in just two years. From that personal experience, she learned how to become an entrepreneur, turning debt into a career where she helps others follow in her footsteps.
Along the way, Adams has learned how a lot of the same principles that helped her get out of debt also apply to becoming an entrepreneur. Whether paying off debt or starting a business, you need actionable steps and laser-focus on your purpose.
Whether Paying Off Debt or Learning How to Become an Entrepreneur, Know Your “Why”
Adams first career was in pharmaceutical sales, a profession she entered while in college at South Carolina State University. She found a passion for it because of her family’s history with cardiovascular disease, and she wanted to help people get medications that would improve their lives.
Several years in, Adams received a phone call. She was losing her job.
“We lost 60% of our household income, our healthcare, and a car in one call,” Adams remembers.
Adams had a young family at the time–and also $50,000 of debt.
That day, Adams filled out what she calls a “dream sheet.” It listed her motivations for getting out of debt and the financial goals that she had. That sheet became a foundational part of her coaching because it helps people identify their “why.”
“People ask, ‘Well, how did you pay off 50 grand of debt in two years?’ And I say, ‘That’s the wrong question. It’s why I did it,’” Adams said. “The ‘why’ is what keeps people going and that’s missing in regular financial literacy courses.”
Identifying her motivations for getting out of debt was essential to maintaining her focus on the goal.
“Every time that I had a financial setback, I looked at the dream sheet on our refrigerator and said, ‘This is why I’m going to keep going.’ The dream sheet makes you remember your why,” Adams says.
After two years, Adams was clear of debt, back in a job, and starting to share what she had learned along the way with others.
“Before I even paid all the debt, people started asking me, ‘Can you come to this women’s group or can you come to this church group and share?’” Adams says.
At one such event, the church who had invited her paid her $250 to speak.
“I didn’t even ask for it!” Adams says. “I was like, ‘I can make money from this?’”
That unexpected payment was actually the last $250 Adams needed to pay off the debt–and the first step in how she became an entrepreneur.
Pursuing Your Goals with Actionable Steps
What sets Adams’ work apart from all the other financial literacy programs out there? It’s all about creating actionable steps.
“Regular financial literacy is trying to show people how to save money, how to supposedly pay off debt, and how to increase your credit score. When you’re doing it like that, you’re not showing people what to do if you get a flat tire and that $200 that you told me to save, now I’ve got to use it for repairs,” Adams says.
When it comes to paying off debt (or saving money for another financial goal), Adams says that people need to see a practical path. Some courses are too advanced, offering steps that are ahead of where people are, and others are so watered down that the information is available with a Google search.
Adams helps people create steps that they can put into action right away.
“The strategy becomes selling things, cutting things back, whatever we can do to find extra money to throw at the debt and pay it off quickly,” Adams says. “It’s always about putting the extra money towards savings and, when you reach that goal of the emergency fund or what I call “in-case-you’re-still-breathing fund,” then the rest of the money goes to paying off the debt quickly.”
What kind of practical steps does Adams recommend? Well, you’ll have to attend a keynote or buy one of her books for the answers, but you need not look farther than one of her recent LinkedIn posts for a taste of what she means by “actionable.”
During an unusual amount of snow for Winston-Salem, Adams created a post with five tips for improving your personal and local economies while snowed into your home. The tips revolved around things people could do right away, such as unsubscribe from emails that tempt you to spend money and identify items in your home that could be sold for a little cash.
According to Adams, the bottomline, whatever your goal might be, is staying focused on your motivation. Whether it’s paying off debt or becoming an entrepreneur, you’re going to encounter obstacles.
“It’s about being able to be focused when you run into roadblocks in the future,” Adams says.
Actionable Steps for How to Become an Entrepreneur
As an entrepreneur, you need easily attainable steps to keep growing. For Adams, those steps often came in the form of relationships.
Adams was still in pharmaceutical sales when she realized that she might be able to turn her experiences into becoming an entrepreneur. Then she remembered a friend who used to be in pharmaceutical sales who had left to start his own business as a motivational speaker. Adams gave him a call and asked him to mentor her.
This was the first of several mentorships and coaching relationships that helped Adams become an entrepreneur and continue to develop her business. Each gave her new advice for growth and success. One relationship introduced her to an informal group of women entrepreneurs who collaborate on RFPs for the government, which added a new avenue for her business.
“You never stop growing. Every time you get around high performing women, it makes it a lot easier to be able to think, be creative, and execute when you’re around people that are just like you,” Adams says.
Adams joined Sparq as a member for similar reasons. She found the coworking space through another group that she’s a part of: HUSTLE Winston-Salem.
“I love HUSTLE. I love their Womenpreneur days and their events. I have even volunteered to speak for them,” Adams says.
Adams attended Womenpreneur Wednesdays–pop-up coworking days for women entrepreneurs that take place at Sparq in Bailey Power Plant in the iQ. It was her first introduction to the coworking space, and the energy she felt there quickly converted her into a member.
“Being at Sparq energizes you. You see everybody focused and doing their work; they are here for a purpose, to get things done,” Adams says.
She takes full advantage of Sparq’s location downtown and the numerous events that take place in the iQ. You can find Adams at poster sessions, talks by local leaders, along with business events. Some of it is just to “add a new wrinkle to her brain,” as she terms it, but she’s always looking for a business angle.
Being plugged in, Adams says, is an important step in how to become a successful entrepreneur.
“The entrepreneur ecosystem is phenomenal here. If you’re an entrepreneur in this city, there’s no reason you shouldn’t know what’s going on or you shouldn’t be able to get help,” Adams says.
For people looking to become entrepreneurs, she recommends they start by signing up for newsletters–from the iQ, Forsyth Tech Small Business Center, and the Women’s Business Center–to be up-to-date on the entrepreneurial events and business classes happening. Those provide avenues to other resources that can help your business.
“Once you get plugged in, then you just get sucked into the algorithm, and events and resources are everywhere,” Adams says. “As an entrepreneur, you have to plug into these different groups and stay connected with them,” Adams advises.
From mentorships to newsletters to coworking spaces, each small step that Adams has taken has helped her grow as an entrepreneur and build her business into a thriving company.
Join a Place That Helps You Become an Entrepreneur
Some days, you can find Adams at Sparq at 5 a.m., turning the lights on as she gets her day started. The coworking space has been an asset for her, due to its resources and location.
“It’s basically a place where I can come to work, take a break if I need to walk around, go get me something to eat, come back and work some more. It helps me to stay in the zone,” Adams says.
When entrepreneurs like Adams gather in one place, good things happen.
“Entrepreneurs like Ja’Net create an energy and add strength to the Sparq community that are invaluable,” says Jessica Aveyard. Aveyard is Membership and Operations Manager of Sparq Coworking.
“We want Sparq to be a gathering place where entrepreneurs of all kinds can come and inspire each other, support each other, and make connections in the iQ that help them grow their businesses and ‘spark’ new collaborations,” Aveyard says.
Learn more about Sparq or discover the growing community of entrepreneurs, researchers, students, and innovators in the innovation district on the iQ website. Find the story of other entrepreneurs in the iQ in the Updates section of the website.
