I know a lot of your out there are moonlighting entrepreneurs.  No one in the Make Mine a Million $ Business community is going to tell you that to be an entrepreneur, you must be totally, one hundred percent dedicated to just one thing.  (A great woman once said, “No entrepreneur is an island.”  Or something like that.)  We’re all partners, friends, moms, daughters, volunteers, breadwinners, and naturally full of dozens of new ideas all the time.  We can’t do just one thing.  I’ll tell you a little secret: There’s no shame in being a wage earner and an entrepreneur on the side, because even successful small business owners are owners of other small businesses on the side.

Cindy Lin is one of those.  She joined the Make Mine a Million $ Business community last year as a winner of both our Micro to Millions competition for businesses under $250,000, and then as a Sam Walton Emerging Entrepreneur for her potential to grow her home staging service, Staged 4 More.  She’s been very involved with us since, having attended our first Count Me In Leadership Institute last year and lots of other local and national get-togethers.  I saw her two weeks ago at a cocktail party held by M3Racer Molly Fuller in San Francisco, where she showed me the prototype of her newest venture – EcoJoe, an ecologically friendly, non-toxic version of the St. Joseph statue that many people bury in their yards to bring luck to selling their home.  When I got back to New York I’d received this note from her, which I want to share with you:

Hi Nell

It was great seeing you at the M3 get together at Molly's office last week!

I want to thank you for creating the community for people like me. Before winning Micro to Millions, I was struggling with if taking my business big is the right thing to do and wouldn't it be great if I just hit the 100k mark? I was thinking small, so of course my business stayed small. Being at the M3 event opened my eyes to possibilities and I feel incredibly fortunate to be in the M3 community, to know so many amazing women who pursue their dreams despite economic hardship or personal challenges.

I have to say ECOJOE would not be where it is today if I didn't win the M3 Micro award and subsequently the Sam Walton Emerging Entrepreneur Award. The business coaching was a great gift from Sam's Club and have helped me focus and taking my business to the next level tremendously (and at a much quicker pace!).

A girlfriend of mine and I had this idea for months prior to me winning the award last fall, but didn't know how to make it happen. To think, we were thinking of hand sculpting these statues from molds in our kitchen! I didn't even think about the packaging, marketing and distributions! My friend decided that this venture was not for her, with her blessing, I continued to pursue it. The M3 ladies did not hesitant to lend me a hand and take the time to speak with a product development rookie like me! Making ECOJOE happening was not an easy road, but every step of the way, people like Lee from CycleAware, Kris from SayNoMore Promotions, Micracle Wanzo from hipundies, and many other ladies have been so giving with advices and time. Alexandra from Eat My Words even volunteered her office for the launch party. It has been an absolutely amazing journey.

Heather, I am not sure if you are aware of this custom: So in the real estate industry there is this custom/superstition that you can't sell your house, you bury a Saint Joseph statue into your backyard. So I've made an eco-friendly St. Joseph statue to help raise awareness of plastic usage as well as reducing amount of plastic we bury into the ground. Most (if not all) of St. Joseph statues on the market are made with plastic, which as the plastics break down, will releases toxins that poison our eco-system and food chains.

Thanks again Nell and the staff at Count Me In for believing in me last fall. I truly truly cannot express how grateful and lucky and blessed I feel to be in the company of such amazing women!



Cheers,
Cindy

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