by Elizabeth Jennings | Apr 3, 2019 | BUSINESS
I wanted to talk about something that was on my business brain and wanted to share it with you. So if you have been hiding under a rock for the last month or so, you don’t know about this situation that happened. But there was a young lady who was attending a nightclub in Atlanta, Georgia and she was pretty much on live on Facebook the entire time of her having fun and doing whatever she was doing. And then she wound up being in a situation where they’re saying, or she’s saying she was sexually assaulted; raped and it was all on live video. I don’t know what the situation is. I’ve seen some of it. Some of it is pretty graphic, but some of it you can’t really see and you can’t really tell. But here’s what I wanted to talk about regarding this situation. I’m not here to declare that she was raped or she wasn’t. That’s not what I wanted to talk about. But what I wanted to talk about as a businesswoman and as an entrepreneur, my gripe with the legal system and how some attorneys target people and businesses for the sake of the dollar. Now this young woman has obtained counsel and her attorney is suing the nightclub where she was allegedly sexually assaulted.
I do not agree with the nightclub being sued and being held legally responsible civilly, to have to pay her money because an individual that paid their money to get into this club just like she did and just like everyone else did something that was wrong. I don’t care if this was an event that former president Barack Obama was attending or Michelle Obama or whoever that is of a high caliber and they didn’t have enough security there to secure and make sure that adults are going to act like adults and not animals. I don’t believe that the business should be held responsible for the actions of that one person. I believe that person should be held responsible for that. And I think at the time of this video, this person has been charged and has been arrested. And unless that person could be, uh, held civilly responsible in terms of monetary damages, which he could be I don’t believe that she or her attorney should be going after the nightclub. She can sue this guy, in civil court and press criminal charges. She could get a judgment against him. She might not be able to collect on it because he doesn’t have any money. He doesn’t have two dimes to rub together, but she still could get a judgment.
But she is going after the entity that has the most likelihood of having money, having insurance, having the ability to pay money, whether it’s through a settlement or going to court, going through the whole process and having a judge or jury find that the club is civilly responsible when having them to pay damages. I don’t think she should be going after the club, but unfortunately we live in the Sue-S-A (My nickname for the USA) I’ve called it that for years because if you don’t know, I was a legal assistant for 12 years and I got out of the field for many reasons but the fatigue of people suing for this and that got draining.
I’ve been an entrepreneur since 2006 and I’ve always had a gripe with the legal system when it comes to things like this, because I’ve seen a number of things come across my desk when I was a legal assistant, someone attending a party at a friend’s house (a friend, mind you, not a stranger), they slipped and fell. They sue the friend who’s the homeowner so that they could collect on their homeowner’s insurance policy. I get it. Those things are in place, but I never agreed with that. I never understood why things are set up that way as to not have people take personal responsibility for their own actions. It really is set up in a way where adults do not have to take personal responsibility for their own actions or just, you know, saying, you know what, it was an accident. I’m so sorry that it happened.
Let’s pay for your doctor’s bills and move on, but for you to trip and fall at someone’s house, you may have busted your knee and you might have a doctor bill of four or 500 bucks and now you want 15,000. I’ve never agreed with it.
So now this young lady is going to sue this nightclub. I watched some of the press conferences that the attorney had, and I’ll be honest with you, I laughed at it a little bit. I didn’t laugh at the victim. I actually was laughing at the things the attorney was saying because the attorney was basically not saying much about the offender, the alleged offender, everything had to do with the nightclub, how they were negligent, how they didn’t have enough security there. They shouldn’t have allowed this man to carry this woman out of the nightclub. Like, I just didn’t understand it.
I was laughing at it because it was almost like he was just arguing his case in front of an invisible judge because it was just the media and local media and press that was there at this press conference, but it was all to try to convince others and himself that they have a very viable case. She’s probably going to get some money. You know, companies like this, they have insurance policies. They probably get sued a lot, but the reason why I wanted to talk about it, because as a businesswoman and someone who’s been in business for many years, the bigger you get, and the more known you are, the more you become a target by others who don’t want to take personal responsibility for themselves and they’re just looking for a quick come up and I just don’t think it’s cool. In my industry, we have what’s called general liability and professional liability.
Now as the owner of my business, I have insurance policies in place, but all of the service providers who are also licensed in their own right to provide beauty services, they’re responsible for having their own liability insurance. So if someone were to come against my business saying that they received a beauty service and it caused them harm and they want to sue me and they get a copy of my insurance policy, it clearly states that the business is not responsible. The person who’s providing the service is responsible and if they don’t have liability insurance, I mean having liability insurance is not a requirement. It’s just a really great idea to do it. Then they legally can’t come after me. They can try it.
But I had someone tried to do it some time ago and it didn’t get them anywhere because when they requested a copy of my liability policy, I sent it into them. I sent it to their attorney and there was no followup after that because there really was no case; not the mention the person was lying (but that’s another blog for another time).
But that is why I wanted to talk about this. There is no reason, in my opinion, that they should be suing the nightclub, but you may think otherwise, you can respectfully disagree. I’m not here to talk about the victim or what she went through. I’m talking about the fact that they’re going after the nightclub civilly to get money for something that someone else did to her that was a patron in their business just like she was.
Beauty, Blessings & Prosperity,
by Elizabeth Jennings | Mar 27, 2019 | LIFE
I’ve been in business for many, many years and the beauty industry is just the industry that I am a specialist in. But business IS what I do. Most specifically in the beauty industry, I’ve helped many, many young ladies and young women to make more money than they ever imagined they can make in this industry. And I’m pretty proud of that.
So I wanted to discuss how you need to view your career. I had a discussion with someone recently who was a little bit discouraged. She’s in the beauty beauty industry. She’s fairly new. Just finished cosmetology school a few months back and she started getting a little bit disheartened, but this young lady has so much drive. She has a lot of vision for where she wants her career to go and what she envisions for herself in this industry, but because she is surrounded by people who don’t have the same mindset as she does, she started getting a little bit discouraged. So I had a conversation with her and we talked about this. I told her that her mindset is a great thing that she has and don’t get discouraged because there are other people who went through the same education that she did, but they don’t have that same heart and that same drive and that same passion that she does.
Here’s the thing I told her, and this is what I’m going to tell you guys. You think about a doctor and everything that they had to go through and endure in order to have that label of not just being a Phd and just having the degree and having the education, but they’re actually practicing medicine, whatever field of medicine they choose to practice. They had to go through so much to get there. They went through school and they went through more school and then they went to more school and they had to do residencies and they racked up a lot and a lot and a lot of college debt just to get to that place because that’s what they really wanted. And nobody is giving them anything! And if they want to be a doctor, they know they’re going to have to go through those things in order to get to that place where they’re actually practicing medicine and they’re working in someone else’s, you know, doctor’s office, medical clinic, hospital, specialists center, whatever it is that they’re, you know, wanting to specialize in. They had to go through so much and endure so much in order to get there.
I find that a lot of people who enter the beauty industry, they don’t view it the same way. They want a quick fix. They’re looking for something that they’re going to be happy doing or performing, they’re going to be able to and have the ability to make a great deal of money, but they’re not willing to put in the work and put in the effort to get to that state later. They want it as soon as they get out of school, as soon as they finish their program, as soon as they finish college, as soon as they finish that beauty academy, and it is extremely rare for that to happen!
I feel that social media has made it seem like it’s so much easier to make six figures or seven figures being in this industry of beauty. As soon as someone finishes school (or some people who don’t even go to school) they want to make big bucks. Some people are just makeup girls on youtube, and I’m not knocking that. If someone has found success by gaining a following and people are listening to their tips and advice and then they’re monetizing that platform, that’s something completely different. But that’s not the case for most people. It actually isn’t the case for many people. Of the many who are doing makeup videos and hair videos, many are not making great money on Youtube, they have to utilize their skills in other rest to make money.
And yeah, I find that a lot of people who go to beauty industry educational centers where they’re going to become a licensed cosmetologist or a licensed aesthetician or a licensed nail artist, a licensed makeup artist, you know, they aren’t looking at their career the same way they finished the program. And then if they don’t get the job where they have their schedule completely solid and they’re just making money hand over fist, and they have high paying clientele and they’re making really huge gratuity on top of the money that they’re earning in their checks and it doesn’t happen within a matter of a couple of months, then they lose heart and they don’t put in the work and the effort to make things happen.
And if we had doctors that viewed themselves practicing medicine the same way as some licensed beauty professionals, we would be in a pretty screwed up world. I know that not all of the doctors out there are the greatest, but there is a reason why they have to go through all of the things that they go through and endure all of the things that they endure to get to the status that they are. And then even when they get to that status, they still have a lot of dues and debt that they have to pay. They have so much college debt that they have to repay.
Unless they came from a family that had the money that way, then kudos to them if they had that, but a lot of them don’t. But they had that drive and that initiative and that want to, and that hunger to really make this happen. And they continue on looking forward to what their future had for them. And they knew that the future was going to be bright if they continued at it. And I don’t feel that a lot of people view it the same way. They want that quick money. When I started my business, it definitely wasn’t quick money. I made $6,000 my first year in business. That’s not much money, you know?
But if I looked at that as my decision-maker on if I was going to continue to move forward or if I was going to quit and go back into the legal field and I looked at that with discouragement and disheartenment, then I would have went back into the legal field and I would have affected so many other lives that I was supposed to affect in a good way. And it could have impacted some people’s lives negatively if we never met if we never worked together if I never gave them the opportunity to work in my establishment. Because when I started my business, I started my business solely for me. I didn’t know that it was going to be other people that were going to be coming on board, has created opportunities for other people. So I viewed my career just as if I was gonna be a Ph.D.
No, being a beauty industry professional is definitely not rocket science. It’s not being a doctor, it’s not being a Ph.D. It doesn’t require as much education. It doesn’t require as much time. It does require some investment, definitely some money, but maybe not as much as someone who was going to go to a university to become a Ph.D. Absolutely not! So what I’m saying to you is if you want to have a really amazing career, you have to view it just like anyone who was going towards becoming a Ph.D. and being a practicing doctor would, it’s going to be rough in the beginning. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to require some sacrifice with time and with money and you know, fun moments and, and all of that stuff. But you have to look forward to the future and what you’re doing it to make it worth it.
And I believe that that’s what you have to do. If you really want to see true, genuine success in your career. If you want it quick and easy, if you want to become, you know, a flash in the pan, if you want to be viral, then do that. If that’s what you want to do, try it out and see if it works for you. But I’m talking about the 99% of you, not the 1% that those situations may happen for! 99% of us, that’s not going to happen for us. The 99% are not going to walk into a business where there is already a solidified clientele that you can just begin working with and making the money you desire. Because even if that were the case, people are fickle. They are not loyal. They are not just going to stick in that place of business to get services done with you because you stepped in after someone else left because just because they were there and they were there getting their services done at that establishment, with that previous service provider.
It doesn’t mean that they’re going to automatically transition to you. You’re going to have to earn that. And the way you’re going to have to earn it is you may have to give away some services for free. You may have to give some extreme discounts and some services with those people in order to have them give you a try. You are asking them for the ability to gain their trust and for them to gain some faith in you that you can provide the services for them that they would deem as worthy to pay you for. So it’s a trade-off and those are some things that you have to do and not many people want to give anything away. They want everything given to them. You have to prove yourself!
So you have to go through sometimes some hoops and hurdles to get there. I did that in the way I had to do. No one gave me anything. No one gave me a job where I could step into it and just do amazing services in their establishment in hopes of becoming a longterm employee there. No, I got pushed into entrepreneurship because I tried to work in other establishments and people did not want to give me a chance. One, because I feel that the service that I was specializing in, it was a very new service many years ago, which is eyelash extensions. And in the area that I was, nobody wanted to take a chance on it. And I knew in my heart of hearts that this was something that was going to be successful; for me.
But I was nervous about doing it on my own and because they didn’t give me the opportunity to try it out in their establishments the way I was hoping, and because I’m not a quitter, I said, well, I’m just going to do this on my own. And that’s what I did. And here I am, many years later, four locations later. That’s what I did. But because I had a vision and I viewed my career just like anyone who’s going to go to medical school does, I viewed it like it’s going to be rough in the beginning but later on, it’s going to be sweet. It’s going to be beautiful. It’s going to be what I envision and no it’s not going to be every day sunny and bright and perfect. There will be some down moments. There will be some rainy moments, but if I endured all of this stuff before I can definitely endure more later.
Okay, so I just wanted to encourage you to let you know that if you view your career that way, there isn’t even a limit, not even the sky. There are no limits! You have to break those limitations off of your mind. I have some great tools you can check out if you are interested in learning how to up-level your job and turn your job into a high paying position. You can check it out here
https://ministerofbeauty.teachable.com/p/boss-employeepreneur/
Beauty, Blessings & Prosperity,
by Elizabeth Jennings | Mar 13, 2019 | INSPIRATION
I am a successful beauty business entrepreneur and it did not come easy, but it came and it’s continuing to come. But for many years I was really ashamed of talking about the success that I have obtained and you don’t have to tell somebody how much money you’re making or how much was in your bank accounts or any of that stuff. Cause honestly I just have boundaries and I feel like there’s certain things that you share and certain things that you just don’t, I don’t care how much someone is paying you or how much someone likes you. There are just some things that don’t need to be shared with everyone. But I didn’t feel that I was worthy of sharing the successes that I gained because I felt like at one point that it was something that if I said I would be bragging, and I didn’t feel comfortable with it.
Here’s why you have to share your story and glory. It’s cool to talk about the struggles and to let people know what and where you may have fallen short or you may have failed. But it’s even more important sometimes to share it with people from the failures and from the shortcomings, the success that you have achieved and the glory that you have received. And when I talk about glory, I’m talking about the stuff, the, you know, the money, the blessings, the higher levels, all of those things. That’s the glory. You know, that’s just some of it I should say. You have to share that because it’s not just for you, it’s to help somebody else. You never know who is going to be inspired by you, who needs to hear what you have gone through and how you overcame it and how you obtained the victory.
Because there’s somebody that’s going to walk that same path that you have walked. And actually, there may be many people who will walk that same path that you walked and they need to know that somebody like them experienced similar situations and made it out! That gives them hope. And they can say, well, if that person did it, I definitely should be able to do this. I definitely should be able to obtain victory and not live in defeat. They will feel they can get over and above their circumstances and struggles and be greater and better than where they are right now. It gives people hope and that’s what people really need because we do live in a very dark world and discouraging society. You have people that are rooting for you to fail, so to have someone that they look up to, even if they’re younger than you, it’s not always about someone looking up to you because you are older than them.
They may be older than you and they may not have found that person in their life that they can relate with. They can say, wow, this person is doing it and they’re younger than me. If they can do it and I’m still here, it’s not too late for me, I should be able to do this too. So that’s why you have to share your story and your glory and do not be ashamed of it. So do you have issues with sharing your story and your glorious outcomes because you feel like you’re bragging about it or you don’t want anyone to feel that you are thinking that you’re better than them because you’re talking about the blessings that have happened in your life?
Beauty, Blessings & Prosperity,
by Elizabeth Jennings | Mar 6, 2019 | BUSINESS
I just wanted to do this quick blog just to encourage all of my business owners, all of my entrepreneurs, and just discuss something regarding business. Don’t be afraid to start over. I am an entrepreneur as of ‘06 and the current business that I have right now, I started in 2008. Last year, 2018 was a pretty rough year for me in business.
Not so much regarding the business itself, but a lot of it had to do with dealing with people. And for the majority of us in business, most of us have to deal with people, whether the people are staff, the people are our clients or customers. On some level, we have to deal with people. And let’s be honest, a lot of people in this world can just be extremely messy, entitled, spoiled, and dishonest. Just a number of things that we can think about and say regarding people. And sometimes these people that you have dealt with in business can try to make you feel like saying, “Is this even worth it?” “Do I even want to continue moving forward in this?” “I think I’m just going to give up.” Remember why you started the business. Remember why you got into the field that you chose to get into for your business and for your entrepreneurship dreams.
And were any of those people in your, in your mind’s eye when you started your business? Was it depending on them? If you are aligned to either start the business, push forward in the business, have success or have a failure or whatever it is in your business, did they really matter? Did you do it for them or did you do it for you? Remember why you started in the business. And don’t be afraid to start over if you have to. Last year marked 10 years from me in the industry that I’m in, which is the beauty industry, and I made a video on my youtube channel and you can go check it out. I don’t remember the exact title of it, but it was along the lines of, 10 years in this business and I’m not stopping. I’ll have a link to the video on this blog.
I really had a motive for making that video. And one of the motives was to let anybody who may watch that video, who may know of me, who may know a little bit of my story know that whatever they think I am going through it is not going to stop me. And the thing about it is nobody knows everything about you. I don’t care what they think they know. They don’t know everything about you. And I can tell you, nobody knows everything about me that they think they know just because they may have heard this or they may have seen that, but I was letting people know, no matter what, I haven’t stopped. No matter what I’ve gone through, I’m not going to allow other people to be the cause of why I stopped. If I choose to stop, it’s because I make the decision to do it. Not because other people have worn me out or tore me down and they made me feel like I’m inferior or I just can’t do this.
I can’t make it and I have to stop. I have dealt with so many people that will make you feel like if it wasn’t for them, you wouldn’t have what you have or you wouldn’t be able to do what you’re doing and it’s like, these are people that I encountered, you know, down the line in my business that didn’t know me when I even had the thought of this business or when I even started the business years ago. Just because you met me five years ago, or you met me two years ago, or you met me a year ago and you think you know something about me doesn’t mean that you know me. And it doesn’t mean that you know my business. And I’m saying that about me to encourage you. Just because somebody thinks they may know you just because somebody thinks that they have your number and they can tell you about yourself or tell you about your business or tell you what you need to do for your business, and they really don’t know.
Don’t allow these people to get into your mind and to get into your heart and to get into your spirit because there are so many people that you may think are for you that really are not. Some are really wishing for your downfall. And sometimes those people that are connected to you, they may be a business partner. It may be somebody in your family, it may be a coworker or an employee, a staff member, you know, somebody like that. And they make you feel like they’re for you and they want the best for you and they’re trying to give you advice or they’re trying to help you out, but they really want to see you fall. Ask me how I know!
If you encounter situations like that, don’t be afraid to start over. Some people may make you feel like you can’t do it without them. They’re not your God. They’re not your source. They’re not your life-giver. You don’t have to give in to that and you don’t have to worry about things like that because it can be intimidating for a moment, but it should not stop you from starting over. If you have to let go of some people and you have to start over, then don’t be afraid to do that. It’ll actually be for your benefit in the end.
So some of those people that are hangers-on and they make you feel like they have your best interests at heart and you can’t make it without them; or they make you feel like they have a lot of great ideas about your business and they can really help you and they really want to support you; a lot of times it’s not true and they’re really hoping and wishing for your downfall!
So you have to be okay with letting some people go. Ridding yourself of some people, separating yourself from some people and starting over. And even if that means you’ve been in business for 25 years, it’s not too late to start over because you still have life and breath in your body. You can continue to make it and yeah, sometimes when you’re starting over you may have to cut back and let go. Sometimes you may not be making as much money as you were before, but you can start over. That’s temporary, a set back for a comeback.
Just like the stock market. The stock market has its times when it goes really high and then it has some times where it has some loss, but there will be a correction so look forward to the correction in your business, but don’t be afraid to start over.
Let me know in the comment section if you had to start over in your business at some point, or if you have some things going on right now and you’re going to have to start over and you’re wondering how you’re going to do that.
Beauty, Blessings & Prosperity,
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