A successful woman that is a "self-made" millionaire set a goal to reduce her working hours to 20 a week and still be successful after a tragedy.
Meet Joy, a self-made businesswoman that left her day job to become an entrepreneur that sets her own hours in the day.
On her website, Crush Your Money Goals, Joy wrote, "I'm a nationally recognized money coach who paid off $300,000 of debt in 3 years and built $1M of investments by 37 years old. I was named one of the top 25 new influential voices in money by NextAdvisor in Partnership with TIME Magazine."
Joy's Foray in Entrepreneurship
Joy started a local dress rental business in 2016 and had to put in many hours to get it going in the early years, to her disdain.
Working 50–60 hours a week was not ideal for Joy— she did not want to work this many hours in a week.
She said:
"I realized for me, the idea of working 50, 60 hours a week [wasn't what I wanted]," she said. "I didn't leave my day job just to go create a monster, which I did in that business, especially because it was retail so I was working weekends and nights." -Joy, Founder of Crush Your Money Goals
Joy Founded Crush Your Money Goals
Joy launched a podcast that "evolved" into the personal finance company, "Crush Your Money Goals" in 2020. She was putting in full-time hours, but her personal goal was to reduce her working hours to 20 hours per week.
She describes Crush Your Money Goals as "a 90-day blueprint for 6-figure earners to build 7-figure worth by starting their financial freedom plan and simplifying their money routines."
Who does Joy want to help with financial advice?
She describes that her target audience is women wanting to be in control of their money.
She said:
"I realized that the thing that I liked the most about that business was helping women save money," Joy said. "In tandem, that's also when I had started to pay off my student loans and I started learning more [about money] for my own personal finances." -Joy, Founder of Crush Your Money Goals
Tragedy Made Joy Rethink Her Hours Worked Per Week
Sadly, it wasn't until a tragedy happened that she began to seriously look at this when her father passed away two years ago.
She said:
"Two years ago my father passed away and I had to take almost a month off of work," she said. "That's what forced me to start thinking about how I can still serve people without me physically having to show up to meetings." -Joy, Founder of Crush Your Money Goals
This personal tragedy forced her to rethink her priorities and the hours she needed to spend on work.
This helped her to think strategically about automating things and creating courses full of content.
She said:
"That's when I started really putting more things into play, like creating courses, setting up email sequences so that people will still feel like they're connected to me even though I'm not physically sending the email, and having simple things like scheduling tools so that people wouldn't have to wait to get on my calendar," Joy continued. "Building those systems really helped." -Joy, Founder of Crush Your Money Goals
Joy was Not an Overnight Success
It's important to know that Joy didn't find success overnight. She put in the hours in the first four years (2016–2020) of being an entrepreneur before she figured things out.
She said:
"I am not an overnight success story by any means," she said. "I've been doing this for seven years now, and I really only got traction the last three years. The first four years were — like [it is for] a lot of entrepreneurs — like I don't know what I'm doing, I'm just trying to figure this out." -Joy, Founder of Crush Your Money Goals
She originally planned to make a sizable chunk from "large-scale speaking engagements," but the onset of the pandemic changed this plan. This made her pivot to another business model.
"What I didn't anticipate, of course, was the pandemic in 2020," she said. "I had to very quickly figure out another business model. That's when I started doing online education and classes. Obviously, the pandemic wasn't a great time for most people in a lot of businesses, but it forced me to think more creatively about how I can deliver valuable education [remotely]." -Joy, Founder of Crush Your Money Goals
Joy is clear that she had to figure things out as an entrepreneur, which is a point that the author tries to emphasize to others wanting to become entrepreneurs. It's not always easy, but success is truly rewarding.
Sources
Crush Your Money Goals official website.
Bernadette Joy Cruz Maulion on Instagram: @bernadebtjoy
Olya, Gabrielle. "I'm a Self-Made Millionaire and Professional Money Coach: Here's How You Can Get Rich Working Only 20 Hours Per Week." GoBankingRates.com. 3 August 2023.
If you enjoyed reading about a successful woman entrepreneur, this author has published other similar articles on Successful Women Entrepreneurs.
Stories On Entrepreneurship
Starting and running a business isn't always easy. Some of the success stories you read aren't meant to suggest that it is by any means easy. It is hard work.
Sometimes it can even be a lonely road, as one entrepreneur has shared with me.
If you are seriously considering starting a business venture that requires capital, please do your due diligence, do the research, and talk to trusted family, friends, advisors, and mentors before taking a leap.
These stories are meant to inspire. These are people accomplishing great things, and you can too. Don't ever stop dreaming to reach your goals in life.
The earnings shared in these success stories are not typical of all entrepreneurs but are meant to inspire everyone to dream big.