With over 24 million small businesses in the United States alone, it is getting more and more challenging to stand out in any industry. Many thanks to Covid 19, many of us have been forced to start our own businesses and step away from the comfort zone of the traditional 9 to 5. Although many of us see these last few years as dreadful or difficult, I’ve come to learn that they have been extremely healthy for us humans in many ways. Before the pandemic, I was very frustrated and had no financial awareness whatsoever. I was a new father, struggling to feed my family as a Uber driver working, 60–70 hours a week and barely keeping our head above water, letting my soon to be wife, do all of the parenting on her own.

I remember it clearly, I was working in San Francisco on my birthday (I know, right?) when more and more passengers were getting in my car with their masks on. Like most of us, I was amused and thought that it will just end in a few weeks just like previous variations of the flu. The politicians said that it will only last for a few weeks and I believed them for some reason, even though I never did in the past. My incredible partner kept on telling me that it’s gonna be longer than I think, and I was too arrogant to trust her divine wisdom, I’ll admit it. I knew that she and the kids missed me and wanted me to be at home more and that more than anything, she wanted me to be happy. We lived in the countryside and I used to go into the bay area and sleep in my car, five days in a row, then come back to the family for 24 hours before heading back to the big city. Don’t get me wrong, I felt honored and proud of myself to be able to keep a roof over their head and feed them, but I missed them so much that words could never ever describe. I originally came to California to work in the cannabis industry, however, since it became legal, many corporations have taken over the business, and literally destroyed all of the family farms that I have been working for, so Uber and Lyft provided me with a way to get my family out of the mud.

Most of my passengers in the foggy City made at least twice as much money as me, in half of the time that I put in. I was sleeping in my rental car at the Berkeley Marina waking up at 5 o’clock in the morning, driving people who are young enough to be my children and hearing stories about how their entry-level jobs started at $100k per year, yet for some reason, the majority of them seemed to be quite miserable. A large amount of my passengers worked for big tech companies, and they would tell me how much pressure they had and some of them were even jealous of me for being able to work whenever I want. 

Then and there I realized, how lucky I was to be independent, and made a decision to never have a job or a boss ever again.

Before the pandemic started, my wife and I had a vision and a business plan for a farm and retreat center, which I was pitching and talking to my clients about, which gave me a lot of good insight. I’ve met farm owners, food manufacturers, distributors, chefs and restaurant owners, who all gave me a priceless advice and said that they would work with me once my business is up and running.

As the great poet, Christopher Wallace said: “It was all a dream” – I wasn’t confident enough or knew anything about business and how to get funded at the time. I just got my first credit card at the age of 35 and didn’t even own a vehicle. You see, I was somewhat of a hippie at the time, borderline communist, who believed that dreadful saying about money being the root of all evil. Once I became a father, I realized that this statement couldn’t be further away from the truth.

During the collapse of the homegrown marijuana industry, my family had suffered immensely. We were practically homeless, living in shelters, RVs, friend’s houses and most of the time in shady motels which were more expensive than renting a place. Our expenses were higher than most peoples due to our instability, which made it practically impossible to save money to get into a house. I have missed a good year and a half from my family because I was so driven to work hard and get us off of the streets however, I am still embarrassed to say that I was unsuccessful, even though I know what I know today about money and physical labor. I used to beat myself up, and work unreasonable hours in order to make the ends meet. Looking back today, I have no regrets because I had to learn for myself that working hard isn’t always enough.

10 days after my birthday, on March 20, 2020 the city of San Francisco was shut down, and I had stopped getting calls on my Lyft and Uber apps. The terror of not being able to feed my family struck me, and I completely lost it. I got to spend some much-needed time with my partner and kids, which felt absolutely amazing. however in those few weeks we had to spend all of the money that I have been saving to move out of the motel and into a house. The vision and faith that my partner had in me was the single driving force that saved our family. I foolishly thought that she just missed me and was struggling to do everything on her own when I saw that she was happy that I wasn’t driving anymore. I couldn’t sleep at night and was having nightmares of our family, becoming homeless again. Ayla said that we must start our own business immediately, because she knew that this corona thing was going to last longer and she was confident that we were capable of creating abundance.

Once we received our first stimulus checks, we invested half of the money into our first family, business, Ancient Destiny. At the time, I thought we were crazy, however deep in my heart I knew that she was right. Ayla is an experienced herbalist who has been making natural medicine products, which helped me and our friends over the years, and I had tons of experience in marketing, before becoming a farmer. Our first purchase was a printer, glass jars and over $1000 worth of organic herbs and oils. Ayla made five different balms and perfumes while I designed the logo, labels and online marketing. All of our initial clients were close friends, who believed in us because they knew that we were passionate about holistic medicine and natural living. After a few weeks, I began to drive again and sold our products to my passengers, which provided extra income and helped spread the word. 

With all of the uncertainty that was lingering around in the first months of coronavirus, it was still not busy enough on the rideshare apps to even pay for my rental car (which was over $1000 a month) the stimulus checks that were coming in, were keeping us afloat, in all honesty. I was a very hard worker – and proud of it! I used to brag about never taking any form of welfare or unemployment in my entire life, so it felt absolutely terrible for me to rely on the government to feed my family. I decided at that time that enough is enough, that I must create an income which would keep us safe through any circumstances.

In the summer, I found out about the SBA, and that they were helping small businesses, so I applied for a loan. About a month later I was surprised to see you that I have received a deposit of $5,400. My family and I took that money, bought a car and moved out of the countryside, down to sunny San Diego, so that I can keep driving and spend more time with the family. At first we lived in a long-term motel in Clairemont, 4 people in a small studio, but we were happy because we were together. Within a month we had saved up enough money to move into a place, however, it took about six months for us to find a place due to my self employment and lack of rent history. During that time, I was surprised to learn that the loan I have received from the government has been completely forgiven, and was invited to apply for further assistance. That’s when everything changed in my perspective.

I learned that corporations have more rights than people do, in most countries in the world – not just here. As a business, it’s much easier to build credit which will get you access to much more capital than as an individual. There are an infinite amount of programs to assist you in starting up and growing your business, whether by goverment institutions or private investors. Once you have your business entity formed and official, nothing can stop you. You can compare business ownership to home-ownership as opposed to paying rent or working for other people, when you invest time, energy & money in your own company, that generates equity which can be sold or leveraged in the future. My family and I have started our first businesses in the midst of Covid-19, challenges were plenty – however it was well worth it. We have been through a lot, however it has been proven to be the best move we have ever made to create wealth for our children and future generations.

My personal credit was starting to gain momentum and we began looking into purchasing our first house. It was the middle of 2021 and businesses began opening up slowly. My partner and I have been reading and watching videos about starting up a business, building business credit and getting funding. We realized that it would be wiser to invest in our business before buying in a house. The best-selling book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki was very inspiring and showed us that the American dream of owning your own house can be a nightmare If you don’t have the income to pay for it. Since then we have been investing in our own training, equipment and marketing our family business. Ayla has become a highly respected healer in the San Diego community, which inspired me to start @Juggle.Media & @ISImensgroups so that I share my experience with the world.

I still drive for Uber and Lyft, however I enjoy it now more than ever because I am less dependent on that income, it helps me get new clients and I feel like I have a deep connection with the community which gives me insights to local and online trends. I have recently got my first LLC and have been working with various organizations such as SBDC, a county program which helps small businesses to create business plans, get funding and business loans.

Even though there is some talk about a recession coming our way, I am confident that we will all overcome and make it through, as we always do. I am truly blessed to have a partner who believes in me and my potential for greatness, today I have no doubts whatsoever about our success and our ability to help our clients succeed as well. Hey – if we can do it, so can you!

Wishing you all a prosperous 2023.

Believe in yourself and follow your passions – I promise you that you won’t regret it. Please, gentlemen, listen to the women in your life – they are wiser than you can ever imagine.

Wishing you all the best,

Daniel

@Juggle.Media