At 26, inDinero CEO Jessica Mah has the scars and successes to candidly help any entrepreneur. After firing her staff in 2012, she made the cover of the 2015 Inc. 5000 for skillfully rebuilding inDinero to 200+ employees, all focused on eliminating the pains of small business accounting and taxes.
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Resources Mentioned:
- Your Big Idea: Successful Entrepreneurs have One Big Idea. Follow JLD’s FREE training & you’ll discover Your Big Idea in less than an hour!
- Audible – Get a FREE Audiobook & 30 day trial if you’re not currently a member!
- Boomerang – Jessica’s small business resource
- The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership – Jessica’s Top Business Book
- inDinero – Jessica’s website
- The Mastery Journal – Master productivity, discipline and focus in 100 days!
3 Key Points:
- Don’t be afraid to let go of employees who are not fitting into your culture as a company.
- Devote some time to knowing your customers and seeking out their feedback.
- Constantly be improving yourself.
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Time Stamped Show Notes
(click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.)
- [01:07] – inDinero does accounting and taxes for businesses
- [01:14] – Jessica started the company fresh out of college
- [01:48] – They didn’t have a good business model and burnt through 1 million dollars of investor money
- [02:10] – Jessica hired her friends from college and she had to tell them the business wasn’t working out and that they needed to find new jobs
- [02:42] – Jessica’s area of expertise is in building a product that people actually want
- [03:23] – One BIG and Unique Value Bomb: “Always be top-grading”
- [03:57] – Get the bad out and get the good in your company
- [06:00] – Worst Entrepreneurial Moment: Jessica had a hard time laying off her friends
- [06:32] – She suffered for 6 months before she pulled everything back together
- [07:05] – Entrepreneurial AH-HA Moment: She went around to ask customers why their business wasn’t working. A customer then gave her the idea for what inDinero does today.
- [08:10] – “Do things that don’t scale”
- [08:57] – Get out of your office and make an effort to talk to your customers
- [09:39] – What is the one thing you are most FIRED up about today? “The entire company is jazzed up about the 2017 planning”
- [11:13] – The Lightning Round
- What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur? – “I had really bad grades and really bad test scores growing up”
- What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? – “Think ultra long-term… and work towards the long-term. Don’t just focus on today or the next quarter”
- What’s a personal habit that contributes to your success? – “I spend over 20% of my time on self-development”
- Share an internet resource, like Evernote, with Fire Nation – Boomerang
- If you could recommend one book to our listeners, what would it be and why? – The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership – “I love this book because I was really feeling sorry for myself”
- Imagine you woke up tomorrow morning in a brand new world, identical to earth, but you knew no-one. You still have all the experience and knowledge you currently have, your food and shelter is taken care of, but all you have is a laptop and $500 dollars. What would you do in the next 7 days? “I don’t think I’d rush to do anything big in the next 7 days”
- [15:09] – Ask for help and call people who you don’t think would reply to you
- [15:51] – Connect with Jessica via her email
Killer Resources!
1) The Common Path to Uncommon Success: JLD’s 1st traditionally published book! Over 3000 interviews with the world’s most successful Entrepreneurs compiled into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment!
2) Free Podcast Course: Learn from JLD how to create and launch your podcast!
3) Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 podcasting community in the world!