Introducing our PWP feature of the week, Courtney Crosslin. Courtney is the creative owner of, haveAwonderful. After a tough divorce, Courtney explains how she had a mini breakdown and moved across country to start a new life. She began dating and sharing stories with her colleagues who began asking her tips on how to enjoy being single and begin dating again. Eventually, her advice turned into her business. She is now a successful work from home mom and coach offering outings, mock dates, image consulting, and date planning for divorced men and women looking to get back on the dating scene. It was a pleasure hearing Courtney’s story and inspiration to take her pain and make it her gain.

1. Tell me your story. What were you doing before you started your own business?

Before starting my own business and getting married, I worked in IT sales. After getting married, I was a stay at home wife and mother.

I've since divorced, traveled, learned to love life, and I'm happily dating.

2. What made you want to start a business and what is your mission?

I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I remember other kids playing house (changing dolls, grocery shopping with the little plastic carts, cooking, etc.), I never really did that. I would always figure out a way to play corporate woman. I'd shuffle papers, hold meetings and hand out money. I'm not sure where it came from, but my Mother says that I've always been bossy -- but I know I got it from her, my Grandmother and Great Grandmother.

I run several businesses, but my mission has always been to make a difference. Be it teaching a small business owner how to update their website or a divorcee how to enjoy dating again. I just want people to learn how to haveAwonderful...

3. What inspires you? What keeps you motivated daily to keep growing your business?

Life inspires me! I love to travel and meet new people. My love of travel definitely came from my parents. We (they) were master road-trippers. My Father (who passed away from cancer 13 years ago) was a master storyteller -- and I loved that about him -- and to this day, I'm a sucker for a great life story.

I've always been and have felt blessed. I've had a good life. I have an amazing family, a great circle of friends and I've never been seriously ill. This is something that I'm grateful for. As I've gotten older, I have realized that not everyone can say that. Therefore, I feel like I have a responsibility to do good and work hard. That notion alone, keeps me motivated.

I'm also madly stubborn. My Mom says that as a kid, I would physically shiver when she would say "No" and that I would always follow her "Maybe" responses to my questions with, "Maybe yes or maybe no?"

4. Do you have a mentor? Who is it and why? Do you believe it is important to have one?

I can't say that I have one mentor, but I do have people in my circle of friends whom I trust and go to for professional advice. I have an accountability partner and friend that I meet with once a week and I value that relationship like the air I breathe. Since we're both entrepreneurs and work from home, it's good for us to have someone to check in with to discuss our goals, wins, losses and challenges. We keep each other on track.

So, I would say an accountability partner is very important! I guess a mentor is too as long as they have the time to help you get where you want to be in a manner you want to get there -- hopefully ethically.

5. What would you tell someone who wants to get involved in your line of business but doesn't know how to get started?

Research, find a niche and just do it!

6. What advice would you give to someone with an entrepreneurial spirit?

If you're already out there pursuing your entrepreneurial dream, keep at it.

If you're just getting started (or are afraid to start), understand that you will have good days and will have a lot of bad days. You HAVE TO be fearless and tenacious. Oh, and watch the movie "Random Lunacy”.  It's a great movie about what can be accomplished with very little and the worst thing that can happen is that you hit bottom -- but you're still alive to fight another day.

Courtney’s story is a true testament of how to make the best out of a difficult situation. If you are looking to revive your self-esteem and confidence because of a failed relationship, I would encourage all of you to contact Courtney. You can visit her website at haveAwonderful.com. Follow her on twitter @haveAwonderful and contact her office at 914-816-1129. And in the words of Courtney,

haveAwonderful…

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Be someone’s motivation and tell us your story! To be featured on PeopleWhoProsper.com email Tamara@garrisonprosperitysolutions.com. Put PEOPLEWHOPROSPER in the subject line and share a little about yourself.

More people are getting downsized, terminated or just plain fired all the time. And because of the state of the economy, finding another job can be difficult. Creating a job of your own by starting a business looks attractive when you can't find a job - or just can't stand the job you have.

But "How do I start a business?" is not the first question you should be asking if you're in this situation; the first question you should be asking is "Should I start a business?" Before you start thinking about the different types of businesses you might start, you have to do some thinking about you.

Starting a business is not for everyone. Being self-employed is very different than being an employee. And some people find it impossible to adjust to the differences. Let's see if you have the necessary entrepreneurial mindset to become self-employed. These are the six traits that I think encapsulate the ways you have to think and behave if you want to make a successful transition from being employed in some one else's business to starting a business of your own.

1) You have to be flexible to be self-employed.
If you start a business, you no longer have "one" job with clearly defined duties and responsibilities. You'll suddenly have multiple jobs, which will be often interrupted by unforeseen crises (particularly in the startup phase). Many employees are used to having days filled with predictable activities; many self-employed people don't.

And once you start a business, there's nowhere to pass the buck. As an employee, you may be used to passing problems up along the food chain or not be very involved in decision making. As a self-employed business owner, you're the one who will have to deal with whatever the crisis is and solve the problem. You're the one who will have to make the decisions.

2) You have to be a self-motivated initiator.

When you're an employee, other people tell you what to do, either directly or indirectly. You get used to having your actions directed by others. But you have to direct your own actions as a small business owner. You can't just sit there and hope that maybe some clients stroll in or that someone will drop by out of the blue with inventory for your retail store. No one's going to drop work on your desk or point out what needs to be done. For many people who try to become self-employed and start businesses after having a long-term full-time job, this is the hardest adjustment to make.

3) You have to be able to recognize opportunities and go after them.

Most employees do what they're assigned to do. There's someone else who's "assigned" to look out for opportunities, either a boss in a small business, or perhaps a sales department or a managerial team in a large corporation. If you start a business, you need to be the one constantly watching for opportunities - and be able to recognize them when you see them. It might be a small opportunity, such as the chance to pick up a new client, or a large one, such as getting your product on the shelves in a large retail chain, but as a small business owner, you have to keep scanning the horizon yourself and positioning yourself to benefit from the opportunities that you find. As an employee, you may be used to operating in a "head-down" position; if you're going to start a business and become successfully self-employed, you need to start operating in the "head-up" position.

Being self-employed is very different than being an employee and can be a difficult transition. Here are three more traits you must have if you're going to move from being an employee to being successfully self-employed.

4) When you're self-employed, you have to be able to plan ahead.

Your last job may have involved no planning at all, as that was someone else's job. Or perhaps your job involved planning on a localized level, such as planning a particular project. If you want to start a business, you need to develop expertise in both short-term and long-range planning; it's about to become a big part of your life.

When you start a business, one of your first tasks will be to work through a business plan. As your business becomes operational, you'll find that this plan (however detailed) needs to be revised and that other plans need to be created, as you work towards the long-range goals that you've set for your business. From following someone else's plan as an employee, you have to learn how to create the plans yourself - and adapt the plans to changing circumstances.

5) You need to be prepared to put in a constant and consistent effort.

We've all seen employees who are just going through the motions, or who were just "putting in the time" until retirement. You don't need to be a co-worker to know who these people are. As a customer or client you can tell, too. Bluntly, starting a business takes energy, and you need to be able to give it 100 percent. You can't afford to just coast along, or go through the motions, if you're running a business. Your customer and/or clients need to know that you are devoting 100 percent of your talent or skill or attention to them - and will go elsewhere if they don't feel this is the case.

Worse, you need to deliver this constant and consistent effort without the employee safety net. Many employees are used to being able to "call in sick" and have someone else cover their job, for instance. As a self-employed business owner, you'll have to go in and give it your best effort no matter how you feel or close up shop if you don't have employees who can fill in. You can also say goodbye to the holidays that many employees enjoy, both the annual x number of weeks and the statutory holidays, at least until your business is established to the point that you can manage your own time.

6) You have to be able to deal with uncertainty.
As a self-employed entrepreneur, there's no guarantee that the products or services you offer will be in demand six months from now. There's no guarantee that your customers will pay their bills on time or even pay them at all. There's no guarantee that your current big client, who seems to be perfectly happy with your work, won't drop you next week. There's actually no guarantee that you will make any income this month or the month after. For many ex-employees who are used to having a pay cheque arrive regularly every two weeks, the uncertainty of being self-employed is very difficult to deal with.

Are you still asking, "How do I start a business?" Good! Because the point of this article is not to scare you off, but to make you aware of how you have to readjust your thinking to make the transition from employee to self-employed business owner. Hopefully as you read through this list of traits you need to become successfully self-employed, you were saying to yourself, "I can do this". Because every one of the traits I've listed here is an attitude or behavior that can be learned, and when it comes to being self-employed, awareness is more than half the battle.

Now that you know that you're the kind of person who can start a business and run it successfully, where do you go from here?

I got a little too excited. And then I got sidetracked. And then I got bummed out.

What about you? Have you ever had one of those days. . . or maybe one of those months? What is it that shakes up one's momentum just as things are getting really good? April's Success Strategy is "Resourcefulness" and when you start to wander away from the path to success, resourcefulness is just the ticket.

Have you ever fallen into a slump just when you were nearing the nexus of success? Sure you have, you’re an entrepreneur, right? Why does that happen? It is such an energy drain to be brought down low and listless and questioning your every move. Total bummer. So what do you do about it? How do you shake it off? As a business owner and person with some semblance of a life (I say that only slightly tongue in cheek – you know what I mean, right?) we can’t afford to have a bad day.

Have you ever fallen into a slump just when you were nearing the nexus of success? Sure you have, you’re an entrepreneur, right? Why does that happen? It is such an energy drain to be brought down low and listless and questioning your every move. Total bummer. So what do you do about it? How do you shake it off? As a business owner and person with some semblance of a life (I say that only slightly tongue in cheek – you know what I mean, right?) we can’t afford to have a bad day.

Many times you can talk yourself out of the miasma of inactivity. A pep talk might be just the thing. Other times you need some real tools to help you move forward. Oftentimes a reversion to the “tried and true” is just the ticket. So when you are not performing up to your normal level, get out your pen and paper and make a list of strategies you can use to get moving again. Remember that project you’ve been meaning to tackle? Well, do it now. Sometimes doing something new can help clear the cobwebs from your brain because when you’re learning a new skill you’re moving in the right direction.

Don’t let a sense of overwhelm keep you bogged down. Create a go-to list of “get my butt in gear” actions to take when you find yourself stuck. I really want to hear your ideas, but here are a few to get you started:

    Exercise is always a help – even just a simple walk (usually my best thinking time.)

    Work a bit on an open project (and we have plenty of those don’t we?)

    Take a nap (Okay, that one might just be a bit of self-indulgent wishful thinking)

    Write a blog post! It can help clear the clutter and give you a sense of accomplishment.

    Plan your next event. Just as I like to buy my holiday gifts throughout the year so I can peek at them now and again for a little feel-good moment, concentrating on something pleasant can be a nice distraction.

    Take a break. Maybe you really are overwhelmed and a little rest might be just the ticket!

What else can you think of that helps shake the “OMG, I’m-really-the-boss-and it’s-all-up-to-me-blues?” Leave a comment; we’d love to hear from you.

Lease freakin' you out ... well you are not alone and if the lease doesn't freak you then something is definitely wrong.  The lease as we know is a complex document and it is meant to be that way.  It is full of legalese and I can say in my 10+ years of being in the commercial real estate leasing, lease administration and property management industry of reviewing leases I have yet to see a simple lease.  The lease is so complex that major companies hire its own legal and accounting departments to handle its lease issues.  So, if the major companies takes such precaution where does that leave the little man.  Think about  all the commercial tenants, landlords and property management companies that don't have these resources or for that matter who are clueless.  Yes, the lease should freak' people out - it is so convoluted.

How do we get pass this over rated document?  Knowledge, preparation and prevention should always at the forefront when addressing any concern dealing with the lease.  The 5 W's, how and if should always be addressed in each provision prior to executing the document.

A simple notice provision, as it may seem, could trigger default, litigation and fees.  How?  To not send notices as specified, not in the t time frame, etc.  Yes, a simple notice provision could trigger a disaster if misunderstood or overlooked.

Yes, the lease should be freakin' u out, if you are not knowledgeable, prepared and able to implement prevention measures to stop you from being in a bad situation.  You shouldn't learn about the the various situations your lease can put you in as you go, but prior to ... through research.  Believe me it pays off.

In truth knowledge is expensive and very few people are giving this kind of knowledge away.  And the profit margin is high for the attorney, accountant, property management company, etc. which stand to gain through individuals not being knowledgeable of the lease, the situations that revolve and/or may revolve around the lease.   Yes, the lease should be freakin' u out.

I know the lease can freak the tenant, landlord and property management company out having been in the role of the property management company/landlord and tenant ... that is why I can honestly relate and talk to all parties and tie these roles together and say one does not work without the other. 

Don't let the lease freak u out.  Study to show yourself approved, not ashamed and able to speak up for yourself.

Tune into Know Ya Rights - CRE Lease Talk blog radio, also for tidbits.  CRE Lease Talk.com is keeping it real and bringing the commercial tenant, landlord and property management company information based up on over 10 years experience, knowledge and education in the commercial real estate property management, lease administration and leasing industry.

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