Have you heard the news?!
A seventeen-year-old can…
drive a car, probably looking to graduate high school soon, and maybe even earning their own money through a part-time job. This is an exciting age for many... including me. :) Guess what?
Tailor-Made Budgets is seventeen years old today! My business has made it past the infancy, toddler, and childhood stages. Just like your teenagers at home, we are ready for graduation and the big leagues!
But, you may not know how all of this got started. Today I’ll share some insights into how and why I began this work in the 1st place.
My husband and I got married in 1998, and we desperately wanted to change our family tree. This goal was centered around creating a solid financial future and ensuring our kids knew how to handle money too. The 1st step we took was to facilitate Financial Peace University with several of our friends. This helped us build our concept for budgeting and debt reduction. We then applied these principles to our situation and crushed our $90,000 of debt over the next 5 years.
During this time, I noticed that many people were like us. They weren’t taking control of their financial lives, or they lacked the education to know where to begin. God began to stir up a passion in my heart to help other people experience the freedom that my husband and I enjoyed.
I then took a business plan course, prayed a lot, and talked to people I trusted to understand if this was a viable business. At that time, my best friend invited me to attend a Women in Business Bootcamp.
I reluctantly bought my ticket and nervously entered the all-day Saturday event. To my surprise, 200 aspiring and novice entrepreneurs felt the same way I did: scared! But as the day progressed, I gained the knowledge, inspiration, and some basic tools to help me start a real business. I also found a business mentor that has been a part of my life ever since.
Eight months later, I went to Tennessee to get trained officially by Dave Ramsey’s coaching team. By this time, I was all in! One year after that bootcamp, I quit my engineering career to pursue this work full-time. I haven’t looked back since.
Has it been a perfect journey? No! Have I encountered challenging times? Yes! Seventeen years later, is it still worth it? Heck Yeah!!! I see my clients begin to live out their dreams. Families are restored. Hope is infused into the fabric of all my clients. And I LOVE IT!
I am beyond grateful to those of you who have trusted me to be your financial cheerleader. I am thankful that God has kept me all these years.
Won’t you celebrate this milestone with me? Please share any experience with Tailor-Made Budgets on social media. We’d love to let others know the power of managing your money.
As always…To your success!
Ericka Young
