Self Made Women: Eshonda Blue & Jessica Wright Of Innovative Senior Solutions On How They Started With Nothing and Created A Million Dollar Business
An Interview With Sara Connell
Understand your financials and know the financial health off your business.
Some people were born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouth. Even then, becoming a millionaire is still quite an accomplishment. But people who start from nothing, and especially women who start from nothing, who make it to the top to become millionaires, despite the pay inequalities based on gender, the confidence gap, with nothing but grit, hustle, resilience, and “stick-to-itness”, are on a whole new level. We want to share those stories and inspire other women. In this interview series, we’re talking to “Self-Made” women leaders who started with nothing (i.e. started without investors or trust fund or capital or even people believing in them) and went on to create a million dollar business.
As a part of our series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Eshonda Blue and Jessica Wright, Founders of Innovative Senior Solutions and Innovative Senior Care Consultants.
Eshonda Blue and Jessicsa Wright are the founders of Innovative Senior Solutions and Innovative Senior Care Consultants. The sisters are devoted to improving the lives of older adults and setting standards as industry leaders and business owners by creating jobs, offering career training and education, and supporting community healthcare initiatives.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory” and how you grew up?
We grew up in South Georgia away from the big cities most think about when they think about Georgia. Our mother was an educator. Our father was a contractor by trade. We had active grandparents as well. It truly felt like a village raised us. We also grew up being exposed to different races which eventually prepared us to be in the seats we occupy now. Our childhood was one to cherish.
Growing up, what were your early experiences and perspectives about money? Or we could say, what was the “money consciousness” in which you were raised? Can you please give an example of what you mean?
Like many are taught, to get a good education so you can and a good job, we were taught the same. We both went to school in nursing and climbed the ladder. We knew we wanted to make money and have a comfortable lifestyle, we never considered how to make it happen outside of climbing the corporate healthcare ladder.
Awesome! Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Let’s talk about what you are doing now, and how you achieved the success that you currently enjoy. Can you tell our readers about the business you’ve created?
Currently, we own and operate adult day care homes after selling our first in-home senior care business. Now, we help entrepreneurs start their own senior care businesses. We reached success by selling the first business. Selling the company gave us a capital gain to be able to invest in opportunity zones. We have 22 properties today that we’ve gained since 2019. Our success now rooted is helping others achieve success.
What was your vision when you started this business? What’s the WHY behind the work that you do?
Jessica: I am a Registered Nurse by trade. I’ve always enjoyed caring for people as long as I could remember. I watched my older sister, who is eight years older than I am, thrive as a nurse, and so I wanted to follow in her footsteps. Caring for my grandmother gave us the vision to start the business.
Eshonda: I enrolled in nursing school right out of high school. I always thought I wanted to be a nurse who helped delivered babies. The last thing I wanted I wanted to do was work in anything close to a nursing home. While I was in school, I had a part-time job at the hospital and started to take a liking to those who were in the office as opposed to those who were hands on with the patients. I saw my first glass ceiling at this time. I could see up, but I didn’t know how to get up. After I earned my bachelors, I started looking into management and leadership roles and my first role was in a nursing home. I found out that seniors go to nursing homes to live, not die so my entire perspective changed.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
We started our business in a three-year incubator. It took three years to make a profit in our first company. 15 years later we sold a piece of that business for over-second business. We’ve generated over 20 million in sales since starting the business. We pivoted our companies into house refugees and patients recovering from COVID and that gave our business a huge boost.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
We tried to save money on hiring someone to do our taxes, so we hired someone who was inexpensive. At that time, we skipped a year or two of filing so we knew it would be tough sorting through it all. When we left that tax preparer who was inexpensive and hired another firm to get our financials on track, our tax bill was over six-figures. We learned what being profitable meant. We learned that we need a good tax preparer, a good accountant and good bookkeeper on staff at all times to avoid costly mistakes.
We’d love to explore the traits that help you achieve your success. What were the mindset obstacles that you had to overcome in order to reach the place of earning a million dollars? Can you tell us what you did to overcome them?
One must have a mindset of seeing problems as opportunities. As we face challenges, we didn’t allow them to stop us. We never had a problem pivoting or changing what we were doing to do more of what worked and less of what was not working.
What were the external obstacles that you had to overcome in reaching these milestones? And how specifically did you overcome them?
We learned that you cannot share everything with everyone. Not everyone will see or share your vision. We’ve heard “no” more than a few times. When we went to the bank to buy our first building, we were turned down. We decided that day to buy our own properties and never lease another building again.
Was there ever a point where you wanted to give up on your journey to creating a million dollar business? How did you work through that panic point? Please share a story.
We never considered giving up. We never planned on building a million-dollar business. We were simply meeting a need for our community.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Our parents have supported us on all ends. Our father was a contractor by trade, so he’s built on additions to some of our buildings. He helped us with our transportation business as well. Our mother is a retired teacher who has helped with activities and planning. Our adult children have stepped in to work in our facilities as needed when we faced hiring shortages due to the pandemic and the economy.
We’ve had great mentors at every stage of our business. Our mentors have been Godsends. We’ve been growing tremendously and each time, the right mentor surfaces to guide and support our growth.
What were the most important resources, tools, affirmations, mindset strategies or practices that you used to build your business to where it is today?
We have learned how to go after the capital needed to grow through lots of thoughtful reading and filling paperwork. Research and paperwork is a full-time job in a manner. We had the opportunity to go to Dartmouth at Tuck School of Business where we were shown how billion-dollar companions use other people’s money to grow. In addition, we learned the power of working with others to achieve a set goal. After that experience, we decided to start supporting others to start and grow businesses.
What do you think is the greatest challenge for women and creating wealth/abundance? What advice would you have for someone that is feeling blocked by that obstacle?
Honestly, we’ve been blessed to have a passion for what we do and that passion has created an endurance like none other. We know how to survive and thrive. We know how to make things happen. Women have to own their power and use their intuition to get what they want and need.
As mentioned beforehand, we were exposed to what type of environments we would be in. Being the only female, African Americans in many rooms has been a journey but a journey we are now conformable with now because we were groomed to be the difference makers. We are where we are for a reason.
Great! Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
- Invest in real estate.
- Use other people’s money to grow your business.
- Understand the value of assets on your balance sheet.
- Create boundaries upfront in your personal life and business.
- Understand your financials and know the financial health off your business.
We are sure that you are not done. What comes next? What’s your next big goal and why? What plan have you put in place to achieve it? Why is it a stretch for you? What will achieving it represent for you and for others?
We think often about our exit strategy. Although we both have different personal goals, our collective goal is to continue to grow our business and to Crete e lifestyle that we don’t have to run any from. We stick with low risk and high rewards. We want to be the McDonalds of Senior Care. We desire to be the largest national senior care brand and win in real estate as well.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
https://www.facebook.com/InnovativeSeniorSolutions
https://www.facebook.com/Innovative-Senior-Care-Consultants-109038161508169
https://www.linkedin.com/company/innovative-senior-solutions/
Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us and our readers. We know that it will make a tremendous difference and impact thousands of lives. We are excited to connect further and we wish you so much joy in your next success.
