Melanie Neal spent her corporate career doing some pretty amazing marketing for various companies.  Entrepreneurship always tugged on her heart, but it wasn’t until a difficult boss came into the picture when she decided to take the leap and build her own marketing consulting business.

Where did the idea come from and what made you decide to leave the corporate world?  Since she was 13, she had an idea she wanted to be an entrepreneur.  Climbing the corporate ladder was no longer satisfying, and she felt it was time she may want to start doing her own thing.

When and why did you take the plunge?  She had started to look for another job, and after she realized she had no desire to really work for these companies, she decided it might be time to make that leap.  Her background in marketing was really varied, so she felt the experience helped her build a strong base for her business.

Did you keep a bridge job or just take the leap?  She jumped off...

You may be thinking about starting a business, but completely exhausted, just thinking about how to start planning and looking for real estate.  I interviewed my friend Saadia Sheikh of Weinert's Real Estate, here in Dallas, TX.  We're breaking down the ins and outs of what you'll need when looking for a property, and how and why you should look for help from a Commercial Real Estate Agent.

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When should you pull in a realtor – Should it be before you even start putting together your business plan (because that plan will require numbers), or once you’re ready to either lease or purchase that commercial real estate?  It’s important to contact a commercial real estate agent vs. a residential.  It’s two completely different specialties, and your commercial realtor will have the most update to date market information when it comes to putting the numbers together for your business plan.

Second, you definitely want to bring...

If I could tell you how long I struggled with this, it would probably make you feel a lot better about your situation. You may have an idea that you're excited about and ready to get going on it, and you've just started the whole moonlighting thing.  You might feel a little bad about yourself that you're not ready to take that 100% leap quite yet, but you feel confident it will happen soon.

So instead of just taking a massive leap to start your new venture, you decided to keep your day job.  You know it's not forever, but just until the point where your job is making the money that you can survive from.

Now bridge jobs can be a very good thing.  They can allow you to spend money on your business.  Heck, they even can get you to the point that they allow you to start your own business.  

But here's my warning to you: Don't let it become your crutch job!

You see, that's what I did for a really long time.  I mean like years.  I mean like many,...

I'm just going to put it out there:  In my 20's I was a pretty hot mess.

I can't say I had a whole lot of confidence, although I made sure to look like it appeared as the opposite. I drank way too much, and I really didn't know who I was at all.   Which led to every time I met someone, I wanted nothing more for them to like me, regardless of who they were.

Granted, I guess that really wasn't a bad attribute to have. However, it's not that great when you're not being yourself in order to get that person to like you.  One great example was this Greek god who was just amazing in the looks department.  You really couldn't understand half of what he ever had to say, but that was okay because just hearing him talk in his accent was totally worth it.   I was head over heels for this guy, and wanted to badly to be called Mrs. GG one day.  As perfect as he was, he was extremely old-fashioned in his thinking.  His idea of a wife was the old school...

Alright, I'll take that back, you're not wasting your time if your last name is Walton.

Anyone else, you need to listen.  Please, please, and another side of please, don't get into the world of discounts.  It's a vicious, vicious cycle, and I would hate to see you not be able to get out of it.

When I started my first company, I made this mistake.  It was the very first person who asked me if they could step outside of my standard pricing for something special just for them.   I was so eager to get business, that I didn't think twice, and I did it.  What ended up happening that I had a hard time raising the price.  Then, when I hired employees to take care of this client, it actually ended up costing me money.  So either I had to do it myself or lose money.  That's just not a scalable business.

So let me just break down the different thought process on this type of client.

So here was my mindset:  I'm going to do this at a discount...

Brittany Malone is the Owner and Founder of Bodacious Boot Co.  She never intended to start a boot line, but instead started her entrepreneur journey when she opened her own boutique.  However, she became frustrated by how she was treated from a very popular boot line that she sold at her store.  Between long delays in receiving boots and market saturation, she decided it was time to start her own line, and to do it better.  For a year she sold them exclusively in her own boutique until other stores started asking how they could get their hands on them.  In just a few short years, she has built her brand to stores nationwide, and her sales climbing dramatically each year.

How did she start a boot line?  After a chance meeting of someone who had a line of men’s boots, Brittany decided to team up and start a product line for women.

What was the first step she took in this business venture? Just coming up with only a couple of boot designs to get...

If you're on the fence about putting a website up for your business, step away from that fence.  Step far, far away, and don't give it another thought.  The answer is YES, you definitely need a website.  So I talked to marketing expert Melanie Neal with Zella Ruby Media to break down website basics, understand the things you should and should not include on your website, and how you can go about setting one up.

So why should you have a website? Yes, Your business can grow exponentially by having a good online presence.  Here are three big why's:

1. The first question you should ask does your competitors have a website.  If the answer is, that they do, and you don’t, then they already have a large competitive edge over you.
2. It allows you to legitimize your business.  If people are searching for various businesses, if you don’t have a website, and the other businesses that they’re considering do, then you’re that quickly taken out...