How To Turn a Stimulus Check Into a Multimillion-Dollar Business

©Ellie Diop

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When Ellie Diop started her business coaching and consulting company, Ellie Talks Money, she didn’t realize how successful it would become. Diop started her company out of necessity when she found herself out of work and divorced with two babies to take care of.

“I was inspired to start my own business, truly, to take care of my kids,” she said. “I had a job in corporate America that I was laid off from, and subsequently got divorced from my husband and moved back home, all within six months of giving birth to twins in April 2019.”

Diop didn’t originally plan on becoming an entrepreneur.

“I applied to over 55 jobs and none of them hired me — and several of them did not even respond to my application,” she said. “As a result, I thought about how I can take what I already know how to do and start a business from it. When I worked in corporate America I was director of sales, so that is what led me to start my coaching and consulting company, teaching women how to secure funding and strategize their businesses.”

How a Stimulus Check Helped Her Get Her Business Off the Ground

Starting a business during the pandemic was challenging, but Diop was able to utilize her stimulus check to help get things going.

“I am still so grateful for those stimulus checks,” she said. “I used mine as startup money for my business. I didn’t have a lot of funds at that time, so when I knew the stimulus checks were coming, I began to make a list of all of the things I could purchase using that $1,200.”

Diop used the funds to upgrade her iPhone to enable her to create better-quality content, register as an LLC, buy the domain name for her website and purchase subscriptions for tools like Canva and Later.

“Lastly, I set aside about $200 or $250 to use for marketing and advertising,” she said. “I did not have enough money to run traditional ads at that time, but I did utilize what is called ‘shout out pages’ on Instagram, where I paid between $25 to $50 [for these accounts] to post my content to their audience.”

Scaling From $1,200 to $1.3 Million in 10 Months

Diop credits her focus on social media marketing to her business’ rapid scale, which enabled her to grow into a $1.3 million enterprise in less than a year.

“I made a commitment to post three times a day for the entire year of 2021, and since that time, I have still been keeping that commitment,” she said. “I believe that my business was able to scale because I created a lot of shareable content, which then allowed my following to grow.”

When Diop launched her business in July 2020, she had about 300 social media followers. By January 2021, she had 100,000 followers.

Another key move was adding online courses to her business model.

“I quickly realized around October to November of 2021 that I was not going to be able to effectively scale my business by just serving people through one-on-one coaching, so I created digital courses that provided information that was valuable to my audience,” Diop said.

Diop kept her courses accessible and affordable, which she believes has also been key to her success.

“My first course was $15 and by the time I had made my first million in April of 2021, my highest-priced product was $75,” she said. “I believe that the affordability of my products, as well as the value, also helped me to scale quickly because they gained a positive reputation, and they provided information that women-owned businesses and other business owners really needed.”

How Other Women Can Achieve Success as an Entrepreneur

Now that Diop has achieved success, her goal is to pay it forward.

“I’m so inspired to help other women, and especially moms, to start businesses so that they can increase their income and improve the quality of their lives,” she said. “That is definitely the core mission of my company.”

If you’re not sure where to begin, Diop says to start by making some strategic lists.

“The advice that I would give to women who want to start their own business is to first make a list of all of your qualifications, your achievements, anything that you are great at and that you have been asked for advice on in the past,” Diop said. “Much of the time, we don’t realize that we are already experts in a certain area and that expertise is what can directly lead to a successful business.

“I would also advise women to make a list of what they’re passionate about,” she continued. “If they didn’t have to worry about money at all, what would they do 24/7? Now, combine what your expertise is with what you are passionate about, and from there you can discover a business that not only comes to you easily but also lights you up inside.”

Diop also emphasizes the importance of leveraging social media.

“It is a completely free platform that everyone can use to reach an audience all over the world through content creation,” she said. “Gone are the days when you need to have thousands of dollars in startup capital to market and advertise. You truly can build a business from your phone by committing to content creation on a consistent basis.”

In addition to commitment to your business, you also need to be fully confident that you are capable of achieving your goals.

“Be relentlessly confident in yourself and consistent with your actions,” Diop said. “There are definitely going to be days when you question yourself, when you doubt yourself, but your belief in your abilities and your business is what encourages your customers to have belief in your business as well. So, be unshakably confident always!”

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