There is a phrase that goes, “pressure is what forms diamonds”. This is especially true for young entrepreneur, JR Rivas. As a kid he grew up living in New York with his sister and mom in a household with an income of no more than $23,000 a year. Life was hard for young JR and he recalls that at the age of 13 he was without water for six months and had to rely on the help of his friends to shower at their houses. After moving from New York he lived in a couple different cities before landing in Pennsylvania. After high school JR knew that college would be a waste of his time so he started his first venture in the life insurance business.
Unfortunately, he was not very good as a salesman so he decided to make a new plan. He saved up $10,000 and enrolled in a $300 class on how to do taxes at H&R Block. The class was canceled since no one else had signed up which is when he got a job for a Liberty Tax franchise and after a single season, he bought the franchise. JR was still only 18 at this time trying to fix up a run down building in the middle of a rough neighborhood but soon enough he had his tax firm. Over the course of a year he increased business by sixty percent. He had received the attention of Liberty Tax and in 2014 he was invited to ring the bell at the Nasdaq in New York City live on CNBC.
He continued to grow his franchises and purchased three more Brick and Mortars. He continued on to grow the new businesses by %17 and then sold them after a year. He moved down south and purchased another office which is when he got offered a job as a seasonal sales person at
the corporate office. JR enjoyed the experience but he knew his entrepreneurial spirit was not meant for a traditional job. At this point he knew that although his franchises were increasing their revenue, the future was online taxes and he would soon need to find a new business venture. He decided to sell his franchises and after some encouragement from the people around him he decided to start a podcast.
His podcast consisted of interviews with many different industry experts and eventually he decided he wanted to begin doing facebook ads for small businesses. Within 45 days he scaled to 10k and received amazing clients and client testimonials. Once he grew a reputation he decided to create a niche product to teach specific types of clients how to run ads which provided him with an income of $30,000 in the first month. Coming from a life of poverty, this money completely transformed his life. He was able to live comfortably and securely and most of all he was able to help transform other people’s lives. It is very inspiring how despite all the hurdles and obstacles, JR was able to come out of all the pressure a diamond.