Erika Velazquez Alpern has built the same business twice under the same name. The first time, she shut it down when the math stopped working and went in-house at Morning Brew. The second time, she waited until she had a signed contract in hand, because despite what you may think, many entrepreneurs are risk averse.
She spent her career in brand and media at places like The Guardian and The Boston Globe, and today she is a fractional CMO, the founder of Tactile, and a mom raising two kids and a pup in Brooklyn. In this episode, she sits down with me to break down how she actually affords the lifestyle.
Erika and I walk through the real math of working for yourself: the six-figure salary she left, the anchor client that paid her more per month than her full-time job did, the $170,000 her business brought in its first year back, and how it feels when a good month approaches $30,000 and a slow one barely clears $5,000.
Erika reveals what raising two kids in Brooklyn actually costs, starting with $3,500 a month for a private twos program and camps that run $600 to $800 a week. She gets into the marketing money she has watched businesses light on fire, exactly what she would do with a $0 budget, a $1,000 budget, and a $10,000 budget, the dream job she turned down because the math didn’t make sense, and the thing about her finances that would surprise you most.
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Learn more about Erika's work at wearetactile.com, and come to one of her events. Follow her on Instagram at @erikaalpern.
Check out Ashley's Money Club (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/money-club) to join a community of women unabashedly going after their money goals.
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