Hi, I’m Jess, aka ChiTown Jess ChicagoNow’s very own Entrepreneur Blogger. Welcome to my wild and crazy, entrepreneurial world. First of all I believe I am an ever-growing web enthusiast. I grew up with the Internet as a kid, we were the first ones on the block with a Packard bell that had a prodigy internet connection (dial up anyone?), Prodigy was intriguing to me as it opened a new world, one that was mysterious, yet right in your home. Since then back in the early 90’s I have been hooked. There is not a day that goes by that I do not discover something new on the Internet.
To be honest I have always thought of myself as a ChiPreneur, which I derived from Chicago and Entrepreneur. ChiTown has been a nickname for this great city for as long as most of my family members and I can remember. “”Chi-Town” or “Chitown” Pronunciation of this nickname can vary (from chai-town to shy-town). So with ChiPreneur established I thought it was also necessary to add Serial, as I tend to jump from one project to another, which tends to drive my family crazy. I would also like to add that spelling and grammar have never been my strengths, so I apologize and feel free to correct me.
Moving on…I have been a member of Facebook since it was called “The Facebook”, I was so excited to recently find out that my Facebook birthday is October 19th 2004. To say the least I was an early adapter. I believe facebook has changed the world, and it’s so inspiring to know that something that was created in a dorm room, by one college student, could have such power.
I was born in Chicago and as a small child lived in the Elmwood Park area. When I was 5 years old I moved to South Florida for my father’s career at the time, and that’s about when all my entrepreneurial pursuits began.
I want to say my first sign of “the entrepreneurial bug” was lemonade stands when I was 5. Then there was the time when I decided that I no longer wanted to do my house chores. The great thing about this was I had a younger brother and sister. Well, one day I created an entire money system called “Jess Bucks”. I then proceeded to find all of the stuff in my room that I no longer liked/wanted/ was going to throw away anyway, and created a “store” in my closet. I organized the items into price sections based on my perceived value of the items run on the “Jess Bucks” system. After the “store” was put into place and the “currency” was created, I got my brother and sister into my room and told them that if they were to do certain chores for me they would earn these “Jess Bucks” in which they could buy things from my “store” (oh and the “store” also had hours of operation, lol) This system became such a big hit in my house that even my brother and sister’s friends started to want to participate when they would come over to play. From the “Jess Bucks” days the “Serial” side of me spawned into more lemonade stands, chocolate stands, babysitting services with “hired” employees, hot dog stands at my neighborhoods yearly garage sale (of which I would net around $800 yearly which was like a million dollars to me when I was little), Girl Scout Cookies were a big one, basically anything the school gave me to sell I would top everyone because I had to. It was just inside of me… “the bug” that I would have to sell the most and I kept going and going and going and I am still going.
I have always had a passion for the city and the possibilities it could bring to a young entrepreneur. I have had many a sales job in the past after high school, always toping and exceeding my sales goals. I have worked with large companies such as The Career Education Corporation, Nextel Communications and The Cortiva Institute. However, I pride myself with some of my most successful ventures as a child, being when I was selling those hot dogs at 7 and lemonade at 5 on the street corner. Needless to say, my quest for success has grown since my childhood. I use my day-to-day life, the power of asking for things, as well as my dreams, as a sponge for new ideas in the business of visionary creations. I tend to not limit myself, which is why I now have an advisor who was with UPS for 35 years and he now has the task of keeping me grounded.
I am an avid reader of industry related articles, books, and magazines, such as Entrepreneur Magazine and Inc. I fully believe one of my projects will be the main story in a business related magazine one day.
I am educated from Indiana University Bloomington as well as Loyola University Chicago with studies in Advertising and Public Relations. I used to have a full scholarship however, as most entrepreneurs I have yet to finish, but I do plan to do so in the future. Loyola can you hear me…I want back in???
I thrive on new ideas and the ability to make them a reality. I am a young individual who truly believes in my entrepreneurial skill set to make my projects nationally recognized powers of innovative and creative ideas. I am told that I am a superior networker and I’m guaranteed to know exactly what you do and how we can connect or connect with someone you know within the first meeting wherever it may be.
Currently, at the age of 25, I am stepping into the role of Blogger/Consultant/Social Media Speaker as well as helping, You, the business owner figure out the landscape that is now the Internet with Social Media. Blogs, Vlogs, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and so on and so on.
The reason for this blog is to offer a viewpoint to others of being a young entrepreneur here in Chicago and hopefully to offer advice and well as gain some from other Entrepreneurs. I plan to interview as many Entrepreneurs as I Can in my quest to become a better entrepreneur. I want to find out about their successes, failures, strengths and weaknesses as business owners. Younger or older, we can all learn from one another. The young have a viewpoint of the new wave of the social marketing media avenues, and well…. the more experienced, have just that, EXPERIENCE!
So that’s that. I’m Jess I’ll be here all week. If you have any questions please feel free to reach me on twitter @JessPopov.
// ChiTown Jess
To be honest I have always thought of myself as a ChiPreneur, which I derived from Chicago and Entrepreneur. ChiTown has been a nickname for this great city for as long as most of my family members and I can remember. “”Chi-Town” or “Chitown” Pronunciation of this nickname can vary (from chai-town to shy-town). So with ChiPreneur established I thought it was also necessary to add Serial, as I tend to jump from one project to another, which tends to drive my family crazy. I would also like to add that spelling and grammar have never been my strengths, so I apologize and feel free to correct me.
Moving on…I have been a member of Facebook since it was called “The Facebook”, I was so excited to recently find out that my Facebook birthday is October 19th 2004. To say the least I was an early adapter. I believe facebook has changed the world, and it’s so inspiring to know that something that was created in a dorm room, by one college student, could have such power.
I was born in Chicago and as a small child lived in the Elmwood Park area. When I was 5 years old I moved to South Florida for my father’s career at the time, and that’s about when all my entrepreneurial pursuits began.
I want to say my first sign of “the entrepreneurial bug” was lemonade stands when I was 5. Then there was the time when I decided that I no longer wanted to do my house chores. The great thing about this was I had a younger brother and sister. Well, one day I created an entire money system called “Jess Bucks”. I then proceeded to find all of the stuff in my room that I no longer liked/wanted/ was going to throw away anyway, and created a “store” in my closet. I organized the items into price sections based on my perceived value of the items run on the “Jess Bucks” system. After the “store” was put into place and the “currency” was created, I got my brother and sister into my room and told them that if they were to do certain chores for me they would earn these “Jess Bucks” in which they could buy things from my “store” (oh and the “store” also had hours of operation, lol) This system became such a big hit in my house that even my brother and sister’s friends started to want to participate when they would come over to play. From the “Jess Bucks” days the “Serial” side of me spawned into more lemonade stands, chocolate stands, babysitting services with “hired” employees, hot dog stands at my neighborhoods yearly garage sale (of which I would net around $800 yearly which was like a million dollars to me when I was little), Girl Scout Cookies were a big one, basically anything the school gave me to sell I would top everyone because I had to. It was just inside of me… “the bug” that I would have to sell the most and I kept going and going and going and I am still going.
I have always had a passion for the city and the possibilities it could bring to a young entrepreneur. I have had many a sales job in the past after high school, always toping and exceeding my sales goals. I have worked with large companies such as The Career Education Corporation, Nextel Communications and The Cortiva Institute. However, I pride myself with some of my most successful ventures as a child, being when I was selling those hot dogs at 7 and lemonade at 5 on the street corner. Needless to say, my quest for success has grown since my childhood. I use my day-to-day life, the power of asking for things, as well as my dreams, as a sponge for new ideas in the business of visionary creations. I tend to not limit myself, which is why I now have an advisor who was with UPS for 35 years and he now has the task of keeping me grounded.
I am an avid reader of industry related articles, books, and magazines, such as Entrepreneur Magazine and Inc. I fully believe one of my projects will be the main story in a business related magazine one day.
I am educated from Indiana University Bloomington as well as Loyola University Chicago with studies in Advertising and Public Relations. I used to have a full scholarship however, as most entrepreneurs I have yet to finish, but I do plan to do so in the future. Loyola can you hear me…I want back in???
I thrive on new ideas and the ability to make them a reality. I am a young individual who truly believes in my entrepreneurial skill set to make my projects nationally recognized powers of innovative and creative ideas. I am told that I am a superior networker and I’m guaranteed to know exactly what you do and how we can connect or connect with someone you know within the first meeting wherever it may be.
Currently, at the age of 25, I am stepping into the role of Blogger/Consultant/Social Media Speaker as well as helping, You, the business owner figure out the landscape that is now the Internet with Social Media. Blogs, Vlogs, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and so on and so on.
The reason for this blog is to offer a viewpoint to others of being a young entrepreneur here in Chicago and hopefully to offer advice and well as gain some from other Entrepreneurs. I plan to interview as many Entrepreneurs as I Can in my quest to become a better entrepreneur. I want to find out about their successes, failures, strengths and weaknesses as business owners. Younger or older, we can all learn from one another. The young have a viewpoint of the new wave of the social marketing media avenues, and well…. the more experienced, have just that, EXPERIENCE!
So that’s that. I’m Jess I’ll be here all week. If you have any questions please feel free to reach me on twitter @JessPopov.
// ChiTown Jess
