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Name: Meisa Bonelli

Business: Millennial Tax, a tax management and business planning firm for home-based businesses and solopreneurs

Industry: Other — Finance

Location: New York, New York, U.S.

Reason for starting: I’ve always been inclined to and have had success with many entrepreneurial endeavors. When I was approached in 2012 to teach tax savings to network marketers, I studied the industry and pain points, and seized the opportunity. At the time, I was looking for another service company for my portfolio that I could transition into working full-time.

My goal is for Millennial Tax to become a $1M company by 2016 and then a $10M company by 2021. We will do this by becoming the gold standard in tax preparation and business strategy for start-ups, home-based businesses and solopreneurs.

Related: Read about another female entrepreneur helping small businesses here.

How do you define success? I would define success not only by the bottom-line in my company’s revenue, but in the measure of the impact that I’ve made on the projects that I’ve been involved with and the change I’ve been able to evoke in clients and mentees.

Biggest Success: My biggest success has been building my company consistently for the last seven years.

What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it? My biggest challenge has been balancing learning at the speed that is necessary to be a successful inter-disciplined entrepreneur in our contemporary business world. I have addressed it by committing to attend two Master degree programs over the next six years and taking intense courses in the area of taxation in the summers.

On a personal level,  in 2012, my sister was sexually assaulted in the military by a superior officer. To drive attention to the matter and let her know that I was doing everything in my power to keep her alive, I turned to social media and unconventional forms of sharing information. My fellow entrepreneur friends and colleagues were the most helpful and then is when I realized that I must continue to be a voice of awareness and play a bigger game in life permanently (even when it’s not convenient).

Related: Read more about dealing with personal tragedy as an entrepreneur here.

Who is your most important role model? My biggest role model is the vision that I see of myself in 10 years. I do not mean this in an egotistical way, but who I aspire to be is an amalgamation of mentors, well-known successful entrepreneurs and the enlightened thinkers of our time (Seth Godin, Richard Branson, Tyler Perry, Sarah Blakely, Donald Trump, Holton Buggs and the late Michael Jackson and Steve Jobs). It is the small pieces of each of them that have shaped my vision of “me” in 10 years that is my role model.

[box_light]Website   www.MillennialTax.com
Twitter   @millennialtax
Facebook   www.facebook.com/MillennialTax[/box_light]

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Edited by The Story Exchange