Meet J Haleem Washington

Today we’d like to introduce you to J Haleem Washington.

Hi J Haleem, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I got started in entrepreneurship very, very early. In high school, I started selling bus tickets. Where I grew up in Newark, New Jersey, most high schools didn’t take the traditional school bus. We took public transportation using little student tickets, they remind me of raffle tickets. The student tickets were half the normal price of a bus ticket. I started selling those to my classmates and it was my first taste of entrepreneurship. I went on to college and started doing some similar things, but at the same time, I became a convicted felon. And so going to college in order to get a good job kind of quickly went out the window, having a felony. The entrepreneurial prowess that I had had as a child, I was able to fall back on. So instead of immediately applying for a job, I was able to start my first official business. And I’ve been an entrepreneur ever since. I have worked in multiple areas of entrepreneurship from entertainment to commercial cleaning to photography and media. How I’ve gotten to the point of where I am now is about seven years ago, I came up with my personal mantra, I Won’t Starve. My wife and I were coming off of The Great Recession of 2008, and it forced me to actually hone in on my specific skills and become a master at something. In that particular time, is when I was able to actually grow myself as well as a business and put myself in a position to sustain it. In the past, I’ve been able to make a bunch of money but not hold on to it because I wasn’t happy. I didn’t have a foundation at that time. But this time, I was able to successfully build a foundation and create a platform, one on which I could stand and also be able to use it to help other people start businesses, grow their businesses, and in turn help them to become successful individuals.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Absolutely not. It has not been a smooth road. As I stated in a previous question, I became a convicted felon early in my college career. So, coming out of college with $60,000 in student loan debt and not being able to get a substantial job, to even have a chance to pay it back, is extremely tough. When I was coming up, entrepreneurship wasn’t perceived as it is now. In my day, entrepreneurship wasn’t something that everybody smiled upon. It wasn’t the thing to do. So going out of college and jumping right into entrepreneurship was frowned upon by the other academics and other individuals, the adults that were in my life all called me lazy, said that I was wasting my time and not wanting to put in the work. So, it was definitely tough trying to weave in and out of the traffic of life, trying to stay under the radar and not let everybody know about my background while doing business with major corporations or banks or local, state, and federal government entities that was tough. But I found that most of the time, they didn’t concern themselves with my background as much as I did, but if I were applying for the same job or any job at those places, I would have never had a chance. So it was definitely a huge obstacle outside of the “regular” obstacles that come with being an entrepreneur.

As you know, we’re big fans of J Haleem, LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
J Haleem, LLC is a business consulting firm. We specialize in business development, coaching, and training to help our clients secure their space in the marketplace, identify strategic alliances, and develop sales strategies. J Haleem, LLC is under the leadership of President Jamar Washington, a 20-year serial entrepreneur, three-time author, and business coach. He has worked with the following national and international brands, Save the Children Foundation, National Guard, and Nike as well as local, city, state, and federal municipalities and businesses in both public and private sectors. J Haleem has helped more than 500 businesses launch and grow their way to success.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Both of these are the same for me. I would tell individuals, especially starting as entrepreneurs, to have patience. Things don’t happen as fast as someone that starts while working a nine-to-five, however, it lasts a whole lot longer. And I didn’t know that. I started in entrepreneurship very, very young and I wanted everything to happen overnight. Only it didn’t, and it almost never does. And so, if you get that in your mind early and understand that it’s a process to developing a business, developing the system, a winning system, and formula, then you’ll be okay. Patience is the thing that I would go back and fix for myself. If I had an opportunity, I would be a whole lot more patient and I would tell kids, and any entrepreneurs starting out, you have to be patient. You have to develop a process and keep working it, working it, and working it until it works itself.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://www.jhaleem.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamjhaleem
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamjhaleem
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/iamjhaleem
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/jhaleemtv