Nellie Akalp is a passionate entrepreneur, business expert, and mother of four. She and her husband have been happily married and running businesses together since 1997. Their first business was started with $100 and eight years later it sold for $20 million. Today, Nellie is the Co-Founder and CEO of CorpNet.com, a trusted resource and service provider for business incorporation, LLC filings, and corporate compliance services in all 50 states.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I am a law school graduate who basically decided, upon graduation time, that I did not want to go the typical route of others after law school. Instead, I found myself drawn to the idea of entrepreneurship. When I was finishing up law school and my husband was studying for the bar exam, we decided to invest $100 to launch our first business and never looked back!

What inspired you to start your business?

I was inspired by many facets in life to become an entrepreneur. The main inspiration were my grandparents who owned an antique store. As a child I was able to go to their shop, see the backend work and understand the strength it took to run a successful business. Although my current business has nothing to do with antiquing, I know that the fundamental skills of business ownership is something I absorbed as a child and young adult in their store. 

Where is your business based?

My business is based in beautiful southern California. Westlake Village to be exact!

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

Well with our first business, we literally took $100 to purchase a one-page website back in 1997. This was in the early days of the internet, so it was an entirely different ballgame than it is now. It was, in may ways, easier to get established and business immediately started flowing in. With my current company, it was a much different experience. We spent a lot more to build a fleshed out website with the goal of streamlining the business incorporation and compliance process. So instead of just a singular form as in 1997, our site was now much more complex. But the industry in 2009 when we launched CorpNet was also much more saturated so we had to invest more upfront to stand the chance against competitors. After our site was up, we just started organically getting the word out to our network letting them know we were back in business and then established ourselves on social media to market our services online.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Over the years, I’ve found the best way to raise awareness for CorpNet was to establish myself as an expert in the industry by providing educational content about legally starting a business in as many places as I could. I spoke at events, I hosted webinars, I was a guest on podcasts, etc. I just tried to get myself out there as much as possible to share the knowledge I know about the industry in order to help answer other people’s questions and hopefully bring in business.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

My biggest challenge over all of the years, no matter how much success I find from my business and how well my children are flourishing, is my personal struggle with anxiety and depression. I may appear to have it all, but on the inside many days I’m filled with self-doubt about my choices. I’m afraid I will let my husband my team down, I’m afraid that the panic-attacks that lurk around me will come up and grab hold and won’t let go. I constantly put on a smile so others don’t get affected by my struggles, but that only hinders my internal struggles. The best way I’ve found to overcome these dark times is to unplug, regroup, focus what I’m grateful for and pray for strength. Going deep, taking time for myself and meditating is really powerful and healing and helps me get back on my feet.

How do you stay focused?

As a mother of four who runs a business alongside my husband, I’m pulled in many different directions throughout the day. Mom, wife, CEO - all can happen within an hour! So to stay focused I just stay in the moment. I tend to whatever role is needed at that time and move onto the next. If I get ahead of myself, my to-dos can get pretty overwhelming! So again, just staying in the moment and tending to what’s needed at that moment allows me to be laser focused on that task or person. 

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

We launched CorpNet at the height of the recession and amongst an array of very big corporate competitors. At first I thought the only way we’d survive is to pour a ton of our budget into advertising so we stood out against those bigger corporations. But that only left us bleeding for cash month after month. As we were inching closer to having to close our doors, we decided to put in one last effort by pulling the plug on those ads and just seeing what happened. To our delight, our phones were still ringing, orders were still coming in and our website traffic was still strong. So as a result of that, I realized that our business stands out because we are a small and dedicated team that goes out of our way to make each of our clients and partners happy. We’re not a corporate company that automates or outsources tasks. We do it all in house and our customers appreciate that. Word of mouth is our strongest asset as is social media.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Our most effective marketing strategy has been focusing on content marketing. Establishing a blog for our company, creating our own content and also sharing content with third-party outlets has been monumental in establishing CorpNet as a leader in the space. We were able to remind the online community that we’re not just a service, but we’re a resource that can answer questions and help entrepreneurs who may be struggling.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

My best piece of advice for entrepreneurs just starting out is to ensure they have the passion for the product or service they are trying to launch. The reason for this is because there will be LOTS of hardships and times when funds are very limited. In those difficult days, if the passion for the business is not intact, many entrepreneurs will give up as they’re in it for the wrong reasons. I’ve known many entrepreneurs who start businesses with the goal of just making money, and sadly they don’t make it because that’s just not realistic most of the time!

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

My favorite app by far is InsightTimer. It’s an app I was recommended to deal with my anxiety and depression as it offers meditation tips and prayers 24/7 which help get me through any issues I’m having in any particular moment. My favorite blog and book are by Berne Browns. The book is called The Gifts of Imperfection, Rising Strong and Daring Greatly and it just speaks to me.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

My favorite business tool is Microsoft office tools and teams app. Especially during this pandemic, it has helped my team an I stay connected and work flowing regardless of our locations.

Who is your business role model? Why?

My business role model is Oprah Winfrey. Her story, her strength and her true wisdom is so inspiring to me. If I find a great business quote that speaks to me, often times it ends up being from Oprah without me even knowing it! 

How do you balance work and life?

As I mentioned a few questions above, I balance by staying present in the moment and dealing with whatever task may be infant of me  - whether with my children, my husband or my business. I remind myself that it’s OK not to be perfect and that I am not perfect and I don’t have to be perfect. There doesn’t have to be a 50/50 balance of work and home life and that makes it easier.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

My favorite way to decompress is to wake up earlier than the rest of my family and meditate in a quiet house. If for any reason I cannot get centered to meditate, I always fall back on exercise which just clears my head and sets the stage for a productive day.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

I actually have been really inspired to write a book so I hope to get that started in the next few months. I will also be focused on growing and scaling my business as we are slated to do our best year yet in 2021! Finally, now that my family and I are all vaccinated I cannot wait to travel again with my husband and children and celebrate life!

How can our readers connect with you?

I admit that I am not as active on social media personally as I used to be. But all of my content and insight can be found through CorpNet’s social channels: twitter.com/CorpNet and facebook.com/CorpNet. In addition, you can always reach out via my website: www.corpnet.com