Building a business is never a walk in the park. It takes immense knowledge, dedication, and hard work to succeed in whatever industry one wishes to venture into. Nina Lukes knows this struggle. As an entrepreneur, she has gone through years where she did not reap the rewards she hoped from her entrepreneurial ventures. But instead of wallowing on the negatives, she leveraged on her bad experiences to learn new methods. Today, she is sharing her knowledge with business owners to help them avoid making the same mistakes.

Before pursuing entrepreneurship, Nina Luke had a flourishing career as a tax employee for Liberty Tax Services, where she franchised her own location after merely four years in the business. But what Nina hoped would be a venture that would help her career and family turned into a disappointing experience. She realized that her knowledge as a tax employee could not suffice in running her own business. 

Nina Luke was not able to make enough to cover the business loan she took to open her Liberty Tax Services franchise, which drove her deep in interest rates. As a result, Nina did not see profit during her early years of being an independent businesswoman. Furthermore, her credit scores were not that robust yet to get another loan to help the business keep its doors open. Thankfully, her franchise was able to earn enough to cover basic utilities and pay her staff. But Nina knew that a tiny mistake could tip her business off for good, and eventually, it did.

Looking back, Nina Luke shared that it was her lack of experience in running a business that doomed her to failure. Losing a business is hard for anyone, but Nina felt the loss extremely as she was thinking about how she could provide for her family as a single mother. She recalls feeling ashamed and traumatized after losing her franchise, but as a tax expert, she knew that she could give entrepreneurship another shot.

Nina Luke saw an opportunity to help business owners who are facing the same situation and built FST INvestments, a small business consulting company that helps sole proprietors become successful business owners through proven strategies. Instead of seeing things negatively, she strived to make the most out of her failure and serve as a looking glass for other entrepreneurs and help them succeed. As they say, nothing beats experience. 

Backed by her 15-year experience as a tax professional and her passion as a business adviser, Nina Luke now helps build better businesses and has positively impacted her clients’ lives in Long Beach, California. As a mentor and business coach, Nina helps her clients make their passions and dreams profitable even amid the pandemic. The coach knows how fulfilling it is when entrepreneurs are successfully working for themselves. And so, she equips them through her services, such as entity formation, business financing, and understanding credit, making her one of her client’s most valuable assets. In addition, Nina helps her clients save thousands on taxes, thanks to her expertise on the subject, and ensures that their businesses are rooted on firm foundations that could withstand even the most devastating challenges in their respective industries.