Inspiring Conversations with Mark Hopkins of MHJ Profits

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Hopkins.

Hi Mark, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was considered a nerd in high school. I was always told how smart I am. Passing classes was easy but boring. I had no understanding of how life outside of high school worked.

I loved computer programming and the introductory classes were easy A’s. Therefore, after graduation, I had no real plan. I knew what field I wanted to be in and felt that I deserved to be there because I was smart. I had no idea how the job market really worked. I did not realize that a college education was what I needed to get into my field or the knowledge of how to lie on a resume.

My mother was mainly a stay-at-home mom and my dad made enough to take care of our financial needs. My dad was a Vietnam veteran and pictured the army in my future. This was his career plan but I was born with asthma so I did not qualify.

I continued to try to pursue a career in computer programming. Trying to answer that age-old question of “how can I get job experience if no job will hire me?” I ended up at Devry which offered a job program. They gave me my very first job at a laundry shop. I was so excited. I worked so hard at folding clothes and every day I completed my tasks and asked what was next? After 2 weeks, they fired me because they stated that they didn’t have enough work for me.

I now couldn’t afford to get back and forth to school so I had to leave school and get a job. Now, I am in the workforce at a subway making minimum wage for the next 2 years with no raise. At times, I worked 3 jobs. I had my own apartment and I constantly kept a new car. I eventually quit and moved from one job to the next trying to figure out on my own how this world works. I had probably held 20+ job positions by the time I was 23. I never could get that computer programming job though.

My road to entrepreneurship started when I walked into a shoe store one day. They offered to put me into a management training program (which is actually their name for every shoe salesperson). Prior to this day, I had stated that I could not envision payment of my bills being determined by whether someone buys something or not.

Then I stepped back and looked at the bigger picture and realized that someone buys something EVERY single day. So I just need to make sure that I am the one standing in front of them when they buy it. During my first month there, I outsold the general manager of the store. Now I can see the real possibilities of this sales thing. Basically, I set my own limitations.

Shortly after that, I found car sales. This gave me the opportunity to dress up and sit at a desk and make higher commissions. I imagined what could happen if I could produce the same numbers. I did great for 10 years. I started a family. We bought a house. My second baby was on the way. My wife at the time stated that this business kept me away from home too much. I worked 50+ hours a week every week. I learned so much with the training offered that I felt that it was time to go to the next level, real estate.

I took the skills a knowledge obtained over the years and eventually owned my own real estate brokerage, and my own mortgage branch, I held 7 different licenses, owned 6 houses, and finally grossed my highest income year ever at around $180,000 in 2007. Then the entire market fell. All of my income sources were gone. I lost everything, including my family. The market crash was too much for my wife at the time to handle so she decided that it was best to leave and take my kids.

This was my lowest point. I could not get a job anywhere. I even called pizza places every day asking to deliver pizzas and they told me no because now I had too much experience and they figured that I really didn’t want to work. I would spend months having to choose to either keep the lights on or the gas on. Either heat up water on an electric plate to take a bath each day or keep the gas on and run an extension cord from my neighbor’s house. I eventually was able to get a job delivering newspapers at 4 am every morning 7 days a week for $800 a month.

In these same years, I am battling to be in my kid’s life because my ex-wife got sick and decided that her dying wish was that I never see my kids again. With the help of her homeless play sister, they used the court system for 6 years to keep me from my children. I never gave up and after over 70+ petitions submitted myself and 100+ court appearances, 6 different attorneys, and 3 different judges the court finally saw that I wasn’t going to give up and awarded me custody of my children. My kid’s mom passed away 1 year after I got custody.

By this time, I was just getting several ventures off the ground. I had just started doing taxes and was building my clientele. I also partnered with an online platform to work customer service from home and give the opportunity for other people to work from home through my company. My son was graduating from 8th grade and my daughter was about to go to junior high.

The Chicago school system was hitting some all-time lows. There were only a few high-rated schools and although I lived in the right zip code, They said no because the school district lines were not set by zip code. So now I know that I need to move to get them into a better school. I am starting over with everything. I am building new relationships and starting from the bottom again. I then realized that I can do what I am doing anywhere, so I might as well change the weather.

We moved from Chicago to Arizona and have been thriving ever since. My son graduated high school and is in college studying to be a nurse. My daughter is 17 and has been focused on becoming an attorney. She has already held 3 jobs and is an honor roll student at the top of her junior class. I continue to run my tax business and my work-from-home customer service business. I am also a licensed signing notary.

We bought a new house and I am the HOA Vice President and treasurer. I am also getting married in a few months.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
My business is primarily for tax preparation. Since a lot of my clientele still stayed with me when I left Chicago I have worked on building my business to be an online tax preparation company offering professional tax preparation.

Therefore my clients send their information and I call them to finalize their return. My clients get their maximum tax return and I am available all year round. I specialize in small businesses and I even assist in setting up small company LLCs and non-profits. I still offer work-from-home contract opportunities to help people get on their feet.

I also offer full notarial services. I pride myself on my customer service. I genuinely want the best for my clients. I have trained and worked with my major competitors and I offer the same knowledge and service for about 1/3 less the price.

What does success mean to you?
My kid’s/families success will be the measure of success for me.

Every sacrifice that I have made has been for them. I hope to see them play my effort forward with families of their own. Success for me is just having the ability to take care of my needs and support myself and my family.

Ideally, I would like to be able to retire early and enjoy life. This world has so much to offer and my goal is to be able to lay back and take it all in.

Contact Info:

• Email: mark@mhjprofitsinc.com
• Website: www.mhjprofitsinc.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mhjprofits/?notif_id=1647932164176374&notif_t=page_user_activity&ref=notif