Jeff Sekinger, CEO of 0 Percent who helps people achieve financial independence
0 percent
Since 2018, Jeff Sekinger has helped several thousand people through his company 0 Percent, which provides financial advisory services to help people use business loans to fund their entrepreneurial ambitions. He’s grown the social media business quickly over the past three years, but had to overcome addiction, corporate America, and his mindset to get there. Here are the top three lessons he shared in hopes of helping other entrepreneurs.
Always think about your value system
Sekinger was born in Pittsburgh, PA, but grew up in Columbus, Ohio after his family moved at the age of five. He had a knack for business and finance from a young age, growing up with entrepreneurs for parents. When they divorced, he began to notice the financial toll that his family’s finances were taking.
“I moved into a small apartment with my father and a small house with my mother. I knew the closer I could get to money, the more security and less stress I would feel, ”he said. “I realized that I developed my pursuit of financial success by seeing both sides of what money and a lack of it have brought to the household.”
For college, he attended the University of Kentucky and studied finance. After completing several internships and graduating, he started working at JPMorgan Chase in the Private Wealth and Asset Management division. Although he gained a lot of experience working for the company, he began to wonder whether or not he wanted to continue the 9-5 lifestyle. Sekinger started creating business plans and building his brand on Instagram. Wanting more independence to talk about financial matters than he was allotted, he quit his job and decided to go into his business planning full time.
Know that you never went too far to start over
When Sekinger was still in high school, he was an avid athlete who played on his school’s soccer team as a security and corner outside. After injuring his rib muscles, doctors prescribed pain medication for him, but became addicted to opioids for over six years. He continued to excel in school and college while realizing his addiction, but he remained dependent on them.
The addiction also followed Sekinger into his professional life. He had to take the medication several times a day to feel and function normally. In 2018, he found himself in tens of thousands of debt for trying to keep up with the habit and function properly at work. Sekinger soon entered Cornerstone of Recovery, a drug and alcohol rehab center that helped him get back on his feet and reinvent his lifestyle.
After his 31-day stay, he found that he was using drugs to escape reality and dissuade him from his ambitions and what he wanted to do in life. He also received a wake up call after finding out how much debt he was in, along with a credit score of 524. He began researching personal finance and credit to get him out of his hole and soon increased his score 793
Get motivated and help others along the way
When he was back on track, he set up his marketing agency with a co-entrepreneur, which helped him work off his debt and gave him a second chance to get his life in hand. It was through his ability to work hard and reduce his debt that he had the idea to share his tips with others who may be in similar situations.
“I knew I had just done something really remarkable for myself and wanted to do the same for others who were passionate about business and finance,” he said.
Sekinger renamed his company to 0 percent and began teaching others how to use their loans for both personal and business purposes to ultimately create great lifestyles. Through his courses, he coaches people in strategic 0% financing, a method by which a person can be funded with 0% interest credit and which allows them to stay at 0% interest for up to three to five years. This gives that person the opportunity to focus on growing their business without lowering their margins from interest expense.
When, after years of hardship, he found ways to change his life, Sekinger’s main goal was to do the same for others. Help build their financial independence.
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