Day 7| Angela Mosley | Ms. TJ’s Sauce, LLC
Angela Mosley is the owner and founder of Ms. TJ’s Sauce, LLC. How did the sauce come about; is when my children who were 9 and 5 years old at the time wouldn’t eat non-traditional food. One snowy evening in Glen Burnie, Maryland. I decided to make some miniature salmon croquettes, but they came out kind of dry my first time; so I tapped into my memory bank and remember my grandmother Jean Jackson use to make a pinkish kind of sauce when we all would eat our crabs. I started mixing and tasting and to my surprise, my kids devoured their salmon croquettes and had the nerve to say “Mom, this chicken is really good”. I knew then I had something on my hands.
It was in 2015 at a company potluck dinner, is where I decided Ms. TJ’s sauce needs to be on the market. When coming up with the name for the business, I went back and forth with my mom about some suggestions, and then she said “It’s for the boy’s future right, name it after them”. It was then that I decided to use the first initials of their first name; as well as have it in the order of youngest to the oldest. Finally, Ms. TJ’s Sauce was named after my sons Tyson and Jayden, they are my “Why”
The challenges of being a business owner are “jumping” as Steve Harvey would say. I took a risk to leave my $70K job to pursue my dreams. Angela left her contractor position as a Senior Program Specialist with the Department of Defense to hustle for her children, it’s important to leave a legacy for her children and their children so that they wouldn’t have to struggle like she has a single divorced mother of two boys. When taking this leap, Angela’s family didn’t understand the decisions she made and even some of her friends. I couldn’t see what they were talking about at that time. All I knew is I wanted to work for myself and not punch anyone’s clock anymore.
While doing this I made a decision to relocate to North Carolina, but in doing so I encountered a lot of hardship and illness. Working for yourself you had to put in long hours and have multiple streams of income, I found myself doing hair in my home where I hold a cosmetology license of 3o years plus. I was asked to perform at open mic venues reciting my mind-blowing poetry. I even was an independent contractor for Lyft and Uber ride-sharing platforms. I understood the assignment of working towards the goals of financial independence.
