Spotlight Entrepreneur: Kelly Mistry of MyFairyTaleBooks

This month we are happy to spotlight Kelly Mistry of MyFairyTaleBooks. In 2009 Kelly and her husband launched their personalized children’s book company.  They offer a large library of adventure, fantasy, and holiday themed books where your child is the main character of the story.  On top of books, they also offer personalized Music CDs, DVDs and other fun accessories.

Tell us about your target market:

Our customers are looking to give a unique gift to the children in their lives.  When a child receives a book from MyFairyTaleBooks they discover that they have been cast as the main character in the story.  With customized details such as hometown, special dates, sibling and friends names, a MyFairyTaleBook becomes a story that your child wants to read again and again and preserve forever as a special keepsake. 

There are other companies out there that sell personalized children’s books. What sets you apart from your competition?

When you shop with MyFairyTaleBooks you feel secure in our online environment, you find our prices competitive, you are impressed with the product ratings provided by customers and you are pleased with the customer-service that we provide. 

Your company is growing. What is next on the horizon for My Fairy Tale Books?

This past year we have focused a lot of time, energy and market research on a unique, one-of-a-kind personalized book called The Good Friend.  We have partnered with a talented author, an amazing illustrator and expect to put it into production in early 2013.  This fall we have launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring awareness and to raise funding for the production of the book. We are offering some fun rewards to donors that fall in line with our anti-bullying theme.  We’re very proud of the book, we’ve received some fantastic feedback from audiences who have previewed it, and we can’t wait to share it with the world!

What advice would you give a friend who is looking to launch her own business?

Write a business plan! Our business plan has brought clarity to our mission and has given us qualitative and quantitative milestones to help us measure our success.

What is the most challenging thing about being an entrepreneur?

Maintaining a work-life balance is hard, but one of our top priorities as a family.  We want to teach our four year old daughter the importance of working hard, but we also want to be sure that we have enough fun time to play hard as well!  This summer we took our first vacation since launching our business back in 2009. It was long overdue, but not possible without help from trustworthy staff that could help us keep customers serviced while we enjoyed a few days away.

You mention your daughter, how does she inspire you?

Maya inspires us every day. We read her the manuscript for The Good Friend to ensure that she connected with the storyline, and we always look at our product offering and ask ourselves if these are products that we would want for our child.

MyFairyTaleBooks offers a large variety of children’s products that you’ll love to give to the little ones in your life.  A personalized book is a gift that will be cherished for a lifetime. Connect with MyFairyTaleBooks through their website, on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and be sure to stop by their Kickstarter campaign to lend your support.

www.sleeveshirtconsulting.com

Spotlight Entrepreneur: Shelley Oppedisano of Macaroni Kid

This month I'd like to introduce Shelley Oppedisano of the Fort Mill/Tega Cay, SC branch of Macaroni Kid.  What a treat it was to strike up a conversation with a fellow entrepreneur from my local area. Shelley is a WAHM: A work at home mom. While juggling motherhood, she also co-edits and co-publishes Macaroni Kid.  

For folks that have never heard of Macaroni Kid, what service does it provide for local community?

Macaroni Kid is a hyper-local website and weekly e-newsletter built for moms in the Fort Mill / Tega Cay, SC community.  Our main focus is sharing the best events for kids and families in our area and we run articles on everything from kid crafts to dinner recipes.  We also work closely with local businesses that are of interest to our target audience, coordinating specials and events for our readers.

What are some of your favorite family-friendly activities in the Fort Mill/Tega Cay area? 

We tell moms to check our Facebook page everyday because there is always something fun going on.  For example, Macaroni Kid recently sponsored a “Pinkalicious” tea party at Shug-A-Bug Kids Spa for girls.  The tea party consisted of fingernail painting, “glamour shots”, an etiquette class and catered snacks.  A fun event coming up is the National Costume Swap Event we’re doing with The Bump Maternity Boutique in Fort Mill.  Moms can bring old Halloween costumes during our drop off week and receive a ticket for a “new” gently worn costume.  

A lot of the moms in your network are multi-tasking Mama's. How does Macaroni Kid work with moms who are looking to promote their businesses?

One exciting promotion coming up is our first Macaroni Kid Fort Mill “Independent Consultant” guide. For four weeks (starting mid-September), we are highlighting local moms and their direct sales companies. We want to create awareness to local moms that there ARE options out there that will allow them to work from home. Options that are not scams, and options that will be fun!   Local fundraisers are always our favorite activities to be involved in.  It’s a great way to meet the community, build your brand name and support a great cause.  For example, we are active supporters of Team Saving Savannah and are helping coordinate Savannah’s Spirit Night at BT’s Burger Joint on Wednesday, September 5, 2012.  Come by and check it out- good food for a great cause: http://fortmill.macaronikid.com/article/339746/macaroni-helps.

What is the biggest challenge you face as Co-Editor/Co-Publisher?

A lot of businesses and advertisers want access to our audience, but if we go too far in that direction, we lose credibility and lose our voice.  So it can be a challenge balancing our relationship with local businesses with the interests of our audience.  The core of our business is sharing relevant, useful content with moms and families- so we’ve chosen to limit advertising to what’s appropriate, which sometimes means saying no.   

What is your #1 tip for balancing work and family?

Have lots of coffee in stock at your house and always sit down for family dinner! 

Thanks so much to Shelley for taking the time to share the benefits and fun that Macaroni Kid brings to the local community.  To reach Shelley and Macaroni Kid visit their website, become a fan on their Facebook page, or sign up for their Twitter feed.


www.sleeveshirtconsulting.com

Calling all business women...

www.sleeveshirtconsulting.com

Spotlight Entrepreneur: Barbara Goldberg of Back on Track Solutions

This month I'm pleased to introduce you to a fellow entrepreneur who I recently had the pleasure of meeting in person!  When you visit Barbara's website, you'll see she has an affinity for racing.  The NASCAR Hall of Fame is what brought me to Charlotte, so it seemed the perfect venue to sit down and get to know Barbara and her business, Back on Track Solutions.  It's such a fitting name, because usually her client has found themselves off-track with their business processes and in need of some course correction.  Barbara works across many different industries, but what remains constant is her ability to take a step back and see the big picture, and break it down into easy, actionable nuts and bolts. 

Do you feel that most small businesses overlook the need for business processes?   
Yes I do. They tend to deal with the most immediate need and ignore the other pieces that may help their business thrive.

Tell us a little bit about the audience you serve with your company Back on Track Solutions.

I work with mom and pop type small business owners who have 10 or less employees as well as Solopreneurs. Having said that, I will always make myself available to any business that feels Back On Track Solutions can be of service to them.

What for you, on a day-to-day basis, is the biggest challenge of being an entrepreneur?

Juggling the many hats of a solopreneur. I’m in the process of looking at outsourcing some work but so far I’m still doing everything myself which stretches me thin.

What advice would you give to a friend who was thinking about starting her own business?

I would definitely encourage her but also advise her that there will be bumpy roads in the beginning and not to get discouraged. I would also tell her to build up a team around her that can provide feedback to her and allow her to keep the big picture in mind.

What small business resource can you NOT live without?

Dropbox – It has made sending files to clients and colleagues so much easier. I no longer have to be creative in finding ways to send them big files. SKYPE is a close second. Having that face to face contact makes a call more personable then a regular phone call.

Barabara should be your first phone call if you need to take a deeper look into business process improvements, such as:

• Operations Management
• Resource Management
• Time Management
• Inventory Management
• Creation of Policy and Procedures Manual, Employee Handbook and User Guide
• Employee Training and Development
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning

Reach Barbara at her website, her Facebook fan page, on Twitter or on Google+, and get yourself to the checkered flag!

www.sleeveshirtconsulting.com

Chicks Writing Their Own Checks

A friend recently sent me a job listing that she thought would be right up my alley.  A full-time advertising executive position with a local, prestigious agency.

My heart sank a little.

Was I qualified?  Yes.
Did I want it?  No.

As I've been growing my consulting business over the past few years I have never turned down the opportunity to review a great full-time job posting that has come across my desk.  In the early years, I even applied for a few.  Was this my way of hedging my bets in case this consulting gig didn't pan out? Probably. Was it a smart strategy at the time? Probably.

But for some reason, this time, it just irked me. At this moment, I am living the dream of entrepreneurship.  I am a chick writing her own check.  And I like it.  Actually, I love it.

Sure, a full time job back in Corporate America would afford me some benefits that self-employment doesn't.  But it would also give me a commute...and a boss.  I would also have to give up clients that rely on me for their marketing, business strategy and implementation.  With so many great milestones on the horizon for them, I wouldn't dream about it!

Another duty I'd have to shelve would my monthly writing contributions for such on-line magazines as She's Self Employed.  Not only does this venue give me another way to reach my audience, but I get to tap into that inner author that has set her sights on publishing her own book (someday).

No longer will I be hedging my bets.  I'm all in.

Photo courtesy of http://misseddrawpoker.com/

www.sleeveshirtconsulting.com

Spotlight Entrepreneur: Jill Salzman of Founding Moms

Are you ready to be entertained?  Meet Jill Salzman- sassy CEO of Founding Moms. A graduate of Brown University and law school after that, she ditched bankruptcy law to begin her entrepreneurial journey with two successful companies; Paperwork Media LLC and the Bumble Brand LLC.  Her third venture, Founding Moms is focused on connecting mom entrepreneurs around the globe.  Jill brings great advice to this Q&A with lots of humor.  Enjoy!

Jill Salzman

What made you decide to take the plunge into self-employment?

I’d just graduated from law school and knew that I was not going to practice law.  I also knew that I wanted to create an environment where I could be home with the kids and making money at the same time.  Child labor laws prevented me from going one route, so I opted to launch my own business instead.

What is the biggest challenge that you face as an entrepreneur?

It depends on the day.  One day it’s accounting, another it’s legal, and most days it’s marketing.  Finding customers and clients is a pretty big one.  But for the most part, figuring out how to get my work done and feed my family all in one day takes the top of the cake, most of the time. 

If you had to give a piece of advice to a girlfriend that was thinking about starting her own small business, what would that be?

I’d ask her to sell me on her idea.  Then I’d tell her to go out and find friends, family and strangers and pitch her product or service to them.  My first piece of advice for anyone is to figure out whether there’s a market for what they’re selling.  Too many people spend far too much time planning, thinking, planning, waiting, wondering if it’s the right time, creating a laundry list of worries, and then planning some more.  I’ve seen a lot of entrepreneurs spend upwards of 2 years prepping their product launch only to find out, post-launch, that no one is interested in buying it.  I’m very much a dive-in-first-and-then-plan kinda gal, and since it’s worked for me three times, I’m confident it’s going to work for someone else, too.

What small business resources can you not live without?

Twitter.  And Tadalist.  And LessAccounting.com.  And Google Docs.  And Wordpress.  And Evernote.  And Skype.  And most importantly, My First Ticonderoga #2 pencils.

Tell us about The Founding Moms and how mom entrepreneurs can benefit from joining.

The Founding Moms is a collective of meetups and educational resources for mom entrepreneurs.  We’re in 30+ cities to date with 2,500+ members around the world, including cities in Canada and Australia (and soon Germany, too.)  We host kid-friendly meetups each month where we come together to help one another through education, advice, speakers and networking to better build our businesses.  We’ll be launching an online platform soon and there’ll be a lot of benefit to each of these members in their cities connecting with members outside of their home area.  Very exciting.  The benefits to joining?  There’s the practical stuff, like advice and tips on all areas of entrepreneurship that you can write down, go back to your office and put into practice.  There’s the intangible, like the networking and brainstorming that happens at each Founding Moms’ Exchange (which is what we call our meetups.)  But then there’s the real gold:  the inspiration and confidence that you get from connecting with other like-minded women.  Every month I head back to work after an Exchange and feel even better about what I’m doing.  It’s indescribable, really, but outstanding and happens each and every month.

You just published your first book: Found It: A Field Guide for Mom Entrepreneurs, tell us about the book and how we can purchase a copy!

Sure!  I wanted to write a quick-read guide for women who were interested in launching their own businesses, or who were already running small businesses but wanted to grow bigger.  I knew a lengthy, well-researched book was not really up any mom entrepreneur’s alley, so I gunned for a bathroom read and put together 51 short, to-the-point chapters that you can read and refer to again and again.  The first half of the book is all about starting up and sustaining a great company.  The second half is about how to do all of the first part’s bits with kids in the mix.  Humorist John Hartzell of MiddleAgeRiot.com agreed to do the illustrations for my book, and we made them black and white so kids could color them in.  The last part is not true but I just figured out that crayons would totally work on them. 

You can purchase it at http://www.bit.ly/jillsbook1 which is the only place to get a signed copy.  It’s on Amazon, too.  The e-book is available through BarnesAndNoble.com and it’s in Barnes & Nobles’ stores nationwide.

    When deciding to write your book, what was the biggest stumbling block?

The writing of the book was the easy part.  The chapters almost fell out of my head and onto paper and I completed it in literally 6ish weeks.  The hardest part was figuring out whether to self-publish or to find a publisher.  I spent much too long waiting for my agent to nab a publishing deal, when in reality most pub deals are pretty bad these days as the industry struggles.  But when I decided to self-publish, there were so many new challenges that I didn’t even know to know that it held things up for a bit.  Which printer?  How to distribute?  What size book?  Who would design it?  Those things.  Fortunately (and clearly) I figured them out and here I am!

My thanks again to Jill for a wonderful interview. To learn more about Founding Moms or to contact Jill directly, please visit:

http://www.FoundingMoms.com

http://www.twitter.com/foundingmom

http://www.linkedin.com/in/foundingmom

http://www.facebook.com/foundingmoms

www.sleeveshirtconsulting.com