Who says that you have to be cutthroat in order to get ahead in the Internet marketing game? Certainly not Alice Seba. As the owner & creator of InternetMarketingSweetie.com, the hardworking mom of three founded the small biz resource site as an alternative to the get-rich-quick & sometimes-unethical marketing info that permeates the Web. As she says on the site, “There’s no reason to lose your soul in the process of trying to earn a really good living online.” Amen to that!
Her passion is backed with the determination to make things happen no matter what. Seba first tried her hand at being a home-based entrepreneur in 2002--first with a direct sales company, and then with the launch of InternetBasedMoms.com. At a time when the prevailing belief was that websites were mostly good for only promoting one’s brick-and-mortar business, many scoffed at her ideas and told her there was no way to do business online at the time. How did she manage to stay focused in the midst of everyone’s doubt?
“I don’t know--I guess I’m stubborn,” laughs Seba. “I looked around and found there were people doing it, so I surrounded myself with them. I basically ignored the people who said it wasn’t possible.”
One of Seba’s challenges in running her business is something almost all entrepreneur moms (especially WAHMs) struggle with—balancing work & family. What didn’t work for her, she explains, is trying to squeeze work in in bits and pieces between running her household. In the process, she was constantly getting stressed and interrupted, she says. Finally, Seba had enough and decided to structure her time more definitively. “Work time was work time, and family time was family time. No more just trying to squeeze it in where it works. I can get way more done in one or two hours of uninterrupted time than I would trying to squeeze in work all throughout the day.”
With a slew of digital products and services geared towards helping entrepreneurs manage & market their businesses, how does Seba keep her own business running smoothly without making her head spin? For starters, she values the often-underestimated importance of the to-do list, to keep both her business and household tasks on track. “Another important key was outsourcing,” she says. “I’ve also started hiring people to help me in certain other areas where I needed some help.” Seba uses programs like TasksPro to keep track of & communicate with her contractors, stays in touch with clients via a private online forum, manages her memberships through AMember.com, and uses 1ShoppingCart to deliver digital products to customers and send autoresponders to her mailing list.
Many newbie Internet entrepreneurs see people like Seba doing big things, and jump right in—but get discouraged when things don’t happen right away. From her own experience, she offers advice to enthusiastic novices.
“It’s important to know that things don’t happen overnight, and you shouldn’t try to force it,” she says. “That’s where you’re in danger of running yourself ragged. But if you work smart and focus, things can start going well rather quickly. As a new entrepreneur, you have all these ideas coming in, and you really have to be smart with your time…but really try to avoid those distractions, and stay focused on what your plan is. Hire help for your business and definitely keep pushing forward!”
Thanks Alice and Vonetta. I've recently learnt to spend a few hours of focused work instead of trying to grab some work done all day long. This is really great advice for us busy WAHMs.
I'm willing to jump into outsourcing some part of the work (I've done it for certain tasks, but feel I could still get more done if I outsourced some work). How did you started outsourcing at first, Alice?
Posted by: Monica | November 01, 2008 at 07:21 PM