Online Biz Member Success Blog

JoAnne Barton, EssentialAssociate.com

Your Name: JoAnne Barton

Name of Business: EssentialAssociate.com

Type of business: Virtual Business Manager

What does your business do? Helps small business owners manage the details of their business.

Why did you start the biz and when did your business open? Officially started August 2004.  I wanted to help business owners reach their goals and utilizing my skills and experience at a higher level would help them achieve their goals.

How many people in your company? 1 - myself

What's your office location like?  My office is the third bedroom of our three-bedroom house.  My husband and I converted it into an office prior to opening my business.  We added shelves to the closet - for storage of office supplies and equipment.  The walls are painted "Lavender Twilight" and depending on how the light is in the room, it looks blue or light purple.

I'm able to look out the window and see birds in the tree just outside the window, and squirrels playing along the top of the fence.

What's the toughest part of running your biz? Allowing myself to promote my business.  Yes, there is some fear in being on your own, and it has been a big factor in hindering marketing and talking about my business.

What's the most fun part?  I truly enjoy meeting new people.  I belong to a few online communities, along with speaking with potential clients, I'm able to meet people from all over the U.S. and the world.

Anything you would have done differently?

1.  Don't let fear stand in your way!
2.  Continued to work part-time while getting my business started so that there was still an income and then transition full-time into the business.

Explain what's next on the horizon for you and your business?  Really getting it up and running.  I've had some hit and miss opportunities along the way, and now I want to really showcase my talent and get things rockin'-n-rollin'

What advice do you have for others?   Don't be afraid!  Decide on what you want and go after it!  Ask for help when you're not sure, and even when you ARE sure!  Get a different perspective!  Be willing to help others along the way!

How do you use OnlineBizU.com to help with your biz or sanity? Utilizing the diversity and experience of the members to move my business forward.  Bouncing off new ideas with the members will allow me to get a different perspective.  Have someone to "rant or rave" to!  Getting help when I need it.  Being able to give back to a community that has been helpful to me!

Personal Info:

School

Lee College, Baytown, TX 

• Associate of Applied Science Operations Management & Supervision (formerly called Business Management degree)
• Associate of Applied Science Medical Record Technology (now known as Health Information Technology)

Prior jobs or business?  A variety of jobs in the Admin field.  I've worked in non-traditional medical offices; rehab facility; medial liability insurance. . .

Favorite food?  Chocolate, of course! 

What are your pets' names?  Skyler, a 13-year-old Cocker Spaniel; Roxy, a 14-year-old Chow Chow; Callie, a 16-year-old gray kitty, Chelsea, a 15-year-old gray kitty and Beaux, an 18-year-old Cockatiel!

Do any of these pets help with your biz?  Skyler and Callie hang out with me in my office.  (Skyler will hang in whatever room I'm in, most of the time.) Callie makes me share my office chair with her.  That's her way of keeping an eye on the business.

What person or event in your life led you to go into business for yourself? A combination of people.  My main reason for going into business for myself was to be able to take my skills and experience to the next level and really give 100% of me to my clients.

Website URL: http://www.essentialassociate.com

 

Jean Hanson, TheJanitorialStore.com

Your Name: Jean Hanson

Name of Business: TheJanitorialStore.com

Type of business: Subscription website for owners of small cleaning companies

What does your business do? Help people who want to start a small cleaning business or take their cleaning business to the next level. We have all the tools needed including online and telephone discussion forums, forms, ebooks, bidding calculators, articles, videos, product reviews, recorded interviews and much more.

Why did you start the biz and when did your business open? (We launched the website in Oct 2005. We've owned two successful cleaning companies, so it's a perfect fit for us. We owned the first company for 15 years. In 2001 we decided to move closer to family so we sold the business. We then started a new cleaning company at our new location and it took only 5 years to match sales of our previous company. We decided to share what we learned with others who are struggling to get their cleaning company off the ground. We've found that we're very passionate about helping our members become successful and are now working towards getting a good team in place to run the cleaning business so we can devote more time to the website.

How many people in your company?

Cleaning business - 15

Website - 4 (myself, husband, 2 part-time assistants)

What's your office location like?  We were very fortunate when we moved because we found a house that had room for 2 offices, plus a shop. So we started the cleaning business at home. We then leased an office space for a couple years. I continued to work out of my home office, which I love because it's a very private property surrounded by woods so I have a view of trees out of every window, and a great deck and 3 season porch for relaxing. A couple years ago we bought a piece of property and last year we built a 3200 sq ft office/warehouse for our cleaning and janitorial supplies business. Click here for a picture.. We feel very fortunate to be able to own our own commercial building, and it's perfect for our business.

What's the toughest part of running your biz?

1. Finding and retaining quality people. This is what holds us back from growing as fast as we'd like.
2. Totally escaping from the business for a REAL vacation. We've started traveling a lot, combining business and vacations. We do like doing this, as it gets us away quite frequently. However we still have things that we handle for the business that are not delegated so it's hard to get away without being in touch by phone and email. The goal for this next year is to get people in place who can handle things and put out the fires for us so we don't have to be present every moment.

What's the most fun part?  The best part is when we get positive feedback on what we're doing. It lets us know that we are really helping our members succeed in their business. This morning I got up and checked my email and received this message:

Subject line: This website is the greatest!

Hi Steve and Jean, I am a new member to this web-site. I joined about 2 months ago. I tell you I am so excited about the wonderful things this site has to offer for my business, that I get scared that you guys may disappear. I truly want to keep you around for ever. If I had not found you guys , I would still be struggling, and doing lots more research then I have time to. Thank you so much. I know a lot of hard work has gone into this site and I just want to say I appreciate every second of your time and energy. You guys are helping me put my business on the map.

 

Helping our members is fun and when you get comments like this it reinforces that we made the right choice. Oh, and by the way, Donna Gunter is the one who

prompted me to get going on this website so I owe a HUGE THANKS to her!!

Anything you would have done differently? Learn to let go of repetitive tasks and things that can be handled by others. In other words, delegate or outsource sooner!  It's hard for me to give up the things I'm used to doing and I sometimes worry that someone else won't be able to handle it as well as I do. It does take time to find the right people and train them, but once you've freed up more of your valuable time it's definitely worth it.

Explain what's next on the horizon for you and your business?  For the website, lots of new things - partnerships, interviews, videos to name a few. For the cleaning business, expansion into a new market, hiring another sales person.

What advice do you have for others?   It took me 20 years to really find something I'm passionate about. Don't wait that long! If there's something you want, go after it. Just make sure you're not going after a pipe dream. Do a lot of research and be prepared to work harder than you may have ever worked before. Just know that you're doing it for YOU, not an employer who knows that everyone is replaceable. Also make sure that your family is on board and that you have money saved to help you through the start-up phase.

How do you use OnlineBizU.com to help with your biz or sanity? I used to subscribe to dozens of newsletters from Internet marketers. Eventually I found that they all talked about the same things and promoted the same products. Donna's is one of the few newsletters I continue to subscribe to because she's always up to date on everything related to Internet marketing, so I rely on her to keep me up to date on what's happening. When Donna launched OnlineBizU, I had no hesitation about joining the site.because she offers great advice in the discussion forum, in-depth and informative articles, and useful downloads.

School

• Some college
• Associate degrees in marketing, retailing, fashion merchandising (yeah, like I used that one!)
• Assist University (CPVA - Certified Professional Virtual Assistant)
• ... and the school of hard knocks ;->

Prior jobs or business?

• Operations manager for many years at large retailer in WI
• Co-owner of Hanson Building Maintenance, Inc. in Boise ID (sold in 2002)
• Owner of VA Office Solution (closed in 2006 to work on TheJanitorialStore.com)
• Co-owner of Brainerd Lakes Cleaning and Supply in MN
• Co-owner of TheJanitorialStore.com

Favorite food?  I don't think I have a favorite because there are so many I like! And like most women, chocolate is a very important part of my diet...lol

What are your pets' names?

• Sammy - cairn terrier
  
• Bailey, my golden retriever recently died. He joins his best buddy Casey, our black lab who died in 2003.

Do any of these pets help with your biz?  Bailey helped me a lot with my business. Whenever I got frustrated he came running to put his head on my leg to let me know it was going to be ok. Sammy bugs me to get my butt out of my chair to go for a walk or just to play. If he didn't bug me I'm afraid I'd never get out of my office!

What person or event in your life led you to go into business for yourself?

One person and one event:

1. My husband Steve. He's a natural entrepreneur, and he taught me how to become an entrepreneur and how step out of my box.

2. I was totally frustrated at my job and at my wit's end. I couldn't find a job that paid what I was making and I kept resisting joining my husband in his cleaning business. I finally had to either join his business or continue going crazy at my dead end job. It was the best thing I ever did.  Eventually I felt ready to start my virtual assistant business and was very successful. That gave me the confidence to launch TheJanitorialStore.com which is doing great.

Website URL:

Website - http://www.thejanitorialstore.com

Blog - http://www.cleaning-success.com

 

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Your Name:
 
Name of Business:
 
Type of business: (In 10 words or less. Examples: Marketing Consultant,   Website Designer, Professional Organizer, Mortgage Broker, etc.)
 
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Why did you start the biz and when did your business open? (Give month &   year started. TIP: we expect at least a beefy sentence or two about WHY you   started the business!
 
How many people in your company?
 
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What's the most fun part? (Elaborate on what makes it all worthwhile.)
 
Anything you would have done differently? (Here's your chance to help   others learn from your own experiences.)
 
Explain what's next on the horizon for you and your business?
 
What advice do you have for others? (Don't hold back!)
 
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Personal Info:
 
School (where, still in school, degree?)
 
Prior jobs or business?
 
Favorite food?
 
What are your pets' names?
 
Do any of these pets help with your biz?
 
What person or event in your life led you to go into business for yourself?
 
Website URL: (If your biz has a live site you want to link to.)
 
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