Devoted to small businesses and those who run them

* What accomplishments are you most proud of during your career? Has your business or product won any awards, mentions in the press, garnered praise in reviews or by users, or helped someone overcome a challenge of their own? Tell us about it!

I’m sure this will sound terrible, but there isn’t really one accomplishment I can point to. I guess the fact that I am staying true to myself, my family, and my God is my biggest career accomplishment. I love it when I hear from someone who either was touched by something on TheHomeCast or who loved an idea that I shared with them through Once Upon a Family. Awards and meeting goals are all nice, but those are temporary and only matter to me. I hope that my accomplishments come from the lives I touch and how they put that to use.

* Without spilling the beans, what is in the works for your business or product line for 2006? Where are you headed, and where do you hope to be by the end of the year? What about the coming years? Share your goals with us and tell us how you plan to achieve them.

THC: TheHomeCast is something that continually evolves in vision. I continue to reevaluate how to best direct my efforts there and insure that we are reaching our audience and sharing relevant information with them. One of my most recent decisions was to consolidate our current e-newsletters into one monthly e-newsletter. I will also be looking into different podcast formats and how to best tailor those to my schedule as well as our audience.

OUAF: Right now my biggest goal is laying a strong foundation for Once Upon a Family in central and northern Maine. As far as yearlong goals, I would like to have consistent monthly sales, and would like to build a strong team of consultants within Maine and throughout the United States. Once Upon a Family is literally a ground floor business opportunity for anyone interested. We currently have right around 2,500 consultants in the US, so there is plenty of incentive to build a successful business.

As far as achieving those goals my plan is three fold:

1. Forming relationships throughout Maine via home celebrations.
2. Working with groups to share Once Upon a Family’s mission and simple ways for families to build strong, meaningful relations that last a lifetime through speaking engagements.
3. Strategically targeted national print and internet ads.

* Have you worked with a mentor who has led you far? Take a moment to recognize their contribution(s) and we’ll all applaud with you!

I really haven’t worked with a mentor, so to speak, but I have surrounded myself with individuals who share the same passions as I do and who bring different things to the table. My final sounding board is always my husband who both encourages me and celebrates with me. The internet has also been a huge resource as far as business ideas, resources, and support. One of my largest sounding boards has actually been Melonie (Murray)! Her personality, work experience and ability to communicate business strategies have been one of the biggest surprises of the past year for me. I count myself very blessed to be able to call her both a friend and a colleague.