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Mommy Perks is excited to bring this interview your way. Are you a mompreneur? A business owner? An inventor?
Read below and get to know Sandy, owner of abcteach. With over 20 employees now, she might just teach you a thing or two about how to be successful.
The best way to learn is from those who have gone before us…
Enjoy!
Oh – if wish to join abcteach.com you can access a 1/2 price form here. This is the ONLY place you will find this form and this price. FYI 
On with the show!!
1. What is your business?
abcteach is an online business that supplies supplementary materials for teachers and parents to use in their classroom or homes. We provide free materials with over five thousand materials, and we have a membership site with about 35,000 materials. Materials range from simple practice worksheets, to flashcards, certificates, games, puzzles, and more. We also have our abctools that allow custom worksheets, word walls, and much more.
2. Tell us how you got started:
After teaching for 24 years, I wanted more time at home before my two sons left for college. I created most of my teaching materials, and shared them with the younger teachers on my staff. When I left teaching I decided to create a simple website for those teachers to download materials. Once I started I loved the challenge of creating for others. After four months, Yahoo made me Site of the Week, and my visitors multiplied ten-fold. After two years, I needed a way to create enough revenue to keep the site online. The costs were increasing with every new visitor. I established the membership site for those who wanted additional materials, and the site grew quickly. We are ready to celebrate our tenth anniversary in 2010.
3. A lot of our moms and members are business owners. Some are just starting out. What advice or insight can you offer them?
I am first to admit that I didn’t have a business background.
- I think you need to have a love or passion for your business what ever it is. It is this passion that your customers will relate to and come back for more.
- Do not listen to people who say you can’t do it. I heard that a lot, but I ignored them. I had a supportive husband, and my own drive. For me it was rewarding and fun.
- Put in the time. It won’t happen overnight.
- Network, network, network. Use blogs, facebook, twitter, etc. Get your brand out there. I spend a few hours every night networking to schools just letting them know I exist.
- If you are starting an online business, create a simple website for people to find out who, what, and where you are.
- Get help when needed and learn to delegate.
- Have the best customer service you can.
- It is easier now, because there are so many tools and reasonable ways to make a website. I did everything myself at first and slowly added people as I could afford them. The site has been rebuilt several times.
4. You have told me a little about your business and in fact, it’s
quite successful now. You have 20+ employees. If you had to name the
top 5 steps you took to get to this place, what would those steps be?
- Have a good product/content
- Great customer service
- Listen to your customers and their needs
- Have a newsletter. It reminds people who you are and what you offer.
- Find employees and independent contractors that believe in your vision and make them part of your team.
5. What has been the most beneficial marketing strategy for you, thus far.
You have to give your customers a reason to return once they find you.
Have a good product. That said our best marketing tools are our newsletters. We have a newsletter once a month for our free visitors and once a week for our members. Our newsletters list our new content and specials when we have them.
6. Any final thoughts you’d like to share with us?
You have to have a passion for your business. Know your costumer and serve them well. Listen to their needs and have goals. My goal was to be helpful to teachers and parents. They say “go with what you know”. I say “go with what you know and love”. Believe in yourself and your product.
7. Contact info:
Sandy Kemsley
sandy @ abcteach dot com
www.abcteach.com
abcteach FAN PAGE
abcteach on TWITTER
Great interview Sandy and Shara! Sandy, I am working with Shara on a new online business, I would love to chat with you sometime about how you reach out to the schools to let them know you exist and other marketing strategies.
I promote you on my FB Fan page as often as possible and will continue to do so as I have the same market with Treasures 4 Teachers that you do.
Good Luck on your continued success,
Barb