What motivated you to start your businesses?

As a permanently disabled wife and mother to 3 boys, I am completely dedicated to my family. I homeschool my children as well as take care of 2 primates and other animals on our family farm. While being a mother and wife on the farm is full-time in itself, I would watch my husband, day in and day out, work hard to bring in funds regardless of what our home life, my health, or our kids and primates threw at him. This observation sparked the idea of starting my very own home business. I just wanted to do anything that would make life easier for him and allow him to spend more time with our kids. In the beginning, I tried several business concepts. While I had fun developing these ideas, they weren’t exactly “IT” yet. 

In 2019, I lost my dad suddenly. We had a very special bond and that bond was equally as strong between him and my husband and children. He was brilliantly smart as a VP of mechanical engineering and global technology with Thyssen Krupp Elevator and had created several patents through his engineering expertise. In all of his success, he would treat me with designer bags throughout my childhood. He purchased so many bags that he built a reputable connection with these designer brands which carried over to me as an adult. 

When I lost my father, a piece of me died that day as well, however, as the weeks passed, another part of me ignited. What if I used my connection with these luxury brands to start a personal shopping business? It was a perfect idea. I got to keep my connection with my dad, which made me feel close to him, but I also got to have more time with my family while building an additional income. Leaping, putting a lot of skin in the game, and opening up with a pure heart and vulnerable soul allowed me to cultivate a successful business that is not only special to my family, but also reduces my husband’s stress and gives him more time with us.

How did you create your brand and what were the sole ideas behind them?

When you are permanently disabled and homebound like I am, you start thinking outside of the box about everything in life. I wanted to offer a convenient brand experience straight to my customer’s door without lacking in the quality of service and expertise that is offered when going into a brand’s physical location.  Thanks to my dad, I have the contacts to do so. 

I also wanted to make items more attainable for everyone. My clients can have that one on one service that will result in an item that will fit their style and needs. Whether our customers know what they want when they meet with us or we search for a bag that meets their needs altogether, we take great care to find their perfect designer bag.

What advice would you give future entrepreneurs who want to build a business?

Running a business is difficult and hard but is worth it. The key is, being ALL IN. There has to be a passion, heart, soul, and everything in between. You are going to make mistakes, struggle, and have scary times because you know it is all on the line, but do not get discouraged because, with grit and determination, you will achieve your dreams! I have learned a lot along the way and every bit has been strengthened by my mistakes and successes. Believe me, it has not been all unicorns and rainbows here but I have remained consistent and persistent and know that this will be successful and something that people will love and benefit from, just like my dad and I had talked about. 

I’m nowhere near where I want to be, but I’m on my way to the finish line and it is the journey and those whose lives we touch on the way that makes this story and business even more special for me and my family. It is not about if you CAN achieve business success, because everyone is CAPABLE of success; it is whether you WANT it bad enough. I am a firm believer that if you make your mind up to do something then you can achieve it with a little bit of hard work. Remember, business is not an overnight project, it is a process of accumulation and the hard work that you have to continuously put in.

What is next for Amanda Bass?

I embrace me being different than most in the fashion world as it gives me a different outlook than everyone else and has helped me to develop a unique goal path for my company. My long-term goal in this company is to bring my husband home so he can enjoy more family time and the joys of owning a farm. As far as a short term goal for my business, I would like to ramp up on inventory so that I may offer a try on a gallery, which is where we will set up a one on one appointment with the client so that we can learn your style, as well as help you decide if you are a person that needs to try it in your hand or is more comfortable with a measurement process. We are still developing the try-on gallery concept but I hope to have it fully developed in the coming year. 

There is always something you can do to grow when owning a business and in my opinion, that is the fun of it! There are so many things on my constantly growing list. I’m always developing my ideas by incorporating the things that I love but that will still reach my ultimate goal. 

Through this business, I hope to inspire those who are permanently disabled and homebound. There are so many opportunities to grow and create from their life regardless of their situation. I have always been taught that there are no limits on life except for those your mindsets for yourself.

Follow Amanda Bass on Instagram (www.instagram.com/gotitinthebag) and reach out to her with any business inquiries via email at amanda@gotitinthebag.com

The post AMANDA BASS SHARES HER STORY ON PARENTING, DISABILITY, AND BUILDING HER BUSINESS appeared first on CEO Medium.

From a college student with no experience in virtual support in 2008, Kimberley Reyes is now a Certified Online Business Manager and Certified Asana Pro with over 10 years of experience building and scaling businesses with digital entrepreneurs, leaders, and change-makers from all over the world.

With her degree in European Studies (International Relations) from Ateneo De Manila University, multiple international certifications, and training under her belt, she creates a unique blend between human connection and strategy to support clients in organizing their businesses and setting them up for growth.

She now makes consistent 6-figure months as an Online Business Manager and Virtual Assistant Agency Owner. But, what makes this all the more interesting is that she does this while raising her four children with her firefighter husband.

However, it wasn’t a smooth journey. When she started offering virtual support, she was widely criticized by others and was discouraged to continue her work because it wasn’t “real” work. While her colleagues went on to enter corporate jobs, she was “just” working from home. She also struggled as she built her business from the ground up with four kids while her husband was in service.

However, she didn’t allow the blocks to stop her from achieving her vision of going global and helping provide job opportunities for women through her business. She worked long hours to fund her training and stayed in instead of going out with friends to get her certifications done. And, with the support of her husband and children, a close-knit mastermind, and a “Rest if you must, but don’t quit” attitude, she achieved her vision and continues to make it bigger so she can impact more lives.

Then, the pandemic hit. While others struggled to make ends meet, her business thrived. She grabbed the opportunity of businesses shifting online by providing support during and after the transition.

Through her work as an Online Business Manager and Virtual Assistant Agency Owner, she hopes to support more business owners in growing their businesses without the burn out and huge financial losses through data-driven decision-making.

By supporting these businesses, she also hopes to provide more job opportunities for women, mothers especially.

Most importantly, she hopes to become an inspiration for other women who want to impact lives through their life story and their work.

Her advice to those who want to follow in her footsteps is best captured by a question asked in her favorite book, Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”

Kimberley Reyes’ expertise is in establishing systems, launch strategy and management, and team growth and management. She works closely with 6- and 7-figure entrepreneurs who are ready to get off the hamster wheel of doing all the things themselves and step into their CEO shoes.

To learn more about how she can support you, book a discovery call at www.momonduty.com.

Company name: Kimberley Reyes OBM

Email Address: kim@momonduty.com

Website: www.momonduty.com 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ektreyes 
Instagram: instagram.com/momondutyblog

The post Online Business Manager Kimberley Reyes Manages and Scales Businesses to 6 and 7 Figures While Raising 4 kids appeared first on CEO Medium.

Born and raised in an army family from Pakistan, she graduated from a reputable dental school in Karachi.

She also has an MBA degree, after getting married  She moved to Riyadh, worked at a medical school as Vice-chairperson dental health care department, after having her baby she wanted to enjoy motherhood to its fullest so happily took a career break. And this was when mommyonadventures came into existence.

Hina loves to try new cuisines as She is a big-time foodie, traveling is also a passion for her, she loves to click pictures though according to her she is still learning. According to her

mommyonadventures is her happy place, where she connects with people and enjoys her me time.

When she started blogging she made some new friends who guided her and helped to learn a lot of new things.

In a short period, she feels she has achieved so much in her blogging journey. Her followers appreciate her reviews they love what she does and this is what makes her happy, Now after she is taking further steps in her blogging, and has started collaborating with some big companies and major brands in the middle east region.

She is just loving the whole experience.

Tell us about who you are and what you do.

Hina Adnan; a dentist by profession and a blogger by choice. After giving birth to my beautiful daughter in Riyadh, the only thing that I had in my mind was to keep my sanity alive regardless. Raising a kid and going to the hospital was no joke back then so I happily took a career break and decided to do something worthy (from home). One year later, here I am successfully (if I may say so) and happily using my space to share and talk about lifestyle, food, travel, motherhood, and much more! It’s not something very extraordinary but ordinary in a beautiful way.

Tell us how you created this brand and what was the sole idea behind it?

I’m always the happy-go-lucky kind of person! Always cheering others up and always finding a reason to call it a day! Blogging was never my ultimate goal – no kidding! I made a blog just by the way to remind myself that I’m doing something for myself at-least.

I have always believed that before a wife, mother, and daughter, there was a person in me too. An actual person. I did not want that person to be lost somewhere. Hence, I thought let’s use this platform to express what I genuinely feel. A place where I’m just a person with so much on my mind. I can finally be myself for as long as I want to be.

Go in detail and tell us about how your brand works. You may keep this from the audience’s perspective?

There is no competition for me and I am not in the rat race to be the best blogger and please everyone. As mentioned before, I try to be as genuine as possible, therefore, I just go with the flow. I don’t plan my blog. Every day, I have a different mood and so I let the vibe decide for me. My page is for everyone, there is a little bit of everything here for everyone. I have a lot of male followers too who enjoy my food reviews and travel experiences as well.

What is your giveaway idea through this interview? Highlight something that may interest the readers on a one to one basis.

Very old school but ‘live and let live!’ After so much going on around us during the past year, I just want everyone to celebrate small things in life. Count your blessings and be grateful for what you have in life. Travel, eat out, make memories with your loved ones, and call it a day! 🙂

Explain the challenges you went through while you were working on brand creation. What are the challenges you go through on an everyday basis?

I have always underestimated myself in general which is not a very good thing of course! I had doubts before starting my blog because there were so many bloggers out there and it was a mad race about chasing followers and flaunting them. With time, I started understanding the world of blogging more and now I can say that I’m much confident than before still not 10/10 but I think it’s better than being overconfident.

How do you manage your finances through the services you offer. Any fundings etc received?

With partnerships and sponsorships, although it’s not as easy as it may sound or look. Devotion and hard work is the only key to success. 

Tell us your future vision about the brand. How far do you want to take it? What is your dream about taking it to the next level?

Let’s not spill all the beans at once! 😉 But one thing for sure: it was always genuine and worthy enough!

What message would you like to give to anybody who has a plan of creating something of their own and making a living through it?

Patience and patience my friend! And then comes, time and energy. You should use your own space if you’re passionate enough and loves to talk!

For more information contact Hina Adnan (mommyonadventures)

Email Address: Hina4adnan@gmail.com 

Instagram:  www.instagram.com/mommyonadventures

The post Interview with Hina Adnan: The Success Journey From a Dentist to a Lifestyle Influencer appeared first on CEO Medium.

She belongs to Lahore, Pakistan where she spent all her life before getting married. She has an MBA & MPHIL degree and she started her career as a lecturer in a reputed university of Lahore. After getting married, she moved to Madinah, Saudi Arabia where she again opted to teach as her career. Then she moved to Khobar where she took a break from her career. She loves to cook and her cooking was always appreciated by her family and friends, so she started her cooking page on Facebook where she shares her recipes and photos of her cooking. She loves to connect with others so she started her Facebook group also where she shares event details, sales updates, promotions, etc. She runs her blog on Instagram and Facebook where she shares everything that she is passionate about.

She started her blog on Instagram one and a half years ago by converting her private account to a business profile with the name “DRSWIFEDIARIES”. Initially, she was not much active on her blog but in March 2020 during COVID-19 lockdown she focused on her blog and took it as a serious job. She got connected to some good bloggers who motivated her and shared their valuable tips with her. In a short time span, she achieved so much in her blogging journey. When her followers appreciated her for her recipes, her reviews, she took further steps in her blogging and started collaborating with companies and brands. 

 Her blog features all the details from food recipes to food reviews, product reviews, restaurant reviews, new cafes or restaurants opening updates in her town, DIYs, and anything or everything related to every woman’s life. Her blog is her happy space where she loves to shares and connects with her followers. She does photography for her reviews and products with all the necessary details to make it easy for her followers to choose from her feed. She tries and makes sure that there is something that can help everyone on her blog so she can attract a bigger audience. She always has amazing discount codes for her followers also. She feels happy if her blog can help someone in any way and then she feels her achievement.

Blogging is a challenging job–especially when there are already thousands of bloggers around you for every niche. Even if you have been a blogger for many years, you will still find something new every day. If you are new to blogging, you are probably going to face (or have already faced) many challenges in the beginning. Some of these challenges can be materialistic and some are related to your mindset. Every post on a blog requires a lot of hard work and effort. Tons of photos have to been taken, then editing, writing reviews, selecting suitable hashtags, and ultimately keep interacting with others to stand out in this blogging world with your brand. Increasing the following count and engagement on posts is also one of the challenges because a good engagement rate means a good reach of the posts which are sometimes necessary to have an excellent Instagram insight. This is because sometimes brands ask for insights for collaborations.

According to her blogging is not difficult but developing your followers’ trust is the main thing. Just understand that through hard work, creating your style, and perseverance everything are possible.

Blogging isn’t the easiest way to make money. With over a billion monthly users, 71% of whom are under 35 years, Instagram is the platform of aspiration, inspiration, and now in-app checkout. In the start, there was no earning through her blog. She spent her money on the props which she needed for her photography. But affiliating with some companies and brand sponsorships which she recently started now her blog is going to become a money earner for her.

She wishes to grow more with her brand into a lifestyle niche and wants to become a full-time blogger. She wants to pursue blogging as her career and wants her blog traffic to grow further so she can become one of the top influencers. She wants to create more amazing content for her social media family in the future.

Her message for all the newcomers who want to step into this field is that you cannot be successful without putting the hard work into it. You need continuous effort, consistency, skills development, learning new techniques, time, and commitment. Understand and connect with your audience and come up with what they want to see and hear. Select the right social media channels according to the target audience and establish your identity through your style which can differentiate you from others. Develop good terms with other people in your community.

Reach out to DRSWIFEDIARIES on :

Email: nosheenimran23@gmail.com 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/drswifediaries 

The post Nousheen Imran & Her Journey on Becoming a Lifestyle Influencer From a Lecturer appeared first on CEO Medium.

Karla is a mother of two children, Tatum and Gunnar, and married to her husband Mike for 16 years.

Originally from Lima, Peru, Karla put her roots in Arizona in2006. She came with 500 dollars in her pocket and a luggage full of dreams. 

In 2010, she started to day trade during her free time and she also started to invest in real estate and as a private investor in startup companies.

In 2017, Karla and her husband opened a nursery decor business, The Polymath Mom. It started as a hobby but it quickly turned into a successful business. She started painting nursery signs to clear her head from work and escape the stress of day trading. With the music up, she would paint for hours late into the night. Today, The Polymath Mom shop has over 200,000 followers on Instagram.

Little after opening her home décor business. She decided to turn her private Instagram account into a lifestyle, family, and travel page. She now is a full-time content creator and has also founded a marketing company with her husband and provides services to businesses and other content creators.

Karla has over 300,000 followers on Instagram and over 400,000 followers on TikTok. She loves coaching and helping people become financially free. She shares her day trading tips on her stories and she also provides one on one coaching to businesses and influencers.

She mentions she had a hard time sharing a lot of her private life but then she soon realized so many moms and people need help and positivity so she got out of her comfort zone and decided to share her knowledge with others. Karla talks a lot about her struggles as an entrepreneur and being a full-time mother.

Her life-changing moment was one day when she was taking her kids to school and she almost falls asleep and crashed. She has dealt with insomnia since college and she would get little sleep due to all of her side gigs. So when that happened, she knew it was time to quit her job as a civil engineer and be more present for her kids.

Her family is so much happier now that she is more around and she has so much flexibility and can work from home and spend more time with her loved ones.

Karla has worked with a variety of brands, from clothes, beauty products to resorts. She loves the variety and different projects she gets with her job as a content creator.

Karla is currently partnering with a friend to expand her business and offer other products on her website. She is working on a ‘mommy and me’ apparel collection and helping small businesses by giving them exposure to their products on her platform.

Karla’s advice for success is to be disciplined and be consistent. She says she doesn’t watch TV except when she is looking for news on the stock market. She doesn’t take no for an answer and when a door closes you find or make another door or window.

Karla’s ultimate dream is to open a non-profit organization to help kids struggling from poverty or distressed homes and ultimately help families in her native Peru just like her parents did as she grew up.

Polymath Mom LLC

Website: www.thepolymathmom.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/polymathmom

The post A Polymath Mom Story appeared first on CEO Medium.