How did you become an entrepreneur?
I’ve consulted for many years, but went back to a traditional job as a Sales & Marketing executive in 2007 for two years and realized while I was there that I wanted to build a team and a service of my own and make my own contribution to the world.
What is the nature of your business? What kind of product/service to you provide?
A “connection” portal for enrichment providers and parents so that quality local teachers can affordably and effectively connect with the students they were meant to teach.
Why do you love what you do?
I feel fulfilled every time I talk with an enrichment provider because they’re truly living their “Personal Legends” and showing our kids firsthand that it’s possible to be passionate about your livelihood. And, in going through the process of adding all these wonderful programs to the site, I get excited as a parent that even though the schools themselves may be eliminating extracurriculars due to state budget cuts, there are some incredible programs right in our backyard that I can enroll my kids in to supplement their educations. And I’m *really* excited about our next generation site feature—group buying—which will help Providers make sure their classes are profitable by making sure they’re filled…and will hopefully help bring the prices of some of the classes down for parents because Providers will be able to have a lower price per student with a bigger group of students enrolled.
How long have you been in business for yourself?
I started working on Kidzmet in Q4 of 2009 and we started advertising to parents at the beginning of April 2010.
How do you attract clients?
We’ve been doing a lot of testing and analytics to see what pulls best, but have been attracting parents via publicity, print advertising, online advertising, brochures in key local locations, and social media (Twitter and Facebook), as well as limited time promotional giveaways. We’ve also been reaching out to providers via phone, email and in-person. And we’ve just started doing seminars and speaking engagements to talk about what Kidzmet is all about and how it can benefit both parents and providers.
Share any information that helps to further describe your business.
We haven’t received any awards yet, since we’ve just been live for a couple of months…but in our first two months of advertising to parents just in San Luis Obispo & Santa Barbara Counties, we generated close to 40,000 page views, had almost 5,000 site visitors and gotten an enthusiastic reaction from both parents and providers, so I think those stats show we’re headed the right direction. And we’re hoping that we generate some votes of confidence via Startup Nation’s Leading Moms in Business competition over the summer.
Contact info
Jen Lilienstein
805.252.3649
jen.lili@kidzmet.com
www.kidzmet.com
Twitter: @kidzmet
Facebook: Kidzmet
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