Long ago, in a land far, far away, one little mom wanted to start a blog as a hobby. She had big dreams of running a snazzy dot com from her kitchen table office. She thought maybe one or two other moms might be interested in what it was like to run an internet startup from home. So she blogged about her startup on a site named eMoms at Home.
That little hobby blog grew and it took on a life of its own. 3 months later that one little mom ditched her other startup to work on her hobby blog full time. And suddenly there weren’t just moms hanging around. There were dads too. And even people who didn’t have any kids at all.
So many people came to hang out with this mom that she decided to branch out. She couldn’t keep up with the demand for information on how to run a business from home. So she started to hire authors to lend a hand. Really cool, talented, experienced writers who rocked. Oh, and they knew a thing or two (or twenty) about running a business (and running a family), too.
But this all presented a tiny problem for the little hobby site for “eMoms”.
We were more than just moms (& dads), and more than just home business owners. We were entrepreneurs, telecommuters, moonlighters, freelancers, consultants, bloggers, tech geeks, artists, media professionals, marketers, stay at home parents, authors, podcasters, WAHMs, & WAHDs, and we didn’t want to hear the same old crap about running a business from home. We needed fresh, current, and balanced content that helped us to run a business while making sure we had time for what’s really important in life.
So in April of 2008, exactly two years later, “eMoms at Home” became Sparkplugging.
Why Sparkplugging? Because the people who come to this site are Spark Plugs - we are people who make things happen. We love business, and we love our free time. And we’re willing to do what it takes to make a great living while also living a great a life.
Wendy Piersall is the Founder & CEO of Sparkplugging, the largest blog network dedicated to work at home resources for solo business owners. She also serves as a consulting adviser to Escalate Media, a large network of online communities for women. Wendy has over 12 years of business and marketing experience and is a well known blogging and new media expert. She’s also a professional speaker and has written for online business magazines WomenCo and Entrepreneur.com.
Please also take some time to get to know our authors. They ROCK. Seriously.
 Marla Tabaka, founder and president of LifeMap Coaching, is a Life Coach and Business Development Specialist. Her practice focuses on entrepreneurs and individuals who wish to identify and achieve their life’s vision through a consistent structure of support and innovative strategies and approaches. Marla’s areas of study and expertise include e-myth Mastery Coaching, NLP, (neuro linguistic programming) science of mind philosophy, applied kinesiology, and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). In addition to extensive training in these areas and applications, Marla has studied with the Coach Training Alliance and The Coachville School for Coaches and is a member of the International Coaching Alliance. She has a combined 25 years experience in corporate, start up and entrepreneurial ventures.
Marla also serves as a Success Coach for Make Mine a Million Dollar Business award recipients of the nationally known organization, Count-Me-In for Women’s Economic Independence. Funded by American Express, this coaching program is targeted at assisting promising, women-owned businesses to grow to annual revenues of one-million-dollars and beyond.
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 Brandie Kajino is “The Home Office Organizer“. She enjoys empowering home office professionals to get organized, increase productivity and reduce stress. Brandie’s specialty is helping passionate home office professionals streamline their offices, so they can go out and change their corner of the world. She has been featured on the television show, “This Week In Real Estate”, contributed to Portland Family Magazine, Vancouver Family Magazine and radio talk shows. She is also an active member and volunteer in the National Association of Professional Organizers on a national and local level. She currently lives in the beautiful Portland, Oregon metro area with her husband and son.
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 Susan Payton is the Marketing Eggspert, and owner of Egg Marketing & Public Relations. Egg helps small and medium sized businesses “hatch good ideas” through internet marketing. Egg offers press releases, eNewsletters and marketing strategy. After earning BA degrees in French and English as well as an MBA, Susan found there was a niche for businesses that needed marketing but who couldn’t afford to hire a marketing staff. She developed her company to serve this niche. Susan is a self-professed entrepreneur, and is the author of Lifetips 101 Entrepreneur Tips. She is passionate about helping other entrepreneurs achieve their dreams.
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 Lisa is a 30 something bag-making-o-holic, who in 2005 turned that passion for making bags into a business at U-Handbag. 2 years later her bag making supplies e-commerce business is ticking over nicely, and she adores running it! It is by far the most satisfying job she has ever had. Lisa gets such a kick out of running her own craft business that she works hard to help other women and men who want to make a living as an artisan experience similar highs (and hopefully fewer lows!) for themselves.
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 Derek is a father to two terrific boys and has managed to cast a spell over a terrific woman that agreed to be his wife. Like many superheros before him, he dons the disguise of a Software Engineer by day and answers the call of the Interweb by night. With a B.S. - if you only knew - in Computer Science, he thrives in a technical setting but really loves the opportunity to work at home to be close to his family. As the founder of Red Staple Media, Derek is enjoying the ability to blog about his passions, share time with his wife and kids, and hit the open road on his Harley at a moments notice.
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Shannon Hutton believes the key to living a happy life is balance. On good days, she gets work done and plays with her three girls! She draws on her experience working full-time, part-time and from home with three kids to blog about the universal challenge of achieving work-life balance at Believer in Balance. In addition, she uses her Master’s in Education and professional experience as a School Counselor to write about parenting and school issues in her Ask the School Counselor weekly segment. Shannon also gives away free loot to parents on Momsational and shares easy and fun kids crafts, recipes and coloring pages at Seasonal Kids Activities.
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 Lorna Doone Brewer is a freelance writer and entrepreneur based in Spokane, Washington. After earning a B.A. in Theatre Arts at Gonzaga University, she took her love for the arts and social justice one step further by pursuing an M.A. in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis in Nonprofit Organizations. Along with her business partner, Tamara Berry, Lorna combined this education with a passion for writing to found the Berry-Brewer Freelance Agency. The company produces a variety of materials for businesses, with a special focus on nonprofit organizations. From grants to web content, Lorna and the entire Berry-Brewer Freelance Agency strive to help each organization fulfill its mission.
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 Tamara Berry is a freelance writer/editor and co-founder of the Berry-Brewer Freelance Agency. She currently holds a B.A. in English Literature with a special focus on technical writing. Although literature is her passion, her primary focus throughout her professional career has been writing for a variety of business types, including a special focus on nonprofit organizations. She currently lives in Spokane, WA with her husband and daughter.
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Dawud Miracle, Contributing Author, Sparkplug CEO
 Dawud Miracle is a business growth adviser that has been in the trenches with business owners since 2003 teaching them how to increase revenue while creating more free time. Today he not only build static websites and blogs, but I also help small business owners understand how to use the full internet to expand their own businesses. He’s doing more and more coaching and consulting to help clients learn how to use these incredible tools or to help them solve a problem in part of their business that’s stuck.
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 Kelly McCausey worked hard for others for many years and never made ends meet. Now this single mom enjoys the freedom that comes from working hard for herself as an internet marketer, podcaster and WAHM business coach. Host of Work at Home Moms Talk Radio, Kelly is driven to help other moms achieve their personal and professional dreams of working at home.
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 After earning a college degree and honing 8 years of professional experience, Jessica Smith became a mom. Some say you can’t have best of both worlds, both motherhood and career, she’s here to tell you that it’s possible. Jessica telecommutes every day from her home in the DC suburbs working a flexible, family-friendly schedule for Seattle-based Wishpot.com as Chief Mom Officer. Dream job? You better believe it! What does she do as a Chief Mom Officer? Jessica works with Wishpot’s amazing Mom and Dad Experts and develops strategic partnerships on behalf of Wishpot with companies who are passionate about parents and children. In her spare time she enjoys blogging, vlogging, reading books on her Kindle, and spending quality time with friends and family. You can also find her on her personal blog at JessicaKnows.
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 Kristie owns the eCommerce store Nitro Toyz, is an entrepreneur and a mother of three. From a strong background in systems consulting, Kristie made the transition into Working At Home over 2 years ago and has specialized in eCommerce stores and web marketing. Her experience with building her own online Yahoo! store combined with her passion for consulting and teaching others to do the same has catapulted her career in eCommerce and Online Business coaching & consulting.
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  Teresa is on the Florida Board of Advisors with The WECAI Network ™ and Editor at Large at WE Magazine for Women ™. And recently, she has been accepted as a regular contributing writer for Sparkplugging. Since late 2004, she has developed strong connections with others on the internet and shares her passion with her clients. She enjoys writing, networking and creating beneficial connections for others.
Teresa started her company, Key Business Partners, as a virtual assistance company based on her over 15 years experience in executive administrative positions. Key Business Partners has evolved to an online promotion company for authors, speakers and writers where she puts the promotional pieces together for her clients so they can concentrate on core business tasks.
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Wendy Piersall, Sparkplug CEO
