Annette Yen 2.0

It has been awhile since I introduced you to a great work at home mom who is taking excellent advantage of Web 2.0 strategies so today I’m going to share Annette Yen from Fun on the Ark.

Annette is a great friend of mine and in addition to featuring here on Sparkplugging, I asked her to co-host Work at Home Moms Talk Radio with me this week, so go listen in to our conversation there too!

Annette, when did you first decide to look for a way to work from home?

I started working from home right away when I had my first child. I was an assistant to two pastors at a large church and continued to work for them as a VA (even before that was a common term) after my daughter was born. From there I started looking for other businesses that I could do when they went back to having an in house assistant.

How did you sort through your ideas for a work at home business?

I had done direct sales already in high school and actually got hooked on the direct sales model by going to a home party with a friend and helping her to see the benefit of joining that company for herself. About 6 months later I was ready to join up myself and signed up under her as a representative. I loved it – the parties and the recruiting and as I started to build a team I really started searching for ideas and ways to be a good team leader and duplicate that throughout my organization.

Where did you look for inspiration?

I’m a resource junkie. I have shelves of business books, listened to cassettes (now CD’s) of people in business. When things started to boom on the internet somehow (oh how I wish I could remember) I found myself listening to a live conference call of you, Kelly, interviewing Alice Seba. This was back when Mom Masterminds was still really young and you all were planning to do a cruise. I was completely in awe and knew then that the stuff that you ladies were talking about could apply to my direct sales business too. I didn’t join Mom Masterminds right away (my one regret) because it was so internet marketing focused and I didn’t think that I’d benefit from it then but I continued to stalk you and Alice from that day on! I found Nicole Dean through one of your Ryze networks I think and the rest is history. I continue to look to you ladies for my inspiration and motivation but I also continue to be a resource and learning junkie. I love to learn more.

Is there anything that you’ve tried that you would say didn’t work for you?

Well, yeah. Because of my resource addiction I have a tendency to buy everything that sounds good. I linked up with another company for a while that I thought would compliment my current one pretty well and tried their mode of doing business. It was horrible and unfortunately my excitement about the potential pulled some friends in as well – I feel really bad about that. I still learned from them – some things to do and not to do but their style of doing business was definitely not me!

What do you love about what you are doing to work at home today?

I love being home with my daughters and living and working with them. I love interacting with “old” friends and meeting new friends through the internet. I love the fact that because of the internet I can marry my enjoyment of writing with my direct sales business.

How are you applying Web 2.0 tactics to your business?

I guess I’m still trying to “get” what 2.0 means but I’m enjoying the whole idea of relationship building through the web in many ways – whether it’s quick twitter comments back and forth with a group, joining in a conference room for fun and networking or doing a guest blog post for a fellow work at home mom’s blog. Although I can’t always quantify how each of these things helps my business I do know that overall it’s been a good thing – a really good thing.

What are your hopes for the future?

I think about this a lot and although I do have goals I’m more of a day at a time person when I think of my business. There is so much change out there especially as you look at how to “work” the internet. I hope that I can continue to enjoy what I’m doing, continue to bring some income into the family while still interacting with my girls on a daily basis and continue to meet new and interesting people around the world.

What advice would you give a new work at home mom?

People who know me are probably getting tired of me saying this but I’d advise a new work at home mom to be consistent and persistent. Determine that if you’re going to work from home that you will WORK it regularly (a little or a lot every day, every other day, etc) and then persist through the inevitable roller coaster ride that comes with having a business at home. Especially when you start out it’s so easy to hit that first roadblock and throw up your hands and want to quit but if you can push through it is SO worth it. Don’t give up!