I’m a lifelong entrepreneur (EST. 1997) who specializes in doing the nitty gritty work so you can flourish in your business.
Whether you are searching for a fresh perspective on your business, aiming to reach a specific goal, or you are looking for advice on how to navigate the business marketing world, you can hire me directly to work with you.
Sometimes you just need that bit of extra care to know you’re getting the details covered. Working with me is designed to unleash the very best results for your business with laser focus so we get to the heart of your goals.
Read More About Me Here…
One day I was standing in one of my 5 retail stores, opened empty boxes all over the floor behind the showcases while I was busy pricing product and getting it all on the shelf. The store was packed and I had a ton of product that needed to be priced and put out for sale… I always said to myself, “Vera, you can’t sell it if people can’t see it”.
It was one of those moments, I stopped for a second and looked down.
I was completely *overwhelmed*.
As I was looking at the empty boxes I knew this wasn’t my dream to be stuck day in and day out inside a store.
We opened our first retail store in 1997 and that’s also when we launched selling items on eBay. Along with the store we were listing 100 items a day on eBay for sale.
We had a lot going on and I knew change was coming.
I had found this wonderful group of work at home Moms (shout out to everyone at Mom Masterminds) and that’s where I started learning about internet marketing. I learned how I could make money online without having to list on eBay… this was a big deal to me lol.
I launched my online business in the scrapbooking market back in 2004 and that’s where it all started.
I created my first website in the scrapbooking industry. I loved scrapbooking back then so it only made sense to share my hobby online as well.
I’ll never forget the day I launched my scrapbooking podcast and how surprised I was the day I got my first affiliate cheque, $70 USD. I will never forget that moment. I was in the basement of my house where I was packaging up eBay items (we had quite the set up) and that’s also where we kept our mail to go through. I took a break from packing items and peeked at my mail.
Sitting there was an envelope addressed to me which was unfamiliar. I opened it up and there it was, my first affiliate cheque. I was so delighted, the first thing I did was call my dear friend Alice Seba to let her know.
I finally knew I was on the right track.
Then one day how shocked I was that Kodak decided to sponsor my scrapbooking podcast, “Scrappers Talk Radio” with a $300 USD monthly fee for advertising. I knew this the start of something very special and exciting!
I had been studying internet marketing for a while and it was time to put together my first product launch.
There I was standing inside one of my stores with my Mom by my side. I said to her, “are you ready Mom? I’m going to send the email now.” This was the email that let my subscribers know that the cart was open to my product.
We were both so excited!
I had just executed my very first product launch on my scrapbooking site and this was “the” email that was going to show if the launch worked. It worked so well and within 2 minutes of sending that very email, sales started pouring in and I made $800 right away.
We were both jumping up and down in the store! I knew my life would change forever.
Not long after that I started creating information products and my very first ebook I put up for sale was called, “Everything About Paper.”
I started sharing my experience with other online business owners and before I knew it people wanted to hire me to handle things for them as well.
This is when I decided to launch my first business planner. I knew that if my methods worked for me, they would work for others too.
That was the beginning to my online business back in 2004.
By 2007 I was able to sell 3 of my retail stores and close 2.
I was officially FREE!!!
I learned the foundation of online business and left the offline business world and I never looked back. To this day I still do visit my old friends who still have stores in the mall, it’s like I’m inside a time capsule when I see them, so wonderful yet I still feel that sense of huge freedom when I leave the mall.
My experience can be yours too. You just need to know the basic foundation of online business and you can apply it to the market you are passionate about.
I’ve taught tons of people (I can’t even count) on how to fill up the year with marketing messages, emails you send out to make you money, product launches and so much more.
I’m also passionate about helping others…
Along the way I picked up a business partner…
Since my beautiful daughter fought cancer twice and beat it, I’m passionate about helping others.
In 2013 I became a business partner to Al Lamons who I met in Bible class at church.
We run events every year for Make-A-Wish BC & Yukon to raise money for families with critical illnesses including an epic golf tournament, two rollerskating events and glow party.
We’ve also run a fun day at the local water slide park which was called Summer Splash.
The golf tournament has had incredible momentum and now we sell out each year. 🙂 We have raised over $85,000.00.
(I have BIG dreams to support other causes as well… watch this space for more on this.)
Some other stuff about me…
Today I live on my own in Surrey, BC Canada. I have three awesome kids, one son-in-law, a daughter-in-law and 5 beautiful grandchildren.
I’m very involved with my church family, I even started singing on the worship team (that’s me on the left in the picture). I have attended Relate Church since 2002, it’s home.
If you would like to know more about how I overcame to save my business after my daughter battled cancer twice AND a divorce all in one go, you can read about my book called, “Her Life Counts”. I plan to write more from the heart going forward.
Here’s a photo of my book launch, it was a beautiful day and just a few months before my father passed into eternity. He’s the one in the black and white checkered shirt.
All of this freedom is possible because I made some tough yet very exciting choices in my life.
The best is yet to come...