Kelly King Anderson is the Founder and Managing Director of Start Up Princess and a Trustee of One Heart Bulgaria, a non-profit organization for Bulgarian orphans. She also is the Brigham Young University Home-Based Business Plan Competition Advisor for the 2007-2008 school year. She has a variety of talents and experience in business and in the arts and is committed to empower the lives of those around her, whether they are her own children, orphans, or new friends she meets each day.
Recently, we happen to take her email interview, where she shared her insights and resources that would help others fulfill their dreams. Scroll down and see for yourself,
1. Kelly, please introduce yourself to our readers?
Kelly: Hello Women Lifestyle Readers! I’m Kelly King Anderson originally from Burbank, California now I’m a resident of Utah. I’m a happy wife and mother of 3 young children, plus I’m Founder of StartUp Princess, an online networking and mentoring company for women entrepreneurs with a strong online presence. I’m also a Trustee of One Heart Bulgaria, a non-profit for Bulgarian Orphans. I’m passionate about teaching and improving the lives of those around me whether they maybe children or adults—I love to empower others and guide them to fulfill their dreams!
2. Who or what has been an influencing factor in your work?
Kelly: God. Every great idea I’ve ever had has come through inspiration and the execution has been all Him too. I have a lot of mentors and StartUp Princess friends too that have been very supportive and assist me when I need help and have questions about developing my company.
3. What is the factor that encourages women to pursue self-employment so that they may start their own business?
Kelly: Flexibility, children, life’s circumstances...really there can be a lot of different reasons, but whatever is the reason passion and pure determination needs to be there or they won’t make it.
4. When you entered into the realm of business, how were you able to balance family responsibilities while ensuring success of the startup venture?
Kelly: Initially I had a nanny who came a few hours, three days a week to help with my children. Right now I don’t have extra help so I am working a lot late at night, unfortunately! I would love to hire someone again soon. My children are 1, 3, and 7 so they are very demanding—and fun! My husband is also helpful when he is available to watch them when I have a meeting or something...he also works at home.
5. How has internet contributed to your career until now and how far you think the web can deliver to you in the future?
Kelly: Internet IS the key to StartUp Princess, since we started as a blog and build our community through our daily articles, without the internet we would not have the international community that we enjoy. We are in transition now from a blog format to a website. We don’t have a homepage right now and it’s been a challenge to function this way, but we’re working on our new design and it should be ready in the near future. I anticipate that when our new site is finished that we will triple our daily traffic because people will have a better understanding of who we are and what we do—we are much more than a blog. We are hosting events and have our first conference in October. The web will be critical to our success and communicating to women entrepreneurs everywhere.
6. Keeping in mind that the world out here on internet changes with blazing speed and also, everything reaches a culmination point sooner or later, we would love to know your views on the concept of blogging as a whole, how far do you think the concept will enjoy its success (if you really think that the way it has emerged, a success) and what’s fresh waiting to gobble it up?
Kelly: This is a very interesting point. I have considered this a lot lately—people enjoy reading posts now and I think they will in the future, but we are preparing to add podcasts and video to our site to keep up with the demand and also produce teleseminars, etc. so that we can present content in a variety of ways. I’m committed to seeing the company develop long term...we’ll figure out how to meet the needs of our audience and do it the best we can.
7. The whole Internet, of course, as a media, is moving towards Web 2.0. How far do you think the phenomenon has emerged successfully?
Kelly: Web 2.0 is making a statement– the idea of “self-serve” info is hot and blogs are a great demonstration of that; we’re all self-publishing and allowing participation with comments/feedback. There are certainly companies succeeding in this space—Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, yet I feel there is room for many more companies to develop in this space.
8. What maxim you’d like to shower on women who are planning to take a plunge into business?
Kelly: Our slogan at StartUp Princess is: “Make a Wish, Make it Happen!” Dream big and then work hard to make it happen—surround yourself with the best mentors you can find and keep asking God to guide you and help you succeed, keeping open that your definition of success may challenge you and change with time!
9. As you tread ahead in life, what do you expect from yourself and what excites you the most?
Kelly: Great question! I expect that my life will be dedicated to service and sharing my gifts and talents to improve the lives of those around me. For me, business is service—life is service. I am most excited when I am teaching others whom want to learn and progress.
10. Finally, we would like to have your thoughts on the Instablogs News Network and all its related sites. Which one is your favorite?
Kelly: I enjoy reading your business headlines, however, this women lifestyle site is very interesting...! ;)
Quick Bits:
1. You don’t believe in …….
Kelly: Premarital sex.
2. When you get angry you ….
Kelly: Yell (I’m trying to work on this one!!) I want to be the ‘soft-spoken’ parent.
3. If you had to walk in another person’s shoes for a day, it would have to be….
Kelly: Oprah, I’d love to be her for a day—she meets interesting people and has a lot of influence!
4. What is your greatest day-in/day-out obstacle?
Kelly: Self-care! Sleep and Eating; If I could do without both, it would be great. But, because I need both it’s hard to fit it in and make sleep a priority and since nutrition is important– I just wish I had a chef! I also struggle with patience—I want to accomplish so much more than I am physically able to do!
5. Websites you must visit every day?
Kelly: I don’t really read many blogs anymore, but weekly I love eMoms at Home for internet marketing and tips, Seth Godin, for marketing, and for laughs I’m enjoying mom2my6pack.blogspot.com at the moment...she really deserves to make tons of money writing and getting a bit of fame for it—glad to see she recently got “discovered”.
6. If given a chance, what would you change about the world?
Kelly: Apathy; the “It’s not my problem” attitude we see everywhere and people who waste time and talent—it really is disturbing!
Wow! This was simply an amazing interview, thank you Kelly for sparing out time for doing a rendezvous with us, it is greatly appreciated and also I’d like to wish you luck for all your future endeavors :-)
