home based business

Jennifer Tankersley knows the value of a good list. A Navy wife and mother of three, Tankersley has moved nine times over the course of her 13-year marriage, using check-off lists to stay organized throughout. Then in the aftermath of the 2006 holiday season, she came up with an action item that would grow into a home-based business: create a web site containing a “list of lists.” 

Thus was born List Plan It (www.listplanit.com), based in Topsham, Maine, whose more than 300 pre-printed lists cover everything from the routine (grocery shopping, weekly activities) to the extraordinary (pregnancy planning, house hunting). Launching the site in May 2007 from her home in Topsham, Maine, Tankersley now has 350 subscribers who pay on a quarterly or annual basis. List Plan It has proved a perfect business for Tankersley, allowing her to mix family responsibilities and entrepreneurship. 

“The first step was easy,” says Tankersley. “Once I came up with the idea for the site, the lists just poured out of me — it felt like I had 500 ideas in the first 15 minutes.” But turning that rush of inspiration into a working web site and growing business took longer. “The only thing I knew about computers was how to use e-mail and a browser,” Tankersley says. Suddenly, Tankersley had to learn about Web design and how to create downloadable fill-in-the-blank lists. 

Finding customers also presented an especially steep learning curve. “I naively thought that if you put a web site on the Internet, people would flock,” Tankersley says. “Then I realized that you need to be out there promoting your site — and that most people would find it through a search engine.” 

Tankersley has joined Google’s AdWords (www.adwords.google.com) program, which brings List Plan It to the attention of people looking for organization-related information on the Web. She has also used print advertising.

With the technology falling into place, Tankersley had fulfilled her longstanding dream. “I always wanted my own business, but needed something that worked around my family. This really clicked for me, and, though the business may be small, it’s portable, and it’s all mine,” she says. Indeed, Tankersley may even inspire others to get organized and reach for their dreams — through the “Goals for life” checklist on her site. HBM