Motivated by Desire to Foster Culturally Aware Global Citizens
By Home Business Magazine

New mom Kaamna Bhojwani-Dhawan of San Francisco was inspired to start Momaboard.com when she couldn’t find online resources for traveling with her infant son. “I could find multiple resources for travel in general,” she said, “but little specifically for parents, and there really was nothing that spoke to me from a personal, human perspective.”
    Her qualifications as the maven of mom travel are unassailable. During the first two years of her son’s life she traveled with him to India, Singapore, China, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Hungary, France, Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Dubai. She believes that it’s important to expose children to all kinds of cultures, sights, foods, and people in order to create cultural awareness and tolerance.
    Prior to motherhood, Kaamna was an editor for Affinity Labs — since sold to Monster Worldwide in 2008. She launched three online networks for Affinity, two of which are now named Excelle and HRPeople. She’s dabbled in a few startups since then, but Momaboard.com is her first official business enterprise of her own.
    Her home-based business is so far a one-person operation, with outsourced services and supports such as a website designer and a publicist. She also is developing a large network of “mombassadors” — real mothers from around the world who contribute first-person advice and expertise for traveling moms.
    Kaamna hires a nanny daily who frees her for uninterrupted and concentrated work at home. Yet she travels frequently with her son in order to provide new content for the site and maintain the first person perspective so important to the site’s freshness and honesty.

    Promotion is heavily based on social media outlets — SEO for the site, a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/momaboard), Twitter (@Momaboard), and email campaigns. Guest blogging is a big component as well, and her public relations firm pitches the media nationwide.
    Momaboard.com’s primary customers are parents who are interested in traveling with their children. Working from home is a natural, as her whole perspective is about sharing day-to-day life with one’s children.
    In three years, Kaamna expects Momaboard.com to have become a household name in parent/child travel — the “Travelocity” of moms on the go with children in tow. And she is working on partnering relationships to grow revenues and the range of services available to her fans. HBM  V18-3 Add: 7/11 HP:
 

Woman Overcomes Physical Challenges and Develops a Successful Online Business

By Nathania Stambouli

Until six years ago, Dawn Sander was a floor representative in the DVD department of her local WalMart. In 2004, her life was turned upside down when she suffered a brain aneurysm that left her missing one eye and functioning at the cognitive capacity of a toddler.

    She underwent rehabilitation treatments and slowly regained some semblance of a normal life, but the residual effects of her injury made it impossible for her to hold down full-time employment.
    Her sister, in an effort to help Dawn get back on her feet, started an eBay store for her with items they had lying around the house to generate some income. As soon as she could, Dawn took it over and after running out of items to sell from her closet, she began looking for products to source. "I started ordering wholesale lots through liquidation companies like Via Trading, and reselling them online.” Finding that they spend more lavishly than men do, Dawn focuses exclusively on catering to women with high-end and designer clothing.
    Since eBay is a global marketplace and listings stand on their own based on search queries, Dawn does not spend much time or money on advertising. "People find me because they're looking for a great deal on designer clothing," she says. "They wear it and refer their friends, family, and colleagues."

    Given the seizures she suffers and being the primary caretaker of her elderly mother, Dawn must remain as close to home as possible. She has grown her sales volume to a point where she now supports herself and her family exclusively through her eBay sales. "I am making way more money than I ever did at WalMart," she says, "and I do it at home."
    Her best advice for those who want to work from home is to "go for it but don't expect riches overnight. It takes time to get to where people trust you. Take care of your customers, and they will help grow your business. They’re your best assets."
    Dawn's business is expanding. She speaks proudly of her achievement; her ability to make the most of a difficult situation, develop a new business she knew nothing about, and make a better living than ever before. For more information, visit http://www.viatrading.com. HBM  V18-2 Add: 6/11 HP: