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 BACK TO INTERVIEW CATEGORIES
What's the biggest award you've won?
The YTV Award for business person of the year - a prestigious national award. I was on the front page of the business section of Canada's national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, with a color photo and an article about my HILARY Magazine. Someone from the YTV television network saw it and called me. He said that he was nominating me for their annual Achievement Awards program and that I had one day to submit a formal business plan and a media package since the deadline was the next day. 2,300 nominees had months to produce their nomination packages and I had one day! A month after my submission I got a call and was told I was a finalist. I was genuinely shocked! Two weeks later I got another call - I had won in the business category! This time I was speechless. The awards ceremony was set up like the Oscars and televised live nationally. I had a lot of fun and met some incredibly talented winners from the other award categories. Where do you think you got your business sense? From my mom who is a marketing genius and a creative problem solver. I think creative problem solving is an important skill because it's transferable to almost any business or situation. My mother is an entrepreneur and my father is a writer, so they both work for themselves. I'm glad they instilled me with that same entrepreneurial drive. Where do you think you got your business sense? From my mom who is a marketing genius and a creative problem solver. I think creative problem solving is an important skill because it's transferable to almost any business or situation. My mother is an entrepreneur and my father is a writer, so they both work for themselves--actually, my mom works for me part-time now! I'm glad they instilled me with that same entrepreneurial drive. Were you the kind of kid who sold lemonade on the sidewalk? My brother and I actually did sell lemonade! I think we were about 4 and 5. When I was 12 my brother and I set up a booth at a sidewalk sale in Port Hope and sold grape vine wreaths and crafts that we'd made - I think our crafts were probably pretty primitive but we sold out and were written up in the local paper. Are you a workaholic? What do you do to relax? My friends call me a workaholic but to me it doesn't seem that way. It's more like I'm working at a hobby that is also a business because I enjoy working so much. I love watching old movies and spending time with friends to relax. When I was in my teens, after I graduated high school at age 17, I used to get up at 6:30am to exercise, then I'd work from about 8am to 11pm. In my later years I've realized how important a good live-work balance is, and I've started taking more time to myself. Now I work regular hours, from 9:30 to about 6pm and see friends in the evening. You must be financially independent. When I was 18 I put the down payment on my first condo in downtown Toronto. At the time all my friends said I was crazy and told me not to do it because I'd shouldn't be "tied down", but saving to get my own place always seemed perfectly natural to me. People thought it was weird for an 18 year old to have goals like owning property and an incorporated company but I wanted to be in control of my own future without relying on anyone else. I've never been on a job interview because I've never considered looking for a regular job. What is your attitude toward money? I'm sensible but I spend it on things that make me happy. When I was a teenager a fair chunk of my money went to charities and organizations devoted to stopping animal cruelty. When I was in high school, I was a volunteer after school at the local animal shelter. Are you a saver? What kinds of things do you splurge on? I save for retirement but I splurge on clothing once in a while. Since I've had my condo most of my splurging has been on decorating stuff. Are you worried about the future of Internet companies? In the long term, I think that companies with a solid business footing, that are well managed and offer good value in services or products will survive and prosper on the Internet. It's the dotcoms whose reason for existence was only to get venture capital and never had a viable business plan in place that are going to continue to go under. What challenges have you had to overcome business wise? The biggest challenges, besides learning about running a business in general, are when you have to deal with copyright issues and legal stuff. That's no fun! I've had people copy my entire site and I had to get lawyers involved - it's costly but worth it. How do you deal with issues such as copyright infringement and intellectual property protection in cyberspace? A lot of people don't understand that, even though something is on the Web and accessible to the world, it is illegal to copy images and text from other Web sites. From time to time I come across people who have copied entire pages of my text. It's very frustrating. When I come across this I get my lawyer to write them a letter and make sure that the copied material gets removed from their site. Thankfully I have the DMCA act backing me up, so for those who don’t remove the articles, I can have them delisted from Google and Yahoo. How does the fact that you're a woman in a technological and male-dominated field affect you and the people you deal with? Luckily, I haven't had a problem yet. I think it has become more widely accepted that women are just as capable of succeeding in any business or technological field as men are. In fact, the start-up rate of women owned businesses is twice that of men. How do you promote yourself? I promote myself on the Internet by doing well in the search engines. I also have banners on my sites linking to my other sites. I also receive a lot of prominent media coverage. What makes an entrepreneur? Being an entrepreneur requires a lot of different skills. You have to have vision and realistic goals, you have to know how to diplomatically deal with clients, and you need the ability to anticipate market trends and use them to your advantage. You also need to be willing to work very hard and be creative in thinking and planning in order to grow your business up and stay up-to-date with technology. Finally, you have to have a passion for what you do so that it's fun and you enjoy it, like I do!
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