Starting a web business with Site Build It

Interested in starting a web business and having your own website? Read and find out how I ended up starting a web business with the Site Build It Company about my dinner party hobby.

We grew up in the beautiful area of Toronto called the Beach. We lived in a house right next door to our grandparents, and we were always in and out of their house. And they were always having people for dinner.

Learning the tradition of the small home dinner party
My grandmother always gave beautiful dinner parties with her crystal, silver, Royal Albert china and candles on the table. Even if it was just family, Sunday dinners were dressed up with the good china and silver.

Looking back I realized that as children, my brothers, sisters, cousins and I soaked in the rules of table-setting, and dinner party etiquette by osmosis, simply by helping to set the table, serve the dinner and sitting at the table.

But don’t get the wrong idea. Our grandmother’s focus was always on enjoying the company and conversation. It wasn’t stiff and formal, although there were lots of times when we children were glad to be excused from the adult conversation and go off to play.

The tradition continued in my own house, where my parents gave small dinner parties several times a month. The dinner parties weren’t large, maybe just one or two guests, but almost always when people came to visit they came for dinner.

My older sister and I were the two oldest children, and we attended those dinner parties from an early age. We helped our mother get ready for the company. Polishing the silver was one of our routine jobs. We also helped her cook and serve. We watched how she always put hot water in the silver vegetable dishes to heat them up before she put the vegetables in them (after emptying out the water of course). We carried those silver dishes and crystal water glasses back and forth from the kitchen to the dining room until we were old hands at it.

And we were expected to contribute to the conversation with guests at the table. There were no “children should be seen and not heard” rules when we were at our parents’ dinner parties.

I launched my dinner party “career” when I was 9 years old – truly! The first dinner party I ever gave was when I was a child of about 9. I was out to earn a Brownie Badge in cooking.

I invited my grandparents and proudly served them a roast beef dinner (with a ton of help from my mother).

They all lavished me with praise.

So I learned an important lesson at a young age. I learned that serving people a nice dinner gave them pleasure - and it brought me the joy of being praised and feeling socially accepted. For someone who is an introvert and tends to be shy in larger groups, that was an important lesson.

Yes, that’s me in the picture – a few years ago!

The changing scene in dinner parties
That childhood experience launched my dinner party ‘career’. As a grown-up I continued having small dinner parties just like my grandmother and my mother.

Over time the rules have morphed from fairly fussy to plainer and simpler standards. Where there used to be many plates and glasses on my grandmother’s table, the table settings grew simpler and easier in my parents’ house. And settings grew even simpler at my table.

But over time it also started getting harder to keep giving dinner parties
As many of us know too well, life can get pretty frazzled with full time jobs, and daily commutes that grow longer and eat into personal time. It started to get too hard to keep up with giving dinner parties. By the time the guests arrived I was too tired to enjoy their company, or the food I had prepared.

I started hoarding precious weekend time, not wanting to fill it with cleaning, shopping, table setting and cooking.

At the same time I genuinely missed the sheen that these dinners brought to daily life – the anticipation of seeing friends and the pleasing rituals of gathering around the table to share delicious food.

I needed a solution to start enjoying giving dinner parties again
The decorating world gave me a start to the solutions I needed.

Stealing a trick from it gave me the simple table-setting formula of keeping the background neutral and changing the accessories.

That meant getting a white tablecloth (two actually) and then adding different colored flowers and napkins according to my mood and the season. Now guests could enjoy a romantic table with red roses, a spring table with pink and green sweet peas, or a dramatic purple accented table – and all on a white tablecloth. Second, I had to get smarter about the way I worked, to reduce the fatigue of doing everything at once, too often on the day of the dinner party itself. I learned to always set the table the day before the dinner party. I learned to make lists of cleaning, shopping and other jobs I could do well before the day of the dinner party. Third, I started acquiring a repertoire of make-ahead appetizers and other dishes, so that most of the work of cooking was done before guests arrived.

Gradually I could revive the enjoyable custom of hosting dinner parties again.

But there was still another problem … which brings us back to to that hobby website I talked about at the beginning
I was getting older but I wasn’t getting much richer:-) And throwing dinner parties wasn’t contributing to my retirement fund. I needed to get serious about financing my retirement, or there wouldn’t be any dinner parties of any kind.

I had been poking around the internet and reading about web-based businesses for a long time.

In 1999 I took a couple of html coding and web design courses at a local community college. I didn’t know for sure what my goal was, at that point I wasn’t even sure what html was (a web design language) but I sensed that the internet could maybe some day in some way provide a solution to my retirement needs.

It was scary going into those classrooms but I was determined
There I was in a room full of young aspiring webmasters. They all seemed to know far more than I did and they seemed to suck in the information almost by osmosis. Any of you who are older and have gone back to school can relate to what I am saying - how intimidating it can be to take that first step and join a class of younger students.

I kept going to class anyhow, determined to master the basics, and keep up the search for ways to fund my retirement.

At the same time I kept looking around for a web-hosting package that seemed right for me, never finding one that triggered the Aha! Response.

Most of them looked complicated. They seemed to suggest you could just get started for a few dollars a month. But when you delved a little deeper it seemed you had to add on this bit and buy that bit, and learn another technical bit, so that it began to be overwhelming.

Then one day I stumbled on Site Build It. (SBI for short). I read and read all about it, growing ever more convinced that this was the answer.

How does all this web design and having your own website stuff marry up with my dinner parties?
Well here’s the magic connection.

As I read more about Site Build It, I realized that some threads in my life could be joined. SBI was talking about starting a web business. They explain that building a web business is doable, but it is real work. It’s not a Get Rich Quick scheme. It’s an ongoing project. So it makes sense to create your own website on your passion, your interest, your hobby, or what you know about.

The light bulb went on for me
Why not write about dinner party planning? I could write about my own experience, how I loved to give dinner parties, but started finding it harder and harder until I figured out a solution that worked for me.

I realized that hosting dinner parties was not a big important earth-shaking topic, but it doesn’t have to be. It just has to interest enough other people that you can attract visitors to your site. SBI shows you how to do that.

I was quite sure that there were plenty of people like me, people who were stressed out by their jobs, maybe had some degree of disability, were getting older with less energy, or had small children that absorbed a lot of their time.

Would those people welcome reading dinner party planning solutions on my website? Would this help them recapture their pleasure in having company around their dinner table? From what I saw poking around other SBI websites, I thought the answer was YES!

So I took the plunge and started my SBI website
Sure enough, it was doable. I admit that I was glad I had taken an html basics course, but even if I hadn’t, SBI taught me everything I needed to know – and they don’t sneak in a bunch of extra costs. They give you tons and tons of resources and help. When you get stuck on something, and let’s face it, there are times when you will, you just log in to their forums, and ask your question. So many helpful people will chime in with suggestions and encouragement, you’ll realize you’ve joined a community not just started a website.

You get help with all the elements of starting a web business. If you’re not sure you can write, there is plenty of help available to help you “find your voice” for your own website. If you don’t have an immediate inspiration on what you can write about they help you with that too, and how your topic can earn money for your own website.

They give you lots of suggestions – and lots of examples and inspiring case studies of regular people like me who weren’t webmasters or techie types, but still turned a hobby or interest into a money-making website.

You can read about all these fascinating people and stories by clicking here

How I ended up on a Caribbean cruise from starting a web business

There were about sixty of us, and it was a “working” cruise. We did workshops and seminars together in between all the normal fun of a cruise.

Who would have guessed that by starting a hobby website, I would end up going on a cruise with sixty other SBIers? What a bonus!

Oops - I got a little off topic there, so back to the website
At first I thought my dinner party planning website would be strictly a hobby, and would teach me the ropes for a more “serious” website. To tell the truth, I was a little too lacking in self-confidence to think I could succeed the first time around. And I was frankly shy about talking much about myself on the internet at first.

But after working on my hobby website and reading the forums, I realized that I should keep pushing these limits back.

How I started making money from this hobby website
So I took another plunge and put up some ads on the site. Again I got a ton of help from SBI and its forum members.

Then I read tips in the forum about how to put up an e-book. I started thinking about that, and then writing, and eventually putting up an e-book on dinner party planning on my site. Was it easy? No, it wasn’t. Did it take me a while? Yes it did. Am I glad I did it. Yes I am!

Now I am making extra income every month from what I thought would be a hobby website only. It’s enough money to pay my web design expenses, chip away at debt and pay for some trip expenses. But it’s money I never thought I would be making from a hobby website.

I make the money mostly from Google Adsense ads, and from selling the e-book on dinner party planning. But there are lots of other ways to make money as well. For example, with my dinner party website I could promote the sale of tablecloths and napkins, or books about table centerpieces and flowers, and collect a commission from the seller without ever handling the merchandise myself. This coming year I will be trying out some of these ideas, as well as setting up another website.

Everyone who invests in an SBI website package finds all the advice and help they need to decide which money making route makes sense for their particular web business. As you read more about SBI you see plenty of examples and imaginative ways for people like you interested in starting your own web business.

I’m moving forward with the plan to build websites to help finance my retirement, and expect to build the monthly income until I feel comfortable about leaving my full time job. This time I’m paying strict attention to the SBI guidelines and choosing my topics very carefully.

And to think for me it all started with some paragraphs in the SBI literature, encouraging people to write about their hobbies, their passions and what they know or are willing to become expert on. That was what really caught my eye. But reading through the case studies and examples, you may find an entirely different slant that suits your dream. There are so many ways to harness your dream and try it through SBI.

So the advice I would give from my experience is – Don’t hold back. Don’t let shyness get in your way. Don’t think you have to be perfect before you start. Experiment, learn, get help from the forums, but just jump into starting your own web business. The important thing is to take that first step.

Don’t put it off. Instead, try it now. Make 2009 your year to launch your web business dream.

Don’t let another year slip by without test-driving your dream.

Click to find out all about Site Build It and how you can start a web business yourself

P.S. You test-drive your dream with the security of SBI’s iron-clad money back guarantee. Try it for 30 days.

If it’s not for you, you get your money back. All of it. Click here for details about the guarantee

You can also find out about starting a web business with Site Build It by watching this video. Just click the play button.

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