Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Elaine Sanchez, Founder of CaregiverHelp, located in Salem, OR, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I help family caregivers cope with the emotional stress of caring for loved ones who are aging, disabled, or living with long-term progressive and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's. In June 2022, we launched CaregiverHelpSupport.com, a new streaming Caregiver Support Group Program that can be offered at live gatherings, via Zoom, or as a self-paced program.

Tell us about yourself

During the six-and-a-half years my mother cared for my dad following his debilitating stroke, she managed her emotional stress by writing letters to me. I saved her letters and edited them into the book, "Letters from Madelyn, Chronicles of a Caregiver," which I self-published in 2007. It didn't take long for me to realize that the 2,500 books piled up in my basement weren't going to sell themselves., so I joined The National Speakers Association and enrolled in a two-year course that taught me how to establish a successful speaking business. For the next few years, I worked on refining and improving my content. I spoke for free to any organization that would give me a microphone and places it at the front of the room.

From 2010 through 2019, I got paid to speak at caregiving and healthcare conferences across the U.S. In 2020, when all of my conferences were canceled because of COVID, I had a video production studio built in our home, and I transitioned to virtual speaking. I started working on the support group program in the summer of 2020, expecting we could complete the project in three to six months. It took two years and countless retakes, revisions, and improvements, but with the support of my husband and the expertise of my IT Administrator, we got it done. From the beginning, my goal has been to provide a place where caregivers like my mother can go and find immediate help to get through a bad day or a sleepless night.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Creating and launching the CaregiverHelp Support Group Program has been my biggest accomplishment.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Being an entrepreneur can be lonely. It takes time, patience, perseverance, and money to create a new product. Then, once you're ready to sell it, you have to figure out how to market it to the people who have the ability to buy it.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Be passionate about your business. Without a burning passion that wakes you up every morning and gives you the energy to push through the drudgery and disappointments, it would be hard to stick with it long enough to become successful.
  2. Don't go it alone. I was lucky to connect with a man early in my speaking career who is extremely artistic and skilled in technology. He was also the primary caregiver for his grandmother, so he understood the stress others experience. Without his technical and artistic skills and passion for helping others, I would not have succeeded.
  3. Marry well! I know this sounds odd, but thanks to my husband, I had the luxury of not worrying about paying the mortgage. I retired early from my original career, and for the first several years, I didn't make a profit because I spent all of the income from my speaking business developing new products, videos, workbooks, websites, and marketing materials. Having a secure financial base makes the development process so much easier than it would be otherwise.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://caregiverhelp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elaineksanchez/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elaineksanchez/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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