Your Name: Romona Foster

Business Name: Admin Tech Consulting, a service for social media training and tech consulting

Type of Business: Professional Training

Business Location: Washington D.C., United States

Website http://www.admintechconsulting.com
Twitter http://www.twitter.com/AdTechConsults
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/AdminTechConsulting
Pinterest http://pinterest.com/romonafoster

Reason for starting
I started freelancing out of necessity. I was taking some event management classes in 2007. The program I was participating in required all students to complete a full-time internship and 160 practicum hours. In order to do this, I had to leave my full-time job as a meeting manager. I no longer had an income, so I started working on short-term projects for consultants and home-based businesses. In 2008, when I completed my internship and practicum hours, I began looking for work. The economy had taken a turn, so I was having a hard time finding a job. In the past, I never had a problem finding employment. Months of looking turned into years, so it really became pretty scary. I never really changed my mindset from looking for a job until 2012 when my passion took over.

How do you define success?
Success to me is being able to do what you are passionate about – and not just get paid to do it – but also being able to make a living doing it.

Biggest Success
My biggest success has been finding out that a passion that I have had has turned out to be my purpose. I had constantly been called upon by friends, family members and co-workers to teach them how to do things – mostly dealing with technology (at no cost to them). I love sharing what I know, so I never thought about charging people for this information. Now I realize the type of information I was offering is very valuable to others.

While freelancing, a thought came to me to advertise a class and see how many people would actually register for it. I sat down and wrote up a class proposal, called around to different venues, chose a venue, and then placed an online ad. I sent out a few email messages announcing the class. Five people showed up, and at the time it felt like one thousand. I was so excited and the feedback was amazing! This to me is what I would call my biggest success to date. I am looking forward to even bigger success stories as my training business grows.

What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it?
My top challenge has been trying to focus on building my training business while juggling client-based projects. This sometimes means having to turn down work when I really can’t afford to do so.

Who is your most important role model?
My uncle, Ray V. Spriggs, is my most important role model. He was one of a handful of people in my family who did what he was passionate about for a living. He left what I call “the land of familiar.” He stepped outside of ordinary and created businesses. He traveled the world. He even tried out for the olympics! What stands out above all else is that he gave to others constantly. To me, he was extraordinary!