My adventure with Sposto Interactive 1996 - 2009

At the beginning of 1996, my husband and I decided to pool our talents and start a creative services business.  The Internet was relatively new and offered exciting opportunities.

Our plan was simple:

We would provide graphic design, writing services, and website development.

My husband would handle the visual and programming, and I would write, market and take care of the business administration. 

My husband's former employer became our first customer, meanwhile, I spent months making cold calls to everyone who was running display ads in the local newspapers. 

Many people were still fairly unfamiliar with the web, so I carried a laptop with screenshots to my sales appointments and explained what going online could do for their business. 

We made a few sales, did good work, and word got around.
Naturally, we had some ups and downs, but every year our company grew bigger and better.

By 2006, Sposto Interactive had won numerous awards, was located in a stylish workspace, and employed 20 talented people.

Our client list included Yahoo!, Scripps, State Farm and Nikon.

We were busy, profitable, and proud of our success.  However, having a bigger and better company required a different focus.

I had been enthusiastic about starting a company because I loved helping people solve communication challenges.  My job was creative, interesting and rewarding.  I was constantly learning new things.

After our business reached a certain size however, keeping up with our own administrative pressures began to take me away from the work best suited to my skills, experience and interests.  My job became very routine.

I was spending a lot of time handling finances, bids, contracts, HR, and other business administration instead of doing what I enjoy most. 

This was not the career I had chosen, and it was certainly not what I wanted in the long run.

Hiring someone to take over my administrative duties was prohibitively expensive and complicated. I had a level of responsibility, confidential knowledge and total involvement that was suitable to an owner, not a manager.

In 2008, a key employee came forward with a solid offer to buy a substantial portion of my interest in the LLC.  The sale took place at the end of Q2 that year.

Once we were confident that the new partner was up-and-running securely, I transferred the remainder of my interest in the business to my husband.

I'm delighted to be starting the next chapter in my long career.*

* If you're interested in my story prior to 1996, please click here.