Fantastic question! First, a little about me and why I am qualified to answer. My father served 19 years of a 20 year sentence in prison where he passed and I had challenging background. I never met my birth mother and met my birth father at the age of 18. I've been on my own since I was 16 and have lived in the YWCA, homeless shelter's etc. I don't have any family support financial or otherwise. I haven't even had a call on a birthday, holiday, wedding day or even the birth of a child. I have a GED and now a Master's, built my first home before 30 and all while a single mom at the time. I worked very hard throughout my life and now I am retiring from a position at a Fortune 500 company after 10 years of service in my 30's. My husband has had challenges with his background and we opened a gym here in Atlanta for 8 months before closing and I also own several businesses online that focus on teaching part-time entrepreneurs how to convert their passion into profits. I have dozens of courses published on the world's largest destination for online courses including 3 best selling books on Amazon. Okay, now that ALL of that is out the way, here is my response. Yes, I have begun working with local entrepreneurs and small business owners in Atlanta, GA to build their Internet properties and protect their reputations online and off. I help them create and develop "trust based marketing" through email, books and online and I am partnered with the #1 trusted marketer online to accomplish this and a group of over 10,000 offline business entrepreneurs. Key things to avoid: - excessively talking about your past - blaming others for your current situation - the old environment Key things to do: - Read (or listen to) Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" - Find a mentor/coach that you can share your goals with and get feedback - Invest in small business and personal development classes online or at a center (most are free) - Think outside the box - Build a community online - Transfer life skills into your business - Understand the pricing structure for your business - Set goals and create plans to achieve them - Invest financially and reinvest back into your business - Create a business and financial plan (on paper) I could go on and on and would love to connect with your organization. A 15 minute chat to provide more clarity would be great! ~Montina

I started my first business selling a product that was imported from Ghana - African shea butter. I purchased it from a supplier and made over $12k in sales the first 20 days. I would suggest starting with Jim Cockrum's blog at http://www.silentjim.com. He teaches a ton about importing goods through his Proven Amazon and eBay courses. Even though you may want a standalone site I would definitely recommend his site to start with. He teaches a model of go where the people are instead of chasing them down.