Hello world!
My name is Katie DeCicco, CEO of Celebration Saunas, Inc and I am an internet marketer. With a background in business, nursing and psychology I am not a likely online marketing candidate but your career takes you where it will take you. My site: KatieDeCicco.com is dedicated to documenting not only my entrepreneurial journey but yours. In the spirit of open-source I am here to share my knowledge and experience as an entrepreneur with you openly. As time goes by I will disclose the branding secrets that netted more than $1 Million in sales my first year as I document my continuing entrepreneurial journey.
I was born to be an entrepreneur. I have played with business ideas and writing business plans since I was a child. Most kids hung out in the toy aisle of the grocery store while I drooled over post it notes in the office supply aisle. When I went off to college I decided I wanted to be a doctor. I worked as a full-time nursing assistant to get my volunteer hours for medical school. I worked in over 20 medical facilities on the Front Range and every floor of the North Colorado Medical center. It took most of my college career to realize that I was better suited to the business side of medicine due to my frustration with in efficient paper medical records, documentation and the dreadful under utilization of readily available technology,.
I moved to New York City from Colorado where I worked as a secretary for the Joslin center at Roosevelt Hospital after that I work for a high profile dentist in Manhattan. In these jobs I learned back office operations, sales, and customer service skills I rely on still today. I still couldn’t see a way into a lucrative career without a degree so I went back to school at Stony Brook University. Here I enrolled in the economics course “Job Creation” where my big take away was that food and medicine are not effected in an economic downturn. At 24 I was fine tuning how I wanted to live my life. I recognized how much money it saves just not having to drive to work everyday or walk into an office in a suit. I recognized that in order for me to live a balanced life that included enough time with family and work and income that a home base business was the ideal workplace as it maximized resources to a single location. Having a home base business you don’t pay for office space. You don’t use gas going to your office. You don’t need a secondary wardrobe. You only have to pay one utility bill for phone and Internet. You can efficiently get your own personal chores done in downtime from work. This maximizes your own personal efficiency and is ideal for family to maximize their time together. I started my entrepreneurial career as a wholesaler for a medical claims processing clearinghouse. I had limited success due to the ever changing landscape of the medical billing field.
Once I became a mom I looked for phone sales opportunities to earn an income so I could stay home to be with my infant twins. When the twins were three years old I went to work for a local sauna importer and online retailer. I fell in love, Infrared saunas hit my sweet spot. Life changing durable medical equipment that was an all natural means of improving the health and quality of life of everyone who uses it. It genuinely helps improve the quality of life for so many people with chronic illnesses, I felt I was home. At this local company I was able to learn everything about this product. From importing warehousing, packaging, shipping, bookkeeping, agreement negotiations, sales, and most importantly the dramatic health benefits of far infrared. The owner of this company allowed me to dig into everything and run with it. Unfortunately, my employer did not have the same ethics I had and despite my best efforts you can’t help a person who won’t pay their bills. After he filed bankruptcy my co-worker and I started a new sauna company. Within 2 years I had achieved $2 million in sales and knew it was time to do it for myself. Celebration Saunas was born in 2012, incorporated in 2013 and in 2014 I went live online. With more than $1 million in sales it’s been an exciting first year.
What started your entrepreneurial journey? Share your story and be published on KatieDeCicco.com