Meet Siobhan Green of Sonjara, Inc.
Siobhan founded Sonjara Inc., a woman-owned consulting organization, in 2002. Sonjara’s mission is to provide “Digital Strategies for the Greater Good.” Sonjara specializes in bringing modern internet technologies for social benefit and international development. If you look at her background, experience and passion you will see why she is able to accomplish this.
Siobhan’s Background
“Siobhan has over 16 years of experience managing and developing programs in social benefit, working with non-profits, for-profits, USAID, World Health Organization, UNAIDS, World Bank, Unesco, and various foundations. She holds a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and a Masters in Anthropology of Development from University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where she received a distinction on her Master’s thesis on Policy Perspectives on the Use of the Internet in Africa.”
Siobhan was honored with the Women in Technology Global Impact Award in 2010 and was part of the Accelerator Program in the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO).
FreelanceMom.com was honored to have the opportunity to learn more about Siobhan and how she accomplishes her business and life goals.
What was your motivation to start your business?
I consider myself to be an accidental entrepreneur. I wanted a job that would let me combine work and family time when I had my first baby, and since my boss was being difficult about working from home, I decided to quit and work for myself. Putting the work through the S corp vs. 1099 made better business sense. My husband also wanted to work for himself, so after about two years, we were able to grow enough for him to quit his day job. After another year, our cobra was running out and we needed to make a decision – grow the business or one of us quit and get a “real job” – we decided to grow the business and started hiring more work.
How Did You?
How did you go about financing your business?
Primarily, we have bootstrapped, using personal financing or not paying ourselves when we were short.
In 2008, we got our first line of credit, and in 2011 we got our first SBA loan for $25K. We got another one for $50K to refinance some debt to help promote more growth. We have also used credit cards and other debt financing for computers and hard costs.
How did you discover your uniqueness for your business?
I was surprised when I went freelance that there was a huge demand for my services, and the more work I did with Andy (my husband), the more we realized that we worked really well together – he is a software developer and I do great with business workflow/rules.
How long did it take for you to actually turn a profit?
We turned a profit from the beginning because for the first two years, it was just my salary plus low levels of external costs -and I was paid whatever the company could afford.
How did you get your first customer? How do you attain them now?
First customer was actually my former boss. My second customer was a former colleague. Most of our clients came from personal networks and contacts.
Our current customers are also mainly coming from networks, referrals, and reputation.
How did you determine the price to charge?
We keep track of market hourly rates through looking at GSA rates, talking with clients. We also track our internal, per person costs, and make sure we don’t go below the internal rates per person/role. We have several different rate sheets based on negotiated rates with different contracts.
We price our work based on estimated level of effort * rate per role.
So for example, software developer $125*100 hours = $12,500
Project Manager – $100*50hours = $5,000
How did you determine the best methods to market yourself and or your service/product?
We analyzed our hit rates on different types of marketing and found that the three core sources of work were “existing customers”, “returning customers”, and “new clients, referred by existing customer or through networking”. So we put a lot of work in:
Existing clients: managing our scope of work (so scope creep is turned into upsell opportunities), client surveys, improving operations.
Returning Clients: keeping in contact with old clients, a standard “four free hours are authorized for technical support for returning clients” (since they come back to us either for new work or for problems with the work we did with them previously).
New Clients: thought leadership/networking in the industry, develop partnerships for government contract teams, standard marketing tools like website, business cards, corporate cap one pager, etc.
I know you work with your husband, do you talk about your business at home?
Yes, we do a lot of business discussions at home. We talk about strategy, staff issues, logistics, etc.
Do you have children?
We have two sons, age 8 and 6. My oldest has Asperger’s which makes for interesting challenges.
Do you belong to any Business Organization or Networking Groups?
Yes, I belong to:
EO – Entrepreneurs Organization (I was in the accelerator program until we graduated)
SBAIC – Small Business Association of International Contractors
CIDC – Coalition for International Development Contractors
SID – Society for International Development
WIT – Women in Technology
What are your “must” have tools you use to run your business?
Company-wide: Griot (a SaaS project management tool we built and are now selling), Skype, Web-based Email and calendars, VPN for access from external to the offices, VOIP phone system and Quickbooks.
Staff person: Laptop, smart phone, internet at home.
What ways do you relax?
Massage, web surfing, movies, playing D&D with family and friends, church, gardening
Lessons for Others to Learn
Do you ever get burned out and want to give up? If so, how do you get past that?
Of course! Two issues: One, I cannot give up. Even if we decided to shut down the business today, I would have to work for at least six months to close everything out. Also, I still owe money for the loans so calling it quits would result in personal financial hardship…
Secondly, working for someone else isn’t better.
Were you always confident that you would be a success or did that come over time?
Hell no. Most of the time I feel over my head, but I feel more able to rise to the challenge.
What is your current business challenge?
- How to grow the firm from our current size of $1M to $3M (15 staff to 30+ staff)
- How to grow without outside funding (grow through bootstrapping/loans)
- How to change processes as part of growth
- How to get our product, Griot, up and running
How are you approaching that?
We have a business strategy consultant, plus I have two potential advisory board members. I am also talking to my team, brainstorming with the team about how to address these issues.
What are the best classes, books and/or resources you use that really has helped you professionally and personally?
EO accelerator program has been very helpful. I also go to EO forums but they haven’t really kicked off yet.
What other advice would you like to share?
There is a huge difference between a single person company and having staff. Also having all of your family income coming from the business vs. “additional money”.
In the latter case, owning your own business is all encompassing – it is like having a child with special needs. It is a commitment of energy, passion, money, reputation.
FreelanceMom.com wants to give a huge THANK YOU to Siobhan for sharing her candid thoughts and history of her company so others can learn from her challenges and successes.
Please visit her company, Sonjara Inc., to learn more or connect with her on twitter.
