Pediatric Stroke Network founder takes her savvy SEO skills and becomes an entrepreneur
In October 1997, Rae Hoffman-Dolan was celebrating the birth of her first child—a healthy baby boy named Christopher James or CJ. But just two weeks later, her joy turned to tears when CJ suffered a massive stroke that caused extensive and permanent brain damage. Hoffman-Dolan learned that he would never walk or talk, or progress beyond the mental and physical abilities of an infant.
The first two years of CJ’s life were spent in-and-out of All Children’s Hospital in St Petersburg, Florida. A two hour commute from her home to the hospital made it impossible for her to return to the waitress job she held before he was born. Medical bills piled up. Her first husband (they divorced in 2005) worked constantly to bring income into the household, while Hoffman-Dolan took care of CJ. When she wasn’t staying near the hospital at a Ronald McDonald House, the young mom (barely 21-year-old at the time) was isolated with her son at home. During those early days, Hoffman-Dolan’s dad gave her a gift that would change her life completely - a computer.
“He thought that it might help me do research on CJ’s rare condition,” said Hoffman-Dolan.
Business profile. Rae Hoffman-Dolan created www.Sugarrae.com - a website publishing company that specializes in search engine optimization (SEO) and affiliate marketing.
Aha moment. Hoffman-Dolan took her new computer and immediately went online, looking for information about pediatric stroke. “I wanted desperately to find people who were going through what I was going through,” she says. But there was nothing out there. In the hope of connecting with other parents, she built a basic web page on a free hosting site, where she told CJ’s story.
“I started getting countless emails that said, ‘My child had a stroke too,’” Hoffman-Dolan remembers. Every time a parent searched for the term “pediatric stroke,” her page came up. The site got so many hits in the first year alone that she decided to expand and rename it the Pediatric Stroke Network (PSN). It was the first national support group and database for families of pediatric stroke survivors. Soon, health professionals from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke were contacting Hoffman-Dolan when they needed to find children for studies. The media came calling including USA Today, Inside Edition, People Magazine and Good Morning America requesting interviews with her and other pediatric stroke families. In just three years, Hoffman-Dolan managed to shine a spotlight on the topic of pediatric stroke. Pregnant with her second child, and devoting over 60 hours a week to the site, she realized she also needed a paycheck.
“I needed to find a way to generate income for all the time I was spending,” said Hoffman-Dolan. “At that point, I just wanted to figure out how to earn enough to cover my household bills.”
Homework time. Hoffman-Dolan wondered if there was a way to capitalize on her ability to drive traffic to a website. While surfing the Internet for income opportunities, she learned about affiliate marketing programs, where one can place ads on a website and earn commission on the clickthroughs. After researching more, she decided to keep PSN a nonprofit, and instead started a new business devoted entirely to affiliate marketing. She taught herself everything she could about the field, and while networking on industry message boards, met two mentors who helped her build her new business. In the meantime, she continued running PSN on the side as a volunteer.
Start Your Own Special Needs Group or Blog
Launch pad. Hoffman-Dolan created her first profitable website in 2001 by offering information and links to long distance phone plans. It earned her around $200-$300 per month. Recognizing her potential, her mentors suggested she construct more sites. She did a second one, specializing in the weight loss industry, and her monthly income jumped to $7,500. “That’s when I shifted into high gear,” Hoffman-Dolan says. She cared for her children by day, and worked till 3 a.m. on the business from a computer cart in her kitchen; often while cradling CJ on her lap.
Growth chart. By 2002, Hoffman-Dolan’s affiliate marketing business had really taken off, and she no longer had enough time for the operations of the Pediatric Stroke Network (PSN). It had also become emotionally difficult for her to lead the organization. Because CJ’s disabilities were more severe than other children that had suffered a pediatric stroke, it was difficult at times to relate to other families.
“I had started to feel that maybe I wasn’t the best person to run it anymore,” she said. “Distraught moms would tell me how upset they were that their kids would never ever ride a bike. Sometimes I felt like saying, ‘But my child is never ever going to know his mommy.’ It was like having to counsel someone with a broken arm, when you have terminal cancer.”
Hoffman-Dolan recruited another mother from the network to take over PSN, and focused her attention on her business and kids (her third was born in 2004). The strategy paid off. By 2005, she was pulling in five figures most months, and became known as an expert in her field. After her divorce, she moved her brood to Canada, and supported her children totally on her own. For about a year, she worked for a local company, developing its SEO strategy, all the while continuing to build her home based enterprise. She launched MFE Interactive with a partner and continues to operate it today with Sugarrae.com. The support of a staff for these two main ventures allows her to speak at industry events.
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Balancing act. While in growth mode, Hoffman-Dolan had to pull many all-nighters to fit everything in. “Running a business from home gives you an amazing ability to be there for your kids—especially when you have one with special needs,” she says. “I was able to drop everything when CJ had a seizure, or needed his feeding tube changed. [But] my house was a wreck,” she admits. “You can’t be superwoman. I had to choose whether I was going to spend my time scrubbing floors or making sure CJ’s shirts weren’t getting soaked with drool.”
She is now a big believer in delegating, eventually hiring some household help. “Once you have money coming in, it’s important to spend some of it on people who can help you,” said Hoffman-Dolan. “Let someone else clean or start dinner, so you can play with your kids.”
Hoffman-Dolan has also faced some gut-wrenching personal choices along the way. “I had to make the toughest decision of my life,” she says. When CJ was 11-year-old, he had grown so big that she injured her back and knee trying to lift him. “It got to the point where I had to put him to bed on a comforter on the floor, so I could pull him from room to room when he needed me,” she says. “I couldn’t take the younger kids out, because CJ would melt down and scream in unfamiliar places. So we never went anywhere.”
Doctors recommended putting him in a nursing home, but Hoffman-Dolan couldn’t bear to do it. Instead, her ex-husband, who lives in Florida, offered to take him in, a solution that has worked well. She realized it was the best solution for CJ as well as her other children.
“The hardest part was letting him go,” she said. “I still beat myself up over it.”
Greatest rewards. Though she logged killer hours for years, Hoffman-Dolan says running a business actually helped reduce her stress levels. In the old days, “I couldn’t even afford to buy CJ a new g-Tube, or a bath chair to keep him secure in the tub. It was very freeing and empowering when I began earning money that I could use to get CJ what he needed. It took an enormous financial burden off my shoulders.” Now that she has a staff, she’s able to work way less, while still earning a healthy six figures annually. “The key is to train others how to do the work, so you can spend your time developing new ideas,” she says.
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The first two years of CJ’s life were spent in-and-out of All Children’s Hospital in St Petersburg, Florida. A two hour commute from her home to the hospital made it impossible for her to return to the waitress job she held before he was born. Medical bills piled up. Her first husband (they divorced in 2005) worked constantly to bring income into the household, while Hoffman-Dolan took care of CJ. When she wasn’t staying near the hospital at a Ronald McDonald House, the young mom (barely 21-year-old at the time) was isolated with her son at home. During those early days, Hoffman-Dolan’s dad gave her a gift that would change her life completely - a computer.
“He thought that it might help me do research on CJ’s rare condition,” said Hoffman-Dolan.
Business profile. Rae Hoffman-Dolan created www.Sugarrae.com - a website publishing company that specializes in search engine optimization (SEO) and affiliate marketing.
Aha moment. Hoffman-Dolan took her new computer and immediately went online, looking for information about pediatric stroke. “I wanted desperately to find people who were going through what I was going through,” she says. But there was nothing out there. In the hope of connecting with other parents, she built a basic web page on a free hosting site, where she told CJ’s story.
“I started getting countless emails that said, ‘My child had a stroke too,’” Hoffman-Dolan remembers. Every time a parent searched for the term “pediatric stroke,” her page came up. The site got so many hits in the first year alone that she decided to expand and rename it the Pediatric Stroke Network (PSN). It was the first national support group and database for families of pediatric stroke survivors. Soon, health professionals from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke were contacting Hoffman-Dolan when they needed to find children for studies. The media came calling including USA Today, Inside Edition, People Magazine and Good Morning America requesting interviews with her and other pediatric stroke families. In just three years, Hoffman-Dolan managed to shine a spotlight on the topic of pediatric stroke. Pregnant with her second child, and devoting over 60 hours a week to the site, she realized she also needed a paycheck.
“I needed to find a way to generate income for all the time I was spending,” said Hoffman-Dolan. “At that point, I just wanted to figure out how to earn enough to cover my household bills.”
Homework time. Hoffman-Dolan wondered if there was a way to capitalize on her ability to drive traffic to a website. While surfing the Internet for income opportunities, she learned about affiliate marketing programs, where one can place ads on a website and earn commission on the clickthroughs. After researching more, she decided to keep PSN a nonprofit, and instead started a new business devoted entirely to affiliate marketing. She taught herself everything she could about the field, and while networking on industry message boards, met two mentors who helped her build her new business. In the meantime, she continued running PSN on the side as a volunteer.
Start Your Own Special Needs Group or Blog
Launch pad. Hoffman-Dolan created her first profitable website in 2001 by offering information and links to long distance phone plans. It earned her around $200-$300 per month. Recognizing her potential, her mentors suggested she construct more sites. She did a second one, specializing in the weight loss industry, and her monthly income jumped to $7,500. “That’s when I shifted into high gear,” Hoffman-Dolan says. She cared for her children by day, and worked till 3 a.m. on the business from a computer cart in her kitchen; often while cradling CJ on her lap.
Growth chart. By 2002, Hoffman-Dolan’s affiliate marketing business had really taken off, and she no longer had enough time for the operations of the Pediatric Stroke Network (PSN). It had also become emotionally difficult for her to lead the organization. Because CJ’s disabilities were more severe than other children that had suffered a pediatric stroke, it was difficult at times to relate to other families.
“I had started to feel that maybe I wasn’t the best person to run it anymore,” she said. “Distraught moms would tell me how upset they were that their kids would never ever ride a bike. Sometimes I felt like saying, ‘But my child is never ever going to know his mommy.’ It was like having to counsel someone with a broken arm, when you have terminal cancer.”
Hoffman-Dolan recruited another mother from the network to take over PSN, and focused her attention on her business and kids (her third was born in 2004). The strategy paid off. By 2005, she was pulling in five figures most months, and became known as an expert in her field. After her divorce, she moved her brood to Canada, and supported her children totally on her own. For about a year, she worked for a local company, developing its SEO strategy, all the while continuing to build her home based enterprise. She launched MFE Interactive with a partner and continues to operate it today with Sugarrae.com. The support of a staff for these two main ventures allows her to speak at industry events.
More Mompreneur Strategies and Tip
Balancing act. While in growth mode, Hoffman-Dolan had to pull many all-nighters to fit everything in. “Running a business from home gives you an amazing ability to be there for your kids—especially when you have one with special needs,” she says. “I was able to drop everything when CJ had a seizure, or needed his feeding tube changed. [But] my house was a wreck,” she admits. “You can’t be superwoman. I had to choose whether I was going to spend my time scrubbing floors or making sure CJ’s shirts weren’t getting soaked with drool.”
She is now a big believer in delegating, eventually hiring some household help. “Once you have money coming in, it’s important to spend some of it on people who can help you,” said Hoffman-Dolan. “Let someone else clean or start dinner, so you can play with your kids.”
Hoffman-Dolan has also faced some gut-wrenching personal choices along the way. “I had to make the toughest decision of my life,” she says. When CJ was 11-year-old, he had grown so big that she injured her back and knee trying to lift him. “It got to the point where I had to put him to bed on a comforter on the floor, so I could pull him from room to room when he needed me,” she says. “I couldn’t take the younger kids out, because CJ would melt down and scream in unfamiliar places. So we never went anywhere.”
Doctors recommended putting him in a nursing home, but Hoffman-Dolan couldn’t bear to do it. Instead, her ex-husband, who lives in Florida, offered to take him in, a solution that has worked well. She realized it was the best solution for CJ as well as her other children.
“The hardest part was letting him go,” she said. “I still beat myself up over it.”
Greatest rewards. Though she logged killer hours for years, Hoffman-Dolan says running a business actually helped reduce her stress levels. In the old days, “I couldn’t even afford to buy CJ a new g-Tube, or a bath chair to keep him secure in the tub. It was very freeing and empowering when I began earning money that I could use to get CJ what he needed. It took an enormous financial burden off my shoulders.” Now that she has a staff, she’s able to work way less, while still earning a healthy six figures annually. “The key is to train others how to do the work, so you can spend your time developing new ideas,” she says.
Share your ideas in our Mompreneurs Group