Spotlight on Mom Entrepreneur: Karin Caro, founder of Blu Chip Marketing

Karin Caro, a mom of four, honed her business skills in multiple enterprises. Together with her husband, she employs over 1000 people and found her calling in marketing. The Blu Chip Marketing company reflects her own commitment to community, perfection, and to life balance. Michael Papierno, General Manager of the Viana Hotel and Spa in Westbury, NY, has been working with Karin and BluChip Marketing for 5 months now. “Karin is not only passionate about her own company,” says Papierno, “she is just as passionate about the companies she represents. Being an independent hotel getting the word out about our property is key. Karin and her team have been successful in getting this done for us.” Community involvement and understanding social and emerging media is what keeps Blu Chip on the industry’s cutting edge. For example, Karin’s latest project involves the first legalized gay wedding in New York (on July 24th). She also designed the sterling silver key for Stony Brook Children’s Hospital and is organizing an event (on August 19th) for Polysystic Kidney Disease. Karen understands that the need to change and evolve is at the core of social media, or any web presence. She knows that patience and balance are parenting skills that can also make you a great employer. Her kids get involved with work, which I find most inspiring. Their projects include a kid to kid charity organization, doing web design, and making jewelry for charity. I asked Karin a few questions in this exclusive interview.

What has been your career path leading to Blu Chip Marketing? Where did you gather your expertise?

After owning businesses since I was 20 years old and my own house at 19, I learned very early on how to market myself. I realized my businesses were growing even in a declining economy and really evaluated why. I decided that it was related to how we developed our marketing and how it was always changing. I have a degree in Psychology and I was a professional ballroom dancer while going to school. You learn very quickly how to get attention when you’re on the dance floor so combined with my degree, my passion for learning, meeting people and an innate need to succeed has brought me where I am today. In 2003 my husband and I started a business brokerage (Bridge Business & Property Brokers) which enabled me to be like a girl scout and really dig into all different types of businesses. One of the things I noticed clearly and immediately was many businesses lack of marketing and branding. I started offering tips and then a full out plan and then a consulting plan to each new buyer which really made me think, I need to help businesses develop a better sense of marketing, development and branding.

What has been your most successful/gratifying project with Blu Chip Marketing so far and why?

Sincerely, it has been so gratifying to see my young staff grow. They have looked up to me and I have guided them, they have believed in me and I have watched them grow. There is truly nothing more satisfying in the workplace than seeing your staff laugh, cry and make be happy. I have read their Facebook status’ stating “I love my job”. They call each other family. They have encouraged my own kids to come to work and they help them. This is just an incredible energy and I feel so lucky to have these 12 people around me everyday. As far as business, we are changing lives everyday. We have helped so many businesses and charities. I went to bed one night and I thought it would be great to have a piece of sterling silver jewelry for people to wear to show support for a local cause. So, I designed a key for Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, had it made, and now I am selling it. This has been unbelievable for me to create something so beautiful and have people wanting to buy it, wear it and show support for building a children’s hospital in our town! Really unbelievable.

With 4 kids, how do you find time to run a company and be a mom? How do you do it from home with kids around? What’s your time and energy management secret?

For me this goes back to my staff again. I started in my house and had one employee making $100 a week. She worked more hours than you can imagine. She believed in me and for that I am so lucky. Sadly, she died in a car accident earlier this year. She helped me from the start and helped me get accounts which helped me to get more employees, which helped me get space, etc. I am really challenged daily about her not being here but her life was touched by many others.

Because of my staff, and their ability to be around my kids, I can leave work, take off, bring them and be a mom first. That is extraordinary and allows me to be the best mom I can be. Of course, balance is very challenging and it is so difficult to be a mom, a wife and follow your own dreams. I live by one rule: BALANCE. I make sure the kids see me working, I make sure they are involved and I make sure my family is first. Of course, there is the occasional late meeting, the event at night…so I will bring my husband and make it a fun night, as for the late meeting here and there…well, I think it’s good that they understand that I am following my heart and doing the best I can. Again, I keep my hours shortened while they are in school, I send them to camp for a few hours a day, that’s when I work and I bring them to work whenever I can. I think this teaches work ethic, responsibility, creativity and working with others. Over the summer, I take an one day off a week as well as bringing them one day the rest is working from home and/or playmates or camp. Yes, it’s a lot of balance and a well organized schedule!

Does your family get involved in your work?

Haha! See above! Yes, I involve everyone and everyone is very proud of me. My daughter makes rock animals, jewelry and crafts for 2 local charities that I support. My son, Brendan, collects food for a local food pantry. My oldest, Alex, just started his own website, selling my daughter’s projects and spotlighting local charities and kids who give. I had him design the website on his own. As for my husband, he has enjoyed the great many people and events!

When did you start this company? How did it all begin? What’s in the name?

The name Blu Chip is a top tier business so we wanted to give top tier marketing for all businesses. It’s been really fun to play with the name..for instance, we all wear BLUE at many events, I developed to divisions of the company: FashionaBlu (for fashion marketing) and CharitaBlu (for marketing for charities), BLUKIDZ for my son. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the name has been terrific, men relate to it, allowing me to have something to talk about. We started doing business for Blu Chip in May of 2010.

I hear that flexibility and control over the end result is what most mompreneurs love about running a business. What is the hardest thing about running your own business?

Hardest thing, and I think every mom and woman can relate to, is keeping everyone happy. The clients, the staff, my family…all depending on me for different things and to make things work.

Your client list is very diverse. Do you prospect or do they find you?

I have two sales people but the majority of my clients come to me because of our strong presence on the web.

Do you prefer flat rate billing or do you like to bill by the hour? What do you think are the advantages of either for marketing professionals?

We offer a wide array of services from social media to events, promotional items to sales development so our preferred method of billing is by full range marketing package which allows us to be flexible each month by deciding what money budgeted should go to what area of marketing. We decide then if that month the client needs an event or seminar, an eblast, telemarketing or social media.

What, in your opinion, are the businesses doing wrong about social media and what steps can they take to make it right?

It appears to me that most businesses don’t have the time or the real knowledge to develop their social media. It takes a lot to keep up with dozens of pages for each client. We tweet on an average 12 times a day per client, we keep up with their LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and other sites like Plaxo and FlickR and even post on Craiglist. We are always, ALWAYS taking education on social media and viral marketing. It changes everyday. It’s a lot for a company to invest the time and the money in that.

Did you pick up any business skills from parenting?

Yes, because I treat my staff like they are my family. I will sometimes say, “ok, that was so Brendan!” to someone on my team. Meaning, that was creative. I need them to support me and believe in who I am as a person, as a mom and as a business woman. Parenting has taught me to be patient and to have balance. That has made me a really good and understanding employer.

What do you see as the next big thing in e-marketing?

I think personal URL’s is the next big thing and mobile marketing.

What are your favorite business tools? Which one do you leverage the most?

I leverage the web! It allows me to be at home, getting my kids homework done while having a discussion on LinkedIn. I think todays technology is a golden time for women…for moms! We can have any presence that we want on the web while in our slippers and bathrobe! I think because we are social beings it is easier for us to facilitate the tools the web has given us and that is why more women are utilizing these tools than men and I think that puts women and moms in particular at an advantage.

What kind of advice would you give to moms wishing to work from home?

Get your kids involved. They respect you more and they learn so much from it! They can be a great help rather than a hindrance. Teach them, guide them and they will have tools for their future.

If I asked your kids what kind of mom you are, what would they say?

I asked them: “you do so many things and you have so many friends….we are so proud of you, we are happy to learn from you…thank you for being OUR mom, thank you for being you”. I am glad I asked 🙂

You can read more about Blu Chip Marketing at bluchipmarketing.com and more about Karin at karincaro.com and on her LinkedIn profile page.