Today we’d like to introduce you to Judy Budd.
Hi Judy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I am extremely blessed. When I moved to North Carolina from California in 2004, I was fortunate to have met a number of people through networking. One of these people introduced me to the owner of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal and Wilma Magazine. He was looking to hire a sales manager and the introduction sealed the deal after about 7 interviews. I loved working with the owner and publisher and helped him grow his business over the 13+ years I worked for him until my retirement in January 2021. Throughout this time, I was constantly collecting information about networking and various groups and organizations and decided that one day I was going to create a networking directory so others could find how to get involved much easier than I did. During Covid, as I was working from home, I realized how much my husband needed me to be his caretaker and I told myself that I was never going to create that directory–so what did I do–I threw out all 14 years of research and notes. Then, several months after I retired, I said to myself, dang it–you really want to create this directory. Fast forward to today, my business partner and I have created a great community resource called ConnectCapeFear.com. Our business is over 5 years old and although our lives have changes dramatically, our business has stayed steady and has grown significantly over the years.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Our first year was not at all what we planned. I had a one year non-compete agreement that my prior boss would not let me out of. That being said, I wasn’t allowed to talk about the business or start to sell ny of the products we offered on the website. We built the back end and waited. On February 1, 2022 I started making phone calls and appointments and we went live with our website on April 1, 2022. There were so many different obstacles that I confronted–my partner ended up moving out of the state and wouldn’t be able to help me with selling. She was able to do back end “stuff” which was great. At the same time, my husband was getting progressively worse and I needed to get a caretaker for him every time I left the house for an appointment. And then, the following year, he passed away. I didn’t realize how much work you have to do to settle someone’s estate and how much you need time to recover from losing the love of your life. We hired some part time sales folks and a full timer but things didn’t work out with them. There was a great deal of pressure on me. I somehow survived and continued to sell but then I had a major fall which set me back again. Lot’s of challenges but we kept persevering. And one of the best things that has happened to me is that I have met a man who has rocked my world. Who would have thought you could find love again at my age but I have. Now my biggest obstacle is finding time to be together since he lives a couple of hours away.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Connect Community Involvement Directory dba Connectcapefear.com?
Connect Cape Fear is a community resource directory. We have listings of anything you can join, attend, participate in or volunteer at. Our website has over 1300 listings and each listing has a page to talk about their organization or club. We have listings for the nonprofit organizations, networking groups, women’s and men’s groups, veterans groups, religious organizations, civic groups, golf courses, gyms, etc. I sell advertising, podcasts, blogs, and special offers and we have a monthly newsletter as well as a community calendar. We especially like to have small businesses and local businesses on our pages. One very unique feature is someone new to our area can click on our Get Matched tab, they then can tell us what they are looking for, and we search the crops and send them a personal email with suggestions for ways to get involved. I love that as people meet me and learn about our website they are either telling me they have used our website (this makes me a super happy person) or they tell me they wish something like this was available when they moved to our area. My partner and I are both CONNECTORS and we love helping people find ways to get involved in their hometown and meet new people. The listings are all at no charge and getting on the website does not cost the person anything. They only costs associated with the website and the ads, podcasts, blogs and special offers. And, we have intentionally kept the price point low to make sure our local businesses can afford to be on the website.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Knowing how much digital information is out there, we can only see an upside to our website. I am getting older and will be wanting to attempt to retire again–and this time I will try not to fail at it. We will be looking at getting a new partner or making some changes in that regard. We also had planned at some point that we would license this concept to other great networkers so they would have their own business. There are so many ways to grow this business. Only time will tell.
Pricing:
- Advertising on the website runs $175 month
- Podcasts done interview style are $697
- Blogs are $497
- Special Offers are $197 per month
- Advertising on the Newsletter is $197 month
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Connectcapefear.com
