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Wendy Piersall Low Res Headshot

Wendy Piersall

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Wendy Piersall

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Bio (Short)

Wendy Piersall is a 14 year marketing veteran and passionate entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of Sparkplugging, the largest blog network dedicated to work at home resources for solo business owners. She is a well known authority on blogging, social media, and small business. She’s spent years developing a deep understanding of how women interact online via social media. Today, she works with brands such as Epson & Kmart to develop and implement strategic web 2.0 marketing campaigns that also respect the cultures of online communities.

Bio (Longer)

Nearly 20 years ago, Wendy Piersall was living out of her truck in rural Arizona. At one point, she had 30 dollars to her name, and nowhere to go but the Salvation Army. A few years later, she moved to Chicago, living in her parent’s basement as a single mom. It was then that she had the idea to start her first business, and with no entrepreneurial experience, she set up shop as Luna Art, creating children’s furniture and painting custom murals in residential homes. Although that first business didn’t last too long, it did put her back on the path of self-reliance and she was soon on her feet again.

In 2006, she left her position as Director of Business Development with an ecommerce startup to launch a new social network. As she was doing business plan research, she had an idea to start up a ‘little hobby blog’, a place where she could share her experience as both an entrepreneur and work at home parent. Quite literally she thought, “Maybe 1 or 2 other moms out there would be interested in what it takes to start a website and work from home”. Less than three months later, this little hobby blog “eMoms at Home” became popular enough for her to quit her other pursuits and work full time on developing her blog into a business. Now in 2009, the site has changed it’s name to Sparkplugging, and it is currently one of the largest destinations online for people who want to start a business from home.

Over the last three years, Wendy has become a well known authority on blogging, web 2.0 marketing, entrepreneurship, and social media. She is particularly passionate about working with the parenting and women’s online communities she has been a part of. Today, she works with brands such as Epson, Kmart & SeaWorld to develop and implement strategic word of mouth marketing campaigns that respect the existing cultures established in these influential social networks.

Wendy resides in the western suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, and has been featured on Entrepreneur.com, LifeHacker, Monster.com’s WomenCo, the Chicago Daily Herald,  Boston’s WBZ and Success Magazine. She’s also been the keynote speaker at the B4B Conference as well as a featured speaker at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo, BlogHer, SOBCon, Mom 2.0 Summit, and SXSWi conferences, among others.

Press Releases

10.21.2008

What are Small Business Owners Really Saying in this Election? It’s Not About the Taxes, Stupid.

“Joe the Plumber” has become a central figure in the battle for the small business vote in the presidential election. While both candidates have focused on small business owners’ concern over higher taxes, these concerns are hardly important at all to businesses owned by one person with no employees (78% of all small businesses). Solo business owners are saying that they surprisingly really don’t care very much about tax cuts. The cost of insurance and access to health care is the number #1 cited worry by a margin of 3 to 1 over small business tax increases.

7.31.2008

Mom Bloggers Talk Business – And Get the Attention of the U.S. Government

Sparkplugging, the network of blogs founded to help small business owners who work at home, announced today a new content relationship with Business.gov. Sparkplugging will now be featuring content from Business.gov as a way to help the Presidential E-Government Business Gateway Initiative reach more home based business owners.

4.16.2008

eMoms at Home Reborn as Sparkplugging

The well-known internet home business magazine for parents, eMomsatHome, has taken on a new identity to better relate to its audience. The site, which relaunched Tuesday, is now Sparkplugging.com, for people who are “thinking big in the new work at home generation.” Founder Wendy Piersall said the cause for the change was the shifting of the home business industry.

9.20.2007

One-Stop Online Resource for Work-From-Home Parents Launched

Wendy Piersall, founder of eMomsatHome.com, “the internet home business magazine for moms and dads,” announced recently an expansion of the internet magazine. The new site will include seven blogs (written by nine authors) that cater to work-at-home parents, including both business content as well as parenting information…