Anne Holland was living the dream. She had sold her business – an online site that published original marketing research – for a hefty sum in 2007 and she’d saved enough to retire in her mid-40s.
“I was going to be able to garden and go to the beach, and go to independent bookstores,” Holland recalled. “I was going to have the good life.”
And so she did. For about six months. Then she got bored.
That explains why only a few years after entering early retirement, Holland is back at it again, overseeing not one website this time, but five business-to-business information sites, including two catering to marijuana-dispensary owners. And she wants to add to that stable.
Holland says she’s doing things different this time around. Before she cashed out of her previous business, MarketingSherpa LLC, she found that as the company grew she was spending too much time doing tasks she didn’t enjoy, conducting meetings she didn’t want to be in.
“It just got to be too big for me,” Holland said. “It wasn’t as fun anymore.”
With her latest company, Newport-based Anne Holland Ventures Inc., she has found an experienced business partner in Cassandra Farrington, chief financial and operating officer, who “lives for operations,” the part of running a company Holland disliked.
Now Holland can focus on business strategies. And so far, it’s been successful.
In 2009 Anne Holland Ventures launched its inaugural online effort, WhichTestWon.com, a site that quizzes visitors on the results of various A/B marketing tests before revealing the actual results.
For example, the site featured two versions of a fundraising letter in which one lifted the average donation size by more than 300 percent.
The site has been a hit. Not only are industry members reading, many have volunteered to divulge their own A/B test on the site.
Since then, Holland has added Subscription Site Insider, Paywall Times, Dispensary Insider and Dispensary Business News. And she’s looking to launch a new niche site every nine months or so in industries with “information pain points” that aren’t addressed anywhere else.
Holland is drawing heavily from her experience of starting MarketingSherpa in 2000 after years of being involved in marketing print business-to-business publications. Over seven years, she built the site – which was headquartered in Warren – into a marketing-industry powerhouse with 20 employees and 237,000 weekly readers.
In building a new business, Holland has found things have changed.
“It’s much harder now,” Holland said. “There is so much more competition for the online eyeball.”
In the post-recession business climate, people are more price-sensitive, too. Many belt-tightening companies have done away with subscriptions in their budget.
Holland has the process of launching new websites nearly down to a science. Once a niche is identified, the company hires editorial staff, has a tech team design a new website, then offers free content “to get people to pay attention,” Holland said.
Staff members also turn to social media sites and news blogs to drum up site visitors.
As the site draws more traffic, Holland’s company sells ads, industry reports, subscriptions or offers webinars or expert speakers. “You need a variety of ways to monetize,” Holland said.
Once a site can sustain itself, Anne Holland Ventures is ready to expand its horizons and invest in another niche.
Right now, the company is focusing on the marijuana-dispensary field. Holland acknowledged that it was an idea that she and her staff had difficulty taking seriously at first. Most marijuana-related publications featured women in bikinis and offer growing tips.
But with thousands of dispensaries operating nationwide under knots of complex and confusing government regulation, they warmed to the idea.
Holland set out to offer online publications that would offer sober information on the ins and outs of running a dispensary.
Holland said the newsletter has made inroads in the industry, although one of the editors acknowledged in blog posts he has had difficulty gaining the trust of some wary dispensary owners.
Once the dispensary sites can break even, Anne Holland Ventures will expand into another arena – this time possibly another medical-related publication.
Right now, Holland isn’t all that concerned about the bottom line – she isn’t even paying herself yet – it’s more about growth of the company.
“We’re constantly in bootstrap mode,” she said. “It’s fun.” •
COMPANY PROFILE
Anne Holland Ventures Inc.
OWNER: Anne Holland, president
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Online, business-to-business publishing company
LOCATION: 135 Spring St., Newport
EMPLOYEES: 7
YEAR FOUNDED: 2009
ANNUAL SALES: WND
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