There are many changes taking place at ContestQueen.com and I thought I should give you a brief history of the company, so you can understand how I came to the decisions I have, and came to be where I am today.

In 1988 I graduated from Centennial College with a marketing diploma.  I worked mainly in the information technology industry with various hardware and software firms.  In 1994 I founded Imagination Edge (imEDGE), a small-business marketing consulting firm.  I created On-Demand and Relief Marketing services working with small businesses allowing them to obtain the experience and personalized services of a professional marketer without the financial commitment of a marketing department or adding additional full-time staff.

In 1999, I incorporated the business with my husband, Craig Borysowich, and we became a business consulting firm, offering a wider range of services.  There are many ups and down owning your own business.  During a down period in 2000, I took a job as an Event Marketing Manager for an Internet security company.  In 2001, they got caught in the dot com crunch and found myself unemployed with a dormant marketing business.  While searching for a new job and working to revive my side of the company, two life changing events happened: 1) I discovered the hobby of contesting and 2) I became pregnant.

In 2004, after spending four years managing the backend of the business, (all the administrative and accounting tasks don’t stop, even if one of the business partners does), as well as being a stay-at-home mom, I took my passion for contesting hobby and combined it with my extensive marketing background.  When I first began writing You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter, it was a 90-day project inspired by Robert Allen’s One Minute Millionaire.  It took me 20 months to finish the Canadian Edition.  It was published in the spring of 2006.

While writing and researching my first book, in 2005 I launched the ContestQueen.com website, designed as “the hub of all things contesting”, and I began producing The Winning EDGE, chock-a-block with free tips, tricks and sweepstakes advice.  In 2006, after attending my second Annual National Sweepstakes Convention, I decided we needed to have contest clubs in Canada, just as they have sweepstakes clubs in the U.S.

I thought writing a second edition would be faster, but the American Edition took 24 months and was published in the spring of 2008.  Now to be fair, I took a six month hiatus and put in over 1000 volunteer man hours to launch the Canadian Contestors Association and run the Canadian National Contest Convention in 2007.

I continued to add resources, to help fellow contestors become winners, and services, so I could help companies design better promotions from the outside in.  In 2008 I separated the From The Contest Queen section out of The Winning EDGE e-newsletter and turned it into a blog.  Later that year I began my online radio show, With The Contest Queen.  In 2009 I began tweeting (@ContestQueen) and ran my first full-day seminar, How To Win Cash, Cars, Trips & More!

(I also wrote about how I transited from being a marketing consultant to being the Contest Queen in the first chapter of my book.  You can read the Introduction chapter to You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter here.)

The part I usually don’t write about is how much money we invested in ContestQueen.com over the past six years and how little income the business has actually made.  Since I always put a positive face on in the media, in my blog, e-newsletter and radio show, so most people assume ContestQueen.com is a financially successful thriving business.  I have even had people accuse me of becoming tremendously wealthy, profiting on those that want to learn how to win.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

I have never shown anyone, outside my closest friends and family, how sad and disenchanted with the business I have become over the past few months.  Craig and I have invested approximately $25,000 per year and the business never showed a profit.  Most years we didn’t even cover our investment.  I have been waiting a long time for something to shift, the customers flock to my door and the sales to pour in.  I have done everything right, “by the book”, yet business and financial success have yet to appear.

I have made the difficult decision to make ContestQueen.com a part-time venture, and seek full-time employment.  Thankfully my passion for marketing has never faded, so I will be looking to use my talents either with a marketing company or within a marketing department.  To facilitate the shift, Craig and I decided to split our business.  We opened two new incorporated companies, (mine is ContestQueen.com) and Imagination EDGE Inc. is in the process of being closed.

I will now publish The Winning EDGE and host With The Contest Queen once per month.  I will blog, Facebook and tweet when I can.  I plan to continually maintain and upgrade ContestQueen.com along with all the free contesting and sweepstakes resources, although they will may occur at a slower pace.

The one aspect of the hobby I never envisioned when I entered my first entry form, was the wonderful people I would meet or the friends I would make along my journey.  I want to thank all of you who have touched my life and supported me in such wonderful and unexpected ways. I am very grateful.