Combine a newcomer’s passion for her dream, the need to do something fast for your family and social media and you’ll have the key rungs on Batya Maman’s ladder to better business results.
Batya and her husband moved to the United States from Israel with their children to take advantage of the construction boom in 2003. He was in construction. She formed a business around cleaning up houses after construction. But they divorced and she lost her green card as a result of the split.
But she had three children to support. She needed a way to do that.
Maman saw opportunity in her experience as a teacher and in computers.
She learned about computers in Israel and was a teacher there. She wrote programs shared by the schools.
“For me it was so natural to become a teacher again,” Maman said. Her topics include how to use social media to your advantage, how to build a website and how to establish relationships with people who can help your business.
“I partnered with a company in Clearwater that does training for dentists,” Maman said. Dentists came from across the country for social media training and soon she was asked to lead social media seminars outside of Southwest Florida.
She’s planning a book now to help people learn how to build their social media presence and develop relationships with others.
“Social media is you and what you share with the public,” Maman said.
That is the most misunderstood part of using social media, according to Maman.
“Social media can build you. It can destroy you,” Maman said. “If you want to be professional, post like a professional.”
Keeping control of your message is important.
“You have to be master of your own destiny. You have to control your social media. You don’t want someone else to control you,” said Kelly C. Capolino, a real estate professional who takes Maman’s advice to heart. “It’s better for you to put yourself out there in social media instead of someone else putting you out there.”
Maman suggests building relationships only with the people you want to reach with your business and to lend your talents to not-for-profit groups, because it helps them and helps you.
“She encourages that her clients have to give back. It’s pretty amazing how she’s growing her business that way,” Capolino said.
“Your social media presence is so important to building professional relationships,” Maman said.
The biggest obstacle business people face is deciding what to post, according to Maman. Her advice is “pick the one thing you are passionate about and write about it. Share the good things about it.”
Maman gave the community of Naples some of the credit for her success when she had to climb above the legal and business troubles resulting from her divorce.
“I met people in Naples who believed in us,” Maman said.
She and her family planned to move to Miami when they came from Israel for a better life, but a visit to Naples impressed them.
“Moving to Naples was a random act,” she said. “Living in Southwest Florida is a privilege. I moved from the Holy Land to the land of opportunity,” Maman said.
Now she wants to do more.
“My passion is to continue to grow my business,” Maman said. She’s looking for college students who already know something about social media and want to be involved in building a business.
Social Connect
Location: Naples
Phone: (239) 601-4340
Email: Batya150@gmail.com
Web: gobatya.com
The News-Press wants to write about innovation in the re-emerging Southwest Florida economy. Tell us how you’re making better use of people, ideas, methods or technologies to better serve your clients and customers. Contact Storytelling Coach Steve McQuilkin at smcquilkin@news-press.com or writer Don Ruane at ruanedon@aol.com
