Personal Finance Inspires this Contributor of the Week

While improving personal finances is certainly the motive behind why many entrepreneurs and small business owners start their ventures in the first place, for BizSugar Contributor of the Week Tom Drake this was the case in more ways than one.

Drake is the founder of Drake Media, an online publisher responsible for a variety of sites including Canadian Finance Blog (now Maple Money), Create HYPE, Personal Dividends, and Stupid Cents. Learn more about the company here.

Not surprisingly, the company, which boasts several personal finance titles, started with its founders own personal interests in the niche. Here is Tom Drake’s story in his own words:

In early 2009 I was becoming very interested in improving my personal finances due to a lot of big life events happening within a half year span. I was recently married, with a baby on the way, and about to sell our townhouse to move into a house. So during this time I started Canadian Finance Blog to get various ideas out of my head and to share them with others.

As his site grew, Drake continued to seek new opportunities and to grow his existing operations:

The site continued to improve in popularity throughout 2009 and 2010, so I began to look at this as not longer just a hobby, but as an actual business. And as a business, I knew I needed to expand my online reach. Over the past year, I’ve created and acquired multiple blogs, as well as going into partnerships on new sites with Jim Yih and Miranda Marquit. I’ve also worked to help promote others and share throughout the personal finance blogosphere with a site directory and social media site in our niche.

He also uses BizSugar regularly and talks about the benefits of the small business community:

BizSugar has been an awesome resource for finding new information on ways to improve my business and stay ahead of the latest online trends. It’s also been a great way to share some of my business related content with others, especially from Create Hype, which is focused on helping women entrepreneurs build their brand and promote their business both online and offline.

Are you looking for a small business community where you can find and share the latest information related to your small business? Why not join BizSugar.com by creating a free BizSugar account today, “like” our BizSugar Facebook page, and you could be our next BizSugar Contributor of the Week.