Sittercity.com is the country's largest and most trusted online network of in-home care providers. I run all four divisions of my company- the consumer division, corporate division, media and research. I also have a second career as an opera singer. I can truthfully say I'm Mary Poppins!

EDUCATION | BA in English and Music from Boston College; Masters in Opera from Northwestern University

HOW TO GET STARTED | Find your niche. Especially for women entrepreneurs, look for inconveniences and see them as an opportunity to provide a service or product. For me, it was looking out my window and seeing a nine-months pregnant woman climbing up 200 stairs to post flyers looking for a babysitter. Build your company - I started out with little or no funding, which is good because being an entrepreneur means you must create something from nothing. You have to be willing to work very hard.

MUST HAVE TRAITS | Be a zealot, willing to adhere to your company's mission at its lowest and highest points. You have to be charismatic in order to get other people to believe in the mission. And, you need to be amazingly, incredibly stubborn, because you will be faced with many roadblocks along the way. Website: http://www.sittercity.com/

how I got started | As the oldest of seven kids, I've been babysitting since I was 8 (and singing opera since I was 11.) I've had more than 2,500 jobs as a babysitter. In college, though, I was an English and music major. I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. One day not long before my graduation in 2000, I was looking out the window of my dorm room at Boston College, and I saw a woman who was nine months pregnant posting flyers for a babysitter. I instantly had a vision of the whole company in my mind. I ran out and posted the flyers for her, then hurried back to my room and checked online for the domain name, SitterCity. It was available. I sat down and wrote my first business plan. Initially, investors were not interested. I approached a group of investors who laughed me out of the room and bluntly told me, "We don't fund babysitting clubs." But I built a skeletal site, printed 20,000 flyers and got my first 600 sitters. (All our sitters have background checks, provide references, and go through the interview process.) On September 1, 2001, I launched SitterCity. I just put it out there and it exploded. Within the next few weeks, we were featured in the Boston Herald. By 2005 SitterCity was nationwide. We received incredible attention from the press. I became the IVillage babysitting expert, and the babysitting expert for the Today Show. It was a concept whose time had come, like online dating. In 2006 we launched a corporate program, so companies could connect their employees with a sitter. Now our clients include MasterCard, Monster.com and Avon.

why this job?| It took a babysitter to see the need for this business. Six years after investors laughed me out of the room, I was receiving an award at the White House! As I said, I literally am Mary Poppins - there's nobody more qualified to run this company than myself. And, I literally wrote the book, Love at First Sit! It's what I do and who I am. For an entrepreneur, a choice will present itself and you have to choice of whether or not to take up the banner and run.

why I love this job!| It allows me to be everything I am - to use all my skills: for example, I've sung The Hills are Alive to Matt Lauer on the Today Show! Also, I have a very exciting life. And I love knowing that I can walk down the street and know there are people I've helped by connecting those who need work with people who need caregivers. I love that I can give back this way.

my typical day| I come in and generally clean out my e-mail first thing in the morning. I have meetings with the various division teams. Also, I'm on the road a lot, speaking, doing interviews and meeting strategic people.

what they are | With the current economy, it's a challenge to keep everyone's morale up. We are fortunate in that we are growing. It's also a challenge to stay ahead of the industry. While we respect our competitors, we work hard to be the best, fastest and most innovative online caregiver service out there.

all about growth | We're growing. The industry has just gotten started, and there's much left to do. The growth potential is phenomenal.

my website| http://www.sittercity.com/