Leadership Interview on
Ilona Jerabek

Our tests and assessments provide valuable insights and awareness on how people can improve their skills, and the overall quality of their lives.

Many of our tests and assessments are available at no charge. We also offer more exhaustive and detailed products for a reasonable fee.

As an example, we have a comprehensive Leadership Test that identifies relevant leadership skill levels and attitudes. Users receive a full report which provides a solid and objective assessment of their individual strengths and weaknesses.

In addition, we offer a Management Skills Test and Management Style Test. All of our tests are created to assist people in becoming more aware of their strengths, as well as areas that will greatly benefit from some focused attention.

What motivates you to remain focused on growing your business/website?
First of all, I truly enjoy what I’m doing. I believe we are providing an important and very useful service to our clients.

We are confident that our products are focused squarely on helping our customers. The positive feedback we receive from our customers is very rewarding for me personally.

I am most definitely a person who loves to learn new things. As the President of this company, I make it a point to continue my own education by taking classes, paying attention to what our competitors are doing and actively listening to our valued customers.

Every new test we create involves a great deal of research, which also assists me in learning more about people and why people do what they do. My job truly keeps me on a path of continuous learning. I enjoy this aspect of my job very much.

What has been your greatest challenge as a business leader, and how did you overcome it?
Our business happens to be self-funded. We don’t have any outside investors, so we have learned to make the most of all available resources.

In addition, we experienced a huge challenge in our business with the downturn of the Internet in 2000-2001. Prior to that time, all of our revenues were derived from advertising. This was terrific at the time as it allowed us to provide most of our tests and assessments for free to our visitors.

Following the burst of the Internet bubble, so to speak, we no longer were able to survive solely on advertising revenues. We had to re-think our entire business model.

Looking back now we realize that the adversity we faced back then has made us much stronger today. We had to get creative and find new sources of income in order to cover our expenses. Now that we have several sources of income, our business is much more stable – which feels absolutely wonderful from my perspective.

Describe the most important activity(ies) you do regularly, that you attribute to the success of your site?
Constantly investing time and resources to research and development (R&D) is key to growing our business.

In addition to creating new tests and assessments, we continue to change and improve upon our existing products.

I pay attention to the quality of the content we provide on our sites. In addition, we closely monitor the level of service that we are providing to our customers. We know firsthand that delivering great customer service to our clients is critical to retaining our customers and growing our base of business.

Finally, we place a good deal of time following up on ideas for ways to develop new business relationships – seeking out new opportunities to create win-win partnerships with other businesses.

Do you own other internet businesses? If so, what product or service does it offer? Url?
Plumeus, Inc. is our mother company which owns the following sites:
Queendom.com - this site is our entertainment portal where we offer a wide variety of “just for fun” tests and assessments.
PsychTests.com - is more focused for professionals such as HR and Marketing departments, therapists and academic/research professionals.
QuizCards.com - which offers electronic cards which have a quiz attached. Great for viral marketing!

What is your greatest accomplishment relating to your site?
Again, I am very proud of the fact that we continue to exist and grow, while being totally self-funded.

We are proud of each of our tests and assessments that we launch. We consider each separate product to be one of our "intellectual babies".

It’s a great accomplishment, knowing how much energy went into it’s creation, every time you see a new product launch. It’s a wonderful feeling.

How would you recommend others get started on creating a website?
Well, it’s been my experience that a lot of people have a good idea. However, many of these people soon realize that the process of making it happen can be an intense and daunting task.

People need to do their homework well in advance before laying out their hard earned money. Confirm that your idea is solid by testing the market.

Be clear about what your objective is. Who is your target customer? How can you differentiate your product or service from your competitors?

Once you are clear on what you want, surround yourself with the best people you can. Hire experts if necessary to help you develop your website. It’s imperative that your website looks clean and professional. Avoid typos and grammatical errors, which can quickly give a bad impression to your visitors.

What advice would you offer to others wanting to generate income on the Internet?
Do what works! Create a solid business and marketing plan that is based heavily on what has already been proven to work. In other words, focus on what’s "tried and true".

Create win-win joint venture partnership with other sites/organizations that offer products or services which compliment your own.

Diversify your income streams as much as possible. It's important in this global economy that a web business diversify their sources of revenue so that there is a level of protection from unexpected market changes. If one source of income dries up, a business that has other sources of revenue can more easily weather the storm, and continue operations more smoothly.

Describe your favorite leadership tool?
Continue to educate yourself via classes and seminars. Utilize leadership sites such as Leadership-Tools.com.

I also make use of arch profiles for hiring purposes. Profile tools can tell you a lot about the character and attributes of a potential team member.

I also count heavily on my team members input. I value their feedback and I try to maintain an environment where my employees are comfortable in telling me if they have a different opinion than my own. It’s important to encourage all team members to speak up and add value to the organization.

Any last "Words of Wisdom"?
I’m big on trusting my intuition and/or "gut feeling". I believe our intuition is some kind of hidden intelligence that many people tend to discard way to quickly.

Listening to our intuition, but at the same time being able to distinguish intuition from basic fear, is one of the greatest skills leaders can possess.

In summary, learn to trust your intuition, but do not let simple fear dictate any important decision. There is a fine line between a person choosing to be excited about a challenge, versus choosing to be afraid.

We're constantly on the lookout for highly effective leadership tools and resources that we can recommend to our readers. Share your own helpful hints and tips here.

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