"karma is quite a good thing, when you are kind and helpful, you leave a positive footprint to the universe! says Silvia Del Corso

Silvia Del Corso is an inspirational business woman - falling in love with the technical aspects of Digital Marketing and SEO, she created her own agency names PinkSEO.Marketing. You can find Silvia's Digital Marketing business online, physically located in Isleworth, West London    and on nearly any existing social network. Find out how she started her successful business here:

Explain a little about your background. How you started doing what you are doing now, and your journey?
I began working in Digital Marketing in Italy 7 years ago. I started my studies in Foreign Languages, I can speak Italian, English, German and Spanish. I fell in love with Digital Marketing and SEO just because it seemed too difficult and technical to ever grasp it. And it was almost entirely a male dominated  industry. That's why I wanted so badly to become very competent in it and one of the reasons why my Digital Marketing business' name is PinkSEO.Marketing.

What was it like in the first week or two of starting your own business?
I was really full of doubts: even if it was my passion, I couldn't believe it could be my job, too, that I would have been able to pay my bills and to actually do all the things I had learned. Then I was taught by my amazing Business Coach how to believe in myself, in my skills and in my true value, how to use words to project inside and outside the results I want to achieve and my mindset began changing into a successful one.

How did you fund your business in the initial stages and how has that changed as time went on?
Luckily we didn't have many expenses. My husband is a front-end developer and we had a small digital agency in which I had clients ready for marketing. The problem was that the clients couldn't afford to invest, Italian taxation is mad and invoices can remain unpaid with no chances for suing. So, we had to move to the UK. Here the game changed a lot. Companies here can actually understand and appreciate Digital marketing. So, I started gaining fair rates and growing.

What's the most important thing you're working on right now, and how are you making it happen?
I'm on an Advisory role a private school, a very good institution with solid projects and a good understanding of the importance of marketing.
It is giving me a very big satisfaction to see that my efforts are being rewarded with a big visibility of the school, a wide interest in the population and very good involvement figures being measured.

Tell us about your support network - did you have the backing of your friends and family?
My husband believes in my capabilities and supports me, my children (9 and 6 y.o.)  still struggle a bit to understand why is mum working a little bit more now, having more appointments and works to be done.

What gets you out of bed in the morning?
The desire to make some client of mine "shine" and the certainty it will happen. They chose me, so I want them to be rewarded with as much of traffic and conversions as it can ever be achieved. Every time I get a new client I feel the challenge to find the perfect way, tailor-made, for their website to perform and be optimised, to find and really communicate their unique selling proposition, to make sure that they will reach an audience they would have never had otherwise and that their user journey will be flawless to become customers and brand advocates.

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Working with other amazing professionals I've had the chance to learn so much from their experience and expertise

​Tell us how you got your first few clients (include tips on attaining new business)
This was not easy at all in the beginning. It's been the right mixture of networking, social media, personal connections. As a tip I'd say not to be scared to help out: karma is quite a good thing, when you are kind and helpful, you leave a positive footprint to the universe! Every moment, I choose to be an ethic entrepreneur in anything I do and that may not be economically beneficial in some cases, but it does pay out in the long term because it builds a relationship of truthfulness that can't be bought with any money and that lasts, at a deeper level. I am a very sociable person, so I find it easy and pleasant, but get in touch with as many persons as you can.
Tips on how to make it past the 12 months mark?
Being a woman, I chose to join the Athena Network because I truly believe in the incredible potential of talented women working together. Between collaboration and competition, there's no doubt: I'll always go for the first option. Working with other amazing professionals I've had the chance to learn so much from their experience and expertise, to get advices that I will always hold dear and, last but not least, to get to know people I feel very well with, whom I share the same serious work ethic with and with whom I am very happy to work but also to have a chat and a laugh.

What is your commercial strategy and how do you plan to make even more money?
Basically, digital marketing involves checking what people's needs are and providing them. This is what I have done for my own business, too: I've realised that there is a big need of SEO and digital marketing services for freelancers, but that they are also eager to learn themselves how to become more competent in managing this side of their own business. This is why from January on, I am providing modular training courses. After a long phase of customer research, it appeared clear that they will have to be modular and hybrid, having for each one video lesson followed by one hour of interactive Skype session for people to ask their doubts and how could they get this strategy into their own business. I've already got prebookings of people registering their interest for this.

A two sentence bio of yourself with a link to where you would like the blog to direct readers to? (Do you want to send some pictures of yourself/your business environment/product)
You can find my Digital Marketing business online, physically located in Isleworth, West London    and in nearly any existing social network. I am actually interested in hosting relevant information on some partner's blogs, as a sign of cooperation and to provide our audience with a wider range of information.

Where do you see yourself and your business in 5 years time?
I've actually discovered that I like public speaking a lot, so I plan to be less involved in projects hands-on and more on the side of coaching, training, mentoring and speaking at events of those topics I love so much. I would also love to get some partnership with other international professionals, in order to build bridges which are always stronger and longer.