Teacher Practices What She Preaches

We’re highlighting small businesses from around the country as nominated by you, our readers. If your favorite small business is using Twitter to communicate with customers, let us know about it @fbsmallbiz with the hashtag #mysbc, and it may be featured as an upcoming Small Business Spotlight.

Small Business Spotlight: Creative Minds Publications

Who: Kathryn Starke, @kathrynstarke

What: Literacy promotion, creative and educational materials and consulting for schools

Where: Richmond, Va.

When: 2005

How: Starke started the business to promote her first book, “Amy’s Travels,” and continued to grow from there. Using her background in urban elementary school literacy and her teaching experience of over a decade, Starke continued to create books to help inner city schools teach their students to read.

“I also go in as a trainer [to schools] to consult on how schools can increase literacy,” she said. “It’s a whole educational company.”

Quote from the owner: “If you want to have books used in schools, you have to understand how to write for students and work in schools,” she said. “I have a home-school day-to-day and then I have my business. I actually live it every day.”