Amanda van der Gulik, a mompreneur and Elance buyer, is passionate about two things:  financial independence and children.  She combines the two in her business, CleverDoughKids, a website dedicated to teaching children how to make money work for them rather than having to work for money.



CleverDoughKids, based in New Zealand and Canada, achieves Amanda's vision by creating and distributing educational materials with real examples of how kids can earn income passively.  "It's just so amazing to watch as the financial light bulb turns on in kids heads!" said Amanda.  One example Amanda shares is from her own daughter:

"One day my five-year old daughter's Grandmommy gave my daughter the job of folding plastic grocery bags into tiny little triangles to help reduce the amount of space the bags otherwise took up in the cupboard. My daughter earned 1 cent for every bag she folded."

"One day she had an inspiration. She suddenly realized how time-consuming folding those bags was and for a very little return on her energy so she decided to hire her little brother. She had her brother fold bags with her and for every 3 bags that he would fold she would pay him 2 cents leaving herself with 1 cent for every 3 bags that her little brother folded for her. She had suddenly learned how to leverage her time and ability by hiring her little brother, and her little brother, who was only 3 years old, was just super happy to be allowed to fold bags with his big sister and make some money too!"

With multiple websites running under the CleverDough brand, Amanda looked to Elance for help.  "I was capable of doing everything myself, but it just took so much of my time and I was going nowhere fast as they say. After almost two years of complete frustration of trying to do everything, I decided to get some help," said Amanda.

Amanda was studying internet marketing, and Elance was recommended as a place to find freelance contractors to help her build all aspects of her internet business. "I was intrigued, and as I said, going nowhere fast with all of my own efforts so out of frustration I decided to have a look and I have been hooked ever since."

Working with Elancers works well for Amanda and her business.  "I simply give an outline of what I want done and then we work together on the finished product," said Amanda. 

"I have now found my inner circle Elance team of writers, designers and techies, and we are having an absolute ball together building our CleverDough websites," said Amanda.  Her team includes Elancers binarybrainz, LindaKaunCopywriting, YourWordsWorth, melanienegrin, and 5webdesign.  "With my team in place, I am really able to solely focus on teaching people how to be 'clever' with their 'dough'."