She Got Her Own: LaShanda Henry, Internet Entrepreneur

The Web queen and mom helps others make money from home

In this series, we're profiling women who have left their corporate jobs behind and launched their own businesses in the recession. They are balancing children, careers and relationships and manage to make being their own bosses look good.

LaShanda Henry is one of the original queens of the Internet. No exaggeration. In the past 10 years, she has created 15+ web sites, all with the driving focus of helping black women excel, either in business or their personal lives. She juggles her online presence with offline events and is considered the go-to source for launching and maintaining successful businesses. Loop 21 had to catch up with Henry to see how she does it.

Loop 21: You're involved in so many different Web properties. How do they all connect with each other? 

Henry: SistaSense is my identity. People know me as Lashanda Henry a.k.a Sistasense and everything expands from that. Black Business Women Online [an online network for black female entrepreneurs] is one of the sites I'm most active on. Black Moms Club is another one of my Web properties. (Check out the full list of sites here.)

Loop 21: That's a lot for a one-woman show. How do you manage to keep content fresh on all the sites?

Henry: I try to make it have a life of its own, because for one person, it's a lot to physically maintain. From time to time, I will look at the best content members have posted and do a collection, letting people know, "This is what you should be looking at." I make sure everything is integrated, so people have a conversation whether I'm there or not.

[ALSO READ: Obama's Checklist Benefits Black Business]

Loop 21: How did you get started on the Web?

Henry: I started with small consulting opportunities and in the process of doing that, blogging became popular. So I said, "Let me blog about my experiences." SistaSense grew because I was trying to figure out how to make money online. I wanted to put the information out there on how to grow your business, and now SistaSense is a brand of its own.

Loop 21: Your first weekend business workshop, She Rocks the Web, is in June. How did you decide to take what you had been doing regularly online and expand it into a three-day event?

Henry: I've been working online for 10 years and been working from home for 5 years. I feel like the offline world is a new domain for me to take over. I started doing local meet-ups in North Carolina and I started the Power Circles [a one-day telesummit with women from different industries] this year. My mission is to continue to connect women entrepreneurs of color on as large a scale as possible. It's in its infancy, but I plan on doing more.

Loop 21: So, as busy as you are, what do you do to keep yourself motivated, especially when you're drained creatively?