Building an agency in a foreign language: Meet Karina Tama from Senior Care Clicks

Building a Business in a Foreign Language and Overcoming All Odds: Meet Karina Tama

Karina Tama is a digital marketer who has decided to bring digital marketing services to an “unsexy” niche. Her agency, Senior Care Clicks, provides digital marketing services to senior care businesses only. How has Karina decided to start this business and what was her experience of starting a business in a foreign language? We learn that - and more - in today’s webinar brought to you by our CMO and Host Jason Pittock.

From digital marketing professional to digital agency owner 

Karina was born and raised in Ecuador but has been living in the USA for the last 20 years. She has studied marketing at FIU in Miami. She is an experienced digital marketing professional, with a passion for SEO and PPC. Most of Karina’s work experience has been in the senior care industry, having worked as a digital marketing manager for a medium-sized home care, but also as a director of marketing and as an advisor for several senior care businesses. 

After working in the homecare and nursing home industry, she moved to New York to work for a big digital marketing agency. She expanded her digital marketing knowledge here while working for as many as 25 SEO and PPC projects at a time. She then decided to quit her comfortable job and start her entrepreneurship journey. This is how Senior Care Clicks was born. 

Do what you love, do what you know. 💙

When starting her own business, Karina decided to blend two of her passions: digital marketing and senior care. Her knowledge and passion for the industry have helped her be successful in this industry. Unlike many of her competitors, Karina knows both industries. 

When asked why she has chosen such an “unsexy” industry, Karina answers that she is honestly passionate about the senior care industry. “Everybody gets old” eventually and everybody needs care. She believes that this industry shouldn’t be overlooked. 

The challenges of starting out and building a business in a foreign language

As Karina has put it, building an agency is challenging regardless of the language. It involves a lot of work and a lot of challenges. But for Karina, her skills and passion were more important than the language she was doing business in. 

Even so, she does admit that not having English as a first language has been a challenge. Even though she speaks English well, she has come across racism and people who didn’t want to do business with her for this reason. Even though this may have been demotivating at first, she decided that it was more important to get the right customers - those who shared her values. 

Tips for young entrepreneurs

From Karina’s experience, investing in the sales cycles is the biggest challenge a young entrepreneur will have, especially if he/she has no previous experience in sales. Other advice Karina has includes:

• Pick your niche wisely: choose a niche that you know and in which you feel comfortable.
• Don’t go where everyone goes: there is no need to struggle in a saturated market.
• Be good to people - you can’t do business without doing sales.
• Find your support in friends and specialized communities.

For more details about Karina’s journey, the niche she works in, and the challenges she’s met so far, click “play” and watch the full video. It is full of insights, but also Karina’s contagious excitement when she talks about her business.