This is part of a series called "One Entrepreneur's Journey," where I'm talking with solo entrepreneurs about their successes (and failures) along the path of entrepreneurship.

In this interview, I spoke with Shama Kabani, president of the online marketing firm The Marketing Zen Group, formerly known as Click To Client.

Aside from consulting, Shama's company provides a one-stop solution for online marketing, including such things as outsourced marketing, search engine optimization, and content marketing.

First, tell me about your business and how you got started as an entrepreneur.

I run a full-service online marketing.  Essentially, what we do is online marketing for our clients and other companies.  I have academic roots.  I was doing my graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and I did my thesis on Twitter and social networking.  This was in 2006, and I was thinking, "This is amazing stuff.  This is really going to change how people do business," but a lot of big companies didn't see it that way at that time, so I decided to start my own thing.  I did consulting.  When I was doing consulting, a big response we got from a lot of people was, "I love your strategy, but when we try to take it somewhere else for implementation, we see a big backlash.  Marketing people don't understand web design.  Web designers don't understand marketing.  We really want to see bottom line results."  I started to hire people and create a team.

What do you think you've gotten right so far, as you've been building your business?

We really practice what we preach, so when we say online marketing, that's essentially all we do.  We don't have any other type of marketing but online marketing.  We're on Twitter.  We're on Facebook.  We send out e-newsletters.  We do the email marketing, and it's worked really well for us.

The other thing that has been one of the key elements is investing a lot back in the company, so people look at it and go, "Oh, wow!  You're so successful.  You have nine employees.  You're probably taking a million dollars home," and I'm like, "I wish!"  One thing about entrepreneurship is that the more you invest back into the business, the more long-term gains you're set up to have.  That was really key for us, to make sure that we are continuously investing back in the company, so I'm making sure that our current clients are served and that we have the bandwidth to take more on continuously and still do a good job.

What are thing things that you struggle with at this stage in the game?

The issue for me at this point is really operations and team-building and making sure that we're serving our clients to the best of our ability, and that is a big one.

How are you working through that?

The nice thing is, I've never been much of a control-freak, so I have a good way of just saying, "Hey, you're responsible [for this].  Go have fun."  I do have to take on a different role in the company.

I think what's also shifting is the kind of mentors and the people I surround myself with.  When you're a small business, I think, it's kind of fun to be popular and to speak.  These things are very exciting.  As an entrepreneur, you realize that your time is extremely valuable, and while you want to help everybody in the world, you really have to watch the clock very carefully.  To give you an example, before, when someone would ask me to speak, I was happy to do it, no problem.  Now I'm a lot more picky about where I speak, who I speak to, what my schedule looks like.  You tend to be more judicious withyour time and resources as you grow, and you try to give more in a group sense, so I try to do more blogging, more videos.  I try to share my expertise at a group level.

Right, in the beginning, you try to be all things to all people.

Right, and you realize you just can't.  You've got to manage your time, and you do the best you can.

What's something that you wish you would have known earlier on?

I wish I would have known how important setting client expectations was and how important it is to measure baseline.  Online marketing is a long-term strategy.  It is not short-term, overnight results, but it's so funny how people have that expectation.  I wish I knew to educate my clients more than I did then.  Also, setting a baseline, you don't know what you're improving on if you don't know where you started.

What's your best advice for new entrepreneurs?

Learn to be an editor.  Don't be a perfectionist.  It's rare to get things perfect, but you continue and continue to edit, and that's what you want to focus on, the editor inside you.  It's never going to be just how you want it.  It's always going to be a work in progress, and I think the sooner you can embrace that, the better.

Entrepreneurship is an interesting road.  It's definitely not for everyone.  There are things people like about entrepreneurship, like working from home and flexibility, but there are other things that are a lot tougher about being an entrepreneur.  You really have to look at it and say, "Am I comfortable with a changing role every day?"  Entrepreneurship can look very glamorous.  People think it's the yachts and you sitting on the beach every day with your laptop.  I can't remember the last time I was on a beach.  It's just not that glamorous, but it is a lot of fun, and it is very rewarding in its own way.