I know that many of you will be able to relate to Vivien's story as she shares her experiences as a business owner, an employee, and a mom:
Work From Home Momma: How many years have you worked from home?
Vivien: I launched my own business, VG Universe Design, in 2002. Actually, my very first client is still working with me and keeping me busy.
Work From Home Momma: What made you decide to start a home business? Why did you choose to go part-time with it?
Vivien: Ever since the companies saw that I'm really good with programming, my resume primarily featured programming positions. I was eager to apply my creative side, so I decided to start my own business and build websites from scratch, including their interface design, plus it allowed me to have more graphic design jobs as well.
At that time I was still teaching part-time and freelancing from home. I wasn't ready to work from home full-time - I didn't have enough clients, my portfolio didn't have an extensive list of case studies.
Three years later my daughter was born, and it became very challenging to work from home - no time for client meetings, searching for projects to work on. Plus, I needed a steady income and the security blanket that a full-time job provides.
However, I haven't given up on the idea of working for myself, from home full-time. I'm working towards that.
Work From Home Momma: Why did you choose graphic design?
Vivien: In my case, it's a combination of graphic and web design. I specialize more in web, but would love to have more strictly graphic design jobs. I've been drawing ever since I remember and I've always been fascinated by the process of creating a work of art on a blank canvas. I would go to a park to watch artists work on their paintings, I could stare at the appearing lines, splashes of colours on the canvas for hours. I love the creative aspects of web and graphic design.
Work From Home Momma: What is your biggest challenge?
Vivien: Time. Why don't we have at least 36 hours in a day? It's hard to manage time for someone who works full-time, freelances from home part-time, and blogs in between. But it's double hard for mothers. I start my work very early, so that I can come home earlier, thus I leave home while my daughter is still sleeping and when I'm back from work, I want to spend as much time with her as possible, and she wants to play with me and constantly craves for my attention. I don't want my husband to feel neglected either, so it is quite a struggle to juggle the family life with career and blogging.
Work From Home Momma: What is unique about your web design business?
Vivien: There are not many designers who feel comfortable with both design and programming aspects of web design. Usually, if someone is a programmer they are not that good with the design, and vice versa - graphic designers often don't enjoy programming. I, on the other hand, find programming as creative and fulfilling as graphic design: after all, I do create websites that can interact with visitors. It's much easier for the clients to deal with one person who can take care of both the design and programming work of their website.
Plus because I've been teaching web design and programming for over ten years, I'm really good with consulting and educating the clients, providing and finding their exact needs for the website.
Work From Home Momma: Where do you see your business going in the next year? In the next five years?
Vivien: I'm hoping to get more clients from all over the world by using my blog, Inspiration Bit, as a promotional tool. But first I need to complete my blog's re-design.
In the next five years I would like my company to go from a one-person studio to a larger company with a group of highly creative, energetic and friendly employees.
Work From Home Momma: Is there anything else about your business that you'd like to tell the readers of Work From Home Momma?
I just have one piece of advice for anyone who wants to launch a website for their business or re-design their existing site: Your website can become the best promotional tool for your business if you know how to get it to work for you and get the most out of it, so treat it as your biggest investment, and find professionals who you can trust, don't make your decisions based on the cheapest rate for the site's design.
Always remember that "a good website, like a baby, is a product of love and hard work" - the motto of my business.
Do you have more than two years experience in a home business? Would you like to share your story on Work From Home Momma? Contact me at Laura [at symbol] workfromhomemomma.com.
Hi Lauren. Thanks so much for the interview. You've got some very interesting posts here and I enjoyed reading the interviews with other moms. It's incredible how much moms can accomplish in a day, and how successful we can be despite having so much work and things to do that would knock any man down. :-)
Posted by: inspirationbit | October 4, 2007 9:29 PM | Permalink to Comment