By Tammy Johnson

“Oh wow, you have your own business from home?  You
are so lucky!  To be able to be with your kids and set
your own hours, I wish I could do that… how did you
start?”

If I had a dime for every time I heard that story, I would
be making a better living than I am by printing invitations. 
It seems like the glamorous life ... being your own boss,
setting your own hours, working from home.

But ... when you're your own boss, you're also your
own janitor and everything in between.  Setting your
own hours means staying up until 4 a.m. if that's what
it takes to get the job done.  And you never really get a
day off.  Working from home means you never get to
leave work.

But I wouldn’t change it for the world! Because when
you're your own boss you can make the quick decisions
that need to be made.  You can decide the business is
closed for the next two hours while you take the kids
to the park.  Working from home means you can raise
your own kids! (Even if they do think you live in the
office!)

I started working from home in 1998.  I was also working
full time and my husband had two jobs.  Yes, very
glamorous.  I spent most of my time in the business
promoting the site (http://www.partyinvitations.com)
and then I would complete the two or three orders a day
that I got.  The site was ranked pretty high in the search
engines, but most hits did not turn into orders. 

In 1999 the business changed dramatically.  On April 6th 
I had 10 orders to complete and I came home with my
first child.  That’s when it all went crazy.  The hard work
had paid off, but I still had more room to grow.   I used
my maternity leave  to see what it would be like to stay
at home.  It was so nice that I extended my leave to 10
weeks.

That was also the year I realized that I should promote
each category of invitation that I sold, rather than the
site as a whole.  After promoting in this fashion,
categories like First Communion invitations became more
popular than Christmas party invitations.  I found that
while I get a lot of orders for birth announcements, being
one of just a few sites offering Cinco de Mayo invitations
is just as profitable.  The key seemed to be, as an e-zine
I read advised, to do one thing to promote the business
each day.  Following that advice was the best thing I did.

In 2000 when my boss at my full time job would not let
me off for my son’s first birthday, I quit.  That was a
scary leap into depending upon the business!  I didn't
even give 2 weeks notice, and I never look back in regret.  
9 months later the business took another turn.   The
princess (my daughter) was born.

A year later, it is 2002.  I now have days that I have 30
orders to complete.  The family is excited about the
prospect of my husband quitting his job to help with the
business. 

How did we get from three jobs plus the business to just
the business?  Hard work!  There is no canned answer, it
did not happen overnight.  Research was done, long hours
were spent, relationships were built. 

I have read e-zine articles that say it's important to
establish relationships with your customers.  They're right.  
A lot of people want to know there is a person behind the
web site.  And many satisfied customers become repeat
customers.  I have formed some great relationships through
e-mail. 

These same e-zines say the relationships must be taken
off line.  Perhaps this is true of many customers, but
when it's your business and you're the only one with
30 orders and two kids under the age of three (and at
least one is crying, laughing, screaming or singing at any
given moment), talking on the phone is not high priority
and building relationships over the internet works
beautifully. 

Written by:  Tammy Johnson, owner of Kamyra in Print
at http://www.partyinvitations.com .  Email Tammy at
mailto:kamyra@mindspring.com