I had the opportunity to interview a wonderful work at home mom, Melissa from MJennings Designs, LLC. MJennings Designs, LLC carries fantastic jewelry gifts for moms and her little princess. But it goes farther than that, she offers bridal services, religious gifts, and you can even host your own jewelry party for some great rewards! Here you can read all about Melissa, her business and some tips on how you too can follow your life's passion!MWAV: How long have you been a WAHM? MJ: 1 year as MJennings Designs, LLC MWAV: Tell me a little bit about your business and how you came up with the idea. MJ: I make personalized name bracelets and beaded jewelry. I started as a hobby when I was waiting for our adoption to be final (my son was born in Guatemala) and after he came home I "retired" from teaching high school to stay home with him. I decided to turn the hobby I loved into a business and that is how MJennings Designs was born! MWAV: What did you do prior to owning your own business? MJ: Taught High School (Family and Consumer Sciences Education) for 11 years. MWAV: How many kids do you have and what are their ages? MJ: 1, Peyton (a boy) who is 3 MWAV: How do you juggle work and family? MJ: I am very organized and I use naptime like a planning period. The second Peyton goes down I work hard! I also have a very supportive husband and bead into the night to fill orders! MWAV: What do you feel has brought the most success in promoting your business? MJ: Networking on Forums MWAV: What has been your biggest challenge? MJ: Time management MWAV: What are your 2008 business goals? MJ: Expand my business with more avenues of advertising. MWAV: Do you have any advice for other WAHM's just starting out? MJ: Hard work and determination pays off! MWAV: What are you the most proud of? MJ: The customer thank you's and repeat business that I have gotten. MWAV: What do you feel is the number one pro & number one con of working for yourself? MJ: PRO-You set your own hours and work when you want too. CON-It takes a lot of hard work to get the business going and off the ground. Melissa Jennings, Owner and Designer MJennings Designs, LLC Personalized Name Bracelets and Beaded Jewelry Custom Designed For You! Visit my website: www.mjenningsdesigns.com Visit my blog: http://mjenningsdesigns.blogspot.com
Good Layout and design. I like your blog. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. .
Jason Rakowski
It looks like Melissa’s managed to accomplish exactly what every entrepreneur should set out to do: she turned a hobby into a successful business. She’s also managed to find a balance between home life and work like, which can certainly prove to be the biggest obstacle a WAHM must face. Working from the home definitely has its advantages, but as she said, you need to be persistant, determined, and love what you do! It’s also important to network, and make your business aware to as many people as possible. One of the best means of going about this is delving into the wide market of the internet. For example, Microsoft just released Office Live Small Business, and it’s a wonderful, highly organized and comprehensive tool for any WAHM looking to take her business online. It’s a free service that includes highly organized e-mail capabilities, website traffic reports, and you can even design the page yourself with a completely user-friendly webpage designing platform. You don’t have to know the first thing about HTML to create a professional, legitimate business site.
There’s more information at http://smallbusiness.officelive.com
Office Live Small Business is a fabulous tool for getting any starting entrepreneur off the ground fast, easily and efficiently. Microsoft even hosts everything on your site for free! And to top it off, for no cost for the first year, you get a free customized “.com” domain name! Now, I work with Microsoft, so if you or any readers have any questions, I’m always around and would be more than happy to answer them for you! My personal e-mail address is k-rosenberg@live.com. Again, thanks so much for posting the fantastic interview! I’ll have to keep my out for some of Melissa’s pieces, they look beautiful!
Best,
Kimberly