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Finances, Flexibility and a Little Bit of Faith
What It Takes to Start a Home-based Business
By Melissa Granberry
In 1951, Lillian Vernon sat down in her kitchen with $2,000 of wedding gift money and a dream of starting a business. "I was newly married and expecting my first child when I took a leap of faith and decided to become an entrepreneur," she says.
Vernon bought an ad for $495 in Seventeen Magazine to market her two products: a personalized leather handbag and matching belt that she designed. With that ad, she received $32,000 in orders. "My business took off and I never looked back!" she says.
She is now the chief executive officer of Lillian Vernon Corporation, a company that has grown to more than $238 million in sales and employs more than 5,300 people during its peak season. The company publishes seven catalog titles, as well as the online catalogs found at www.lillianvernon.com and www.ruedefrance.com.
Do you also have a dream of starting your own business? Are you staying home to spend more time with your children, but want to have a business "on the side"? Or maybe you want to start a small business while your kids are young and expand into a larger market as your kids get older and start school?
Regardless of the size of your dream, there are several things to consider before heading to the courthouse to fill out the paperwork. Jennifer Keitt, author of The Power of Being a Real Woman: A Compilation of the Most Empowering, Educating, Equipping, Encouraging, Practical and Motivating Ways to Become the Woman You've Always Wanted to Be! (Today's Black Woman, 2002), suggests asking yourself several questions:
- Who am I doing this for?
- What do I expect from starting my own business?
- Where in my home will I dedicate the space for my business?
- When will I have time for myself and the needs of my family?
- How do I envision this working on a day-to-day basis?
"I encourage women entrepreneurs to build their businesses from their strengths and passions versus going into a business to make money," says Keitt.
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