Motivation can come in many forms or paths, I found mine by way of fear. I had been a stay-at-home mom for about 15 years when my husband had an accident with a table saw. Suffice to say, the injury was nasty but could have been much worse. He rehabbed and possesses all his fingers. While I feared for my husband during this time, the biggest worry was how would we sustain our family if this injury disabled him. I had not worked in 15 years in a field that had changed significantly. I was not marketable any longer.
We started a family in our early twenties, I did not finish my bachelors degree with the hopes of completing when the kids were older. Time slipped away as it does, I returned to college in my late thirties still not knowing “what I wanted to be when I grew up”. I was always good with machines and problem-solving. My husband would always tease me, “go fix something” when I would get stressed over something I had no control over.
We purchased our first computer in 1994, I think I was the first of our friends and family to have email. The manipulation and working of this machine always came easy for me. I never thought this was the clue to my future endeavors of a career. As the kids were growing and participating in activities, I seemed to gravitate towards volunteering for computer related tasks. Finally, I dabbled in day-trading for a couple of years but could never become comfortable with losing money. But don’t let me lead you astray, I can craft along with the best of them. However if my crafting or bakes didn’t look close to professional or Martha Stewart quality, they would not leave the house. I am a textbook type A personality, which is another story altogether.
I returned to college to find my course load leaning towards classes in information science and sociology. Information Science is a fancy term for a librarian on steroids. The majority of my information science studies centered around the distribution of information via the internet. This also included a great involvement of the different coding languages for creating websites. As I was approaching my last semester, a neighbor approached me about creating a website for a charity she volunteered for. Little did I know this was the beginning of a career that found me.
This single site spurred an idea that I could start a business to service other small businesses and not-for-profit by creating websites and social media marketing (hence, the sociology). By understanding the basis of social behaviors, I have a leg up on how and why people view information and react to it in certain ways. I love learning about others business ventures and philanthropic causes have been in my life since childhood.
My little business has been a great way to work from home and make an income while raising kids. I am grateful for the opportunity that a life altering event has created for my life. For so long, not having finished my education was a gray cloud over my head. I could never imagine that it would also lead to the beginning of my own business venture.