ventures

Home and work coincide happily for Michelle Wilcox, shown here with her husband J.R. and their daughter Brooke. Wilcox has developed a line of commemorative stationary shown above with all profits from its sale being donated to breast cancer research and awareness.

What does it take to start up your own business from home?

According to Michelle Wilcox, whose stationery business, Desktop Designs, has shown a profit the last three of four years, "It takes "patience to know your business just won't explode overnight." It also takes cash, in her case $5,000, to get her home business equipment set up and, later, another $5,000 for inventory. "If I had gotten discouraged and shut down the first year, I'd be back at my old job at Shook, Hardy, Bacon," she said. "You also have to be very disciplined to run your own business," Wilcox continued. "First of all, there's a temptation to expand too fast too soon. While I'm not excluding the possibility of expanding to other business space, I'm in no hurry. There are lots of advantages to working at home and, for me, absolutely no disadvantages."

The mother of a two-year old, Wilcox treasures the flexibility a home office provides. "I like to work at night and early in the mornings before anyone gets up. I can fit my schedule around my daughter and her nursery school. I also work more efficiently because I have fewer interruptions than when I worked in an office setting," she said. "I get time off when I want it, not when it is scheduled by someone else; I set the work schedule. I'm the boss." And in place of office staff, she has her husband and family members to help out in a crunch.

"People told me I'd be so lonely at home, I'd go crazy," Wilcox said with a laugh. "It doesn't bother me a bit. I still see my old co-workers and there is so much social interaction in this job, I don't have time to be lonely." Desktop Designs buys blank stationery stock from some 20 suppliers and markets custom imprinting directly to the customer, primarily through word of mouth and an annual invitation-only sales party in her home.

Wilcox started her business designing and printing business flyers, but found them too time and labor intensive. "They're long term projects," she said. " A stationery order is not like ordering a business flyer." Her custom business also includes postcards, party and wedding invitations, birth announcements, photo cards and this year the newest fad, mini-size cards. Wilcox goes to the New York trade show every spring to find out what's new there and also may check in at the Kansas City and Dallas shows. In her custom business, paper stock is very important and she spends a lot of time selecting that. The imprinting that she does on purchased stock is custom designed for that particular customer although she does have some general themes also.

Fads come and go; last year it was vellum and bows, this year, it's die cuts. Old-fashioned monograms are new-fashioned now and despite what people say about e-mail's overwhelming correspondence, Wilcox finds no evidence of it affecting her business. Wilcox has more than 200 customers and the number grows every year. She adds two or three new lines every year and constantly reevaluates her stock.

And is this 30-year old former paralegal specialist in pharmaceutical defense having fun running her own business her own way?

You bet she is!

And just to make sure that you're never too successful to stop dreaming, Wilcox has a new dream. It's about a funny little old Victorian house with squeaky wood floors that she turns into a charming retail establishment selling, of course, Desktop Designs. After all, Wilcox followed a dream once before that led to quitting a good job and starting all over in a new venue. Anything's possible.