An Adventure Venture

Jessica Bukowinski sits across from me at my kitchen table.  She’s been answering my questions for ten minutes. I am now on page five of my notes and I’m about to change pencils since I’ve worn down the point on my first one.  I am thinking that she has found a magic way to channel the energy of the ankle-biter crowd with whom she loves spending her time.

 

“I am creating community for kids, giving moms a break so they can take care of other issues.  It’s been my experience that when we try to take care of kids and work at the same time everybody gets shafted.  Our employer doesn’t get what he (or she) needs, I don’t get what I need, and the kids don’t get what they need.”

 

“I never thought I wanted to be a child care provider.  I was working in nonprofits after college, as I found a greater meaning to my work there than in corporate America.  I started a family and was able to keep working with the help of a childcare cooperative in California.”  Then she, her husband and baby moved to the east coast.  She found that a non-profit salary did not allow for the cost of childcare and she was not able to recreate a childcare coop her area.  After discovering a wonderful in-home child care provider, and returning to work in the profit sector, an idea for her own business began to form.  “I would drop my kids off and I wanted to stay at the childcare center.  I wanted to hang out with the kids and play with the gecko.”

 

She started a blog (www.activefamilyservices.com) in order to become “the resource for moms that I was looking for.”  And she started a mom’s morning off program—four hours each week when parents can drop off their children and Jessica engages the children in an adventure or a project.  She typically has five to six children in the program, plus two of her own.  But how could you leave the house with six children, you might ask?  How indeed!  “I wear one kid, two sit in the stroller and the rest are my ‘wings”—right at my arms.”  They head off for hikes, go to playgrounds, watch the fish at the Leesburg Pharmacy or find some other experience together. 

 

As for projects, sometimes they melt ice with salt, play with rice and beans, or play with the toys and games Jessica provides in her home.  Surely, you think, she must have a HUGE home to accommodate those active little ones!  Think again.  “We have a small space—a 1280 foot townhouse.”  This has not stymied Jessica, only caused her to think more creatively.  She loves multi-use furniture and converted an armoire to be used for imaginative play.  She attached mirrors to the doors on one side, and a magnetic game on the other side.  She took the door off of a bedroom closet and painted the inside purple.  This became the dress up area.  “I paid a geeky amount of attention to my space,” she smiles.  In the play kitchen, for example, you will find NO junk food.  “I come from an experiential angle—everything we surround our kids with affects them.”  Jessica couldn’t see telling the children that she refused to feed them French fries and chips, and yet send them to play in a kitchen full of Twinkies and fried foods. 

 

Jessica’s program is small, and currently has no need to be licensed.  She and her husband have voluntarily undergone the state background check and obtained negative TB results.  If she decides to seek state licensure her next step would be to voluntarily register with the state, which would mean an increase in paperwork for her clients, including that each child submit health forms from pediatricians.  While voluntary registration would provide Jessica with free publicity about her child care programs, and would be a reassurance to new parents examining her programs, her current parents have told her they are comfortable with her program just as it is.

 

Goals for the future include-opening a playschool in May, which will meet two times a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am to noon.

 

She also wants to increase the information on her blog regarding places and activities around the area for children, as well as child-related products that she finds particularly helpful.  As she gains more readership of her blog she wants to sell advertising space to moms who run their own home-based businesses. 

 

Her ultimate goal, however, is creating a business where children experience the outdoors with their parents on hikes and experiential walks.  This type of business falls in line with Jessica’s desire to keep outdoor adventure a part of her world.  Her previous careers include teaching sea kayaking, working at summer camps, and taking people with life-threatening illnesses into the wilderness.  This idea ultimately marries her love of the environment with her joy of interacting with children and their families.  “Right now my children, [ages two and four,] are with me all the time.  As they get older it’ll be easier for me to run this type of business.”  For now, Jessica heads out to test adventures with six children in formation.  Let the adventures continue.

 

A Slice of Concentrated Love

There is nothing better than birthday cake. It’s like a slice of concentrated love with buttercream frosting.

 

-Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata, Animal Crossing: Wild World, 2005

 

Wendy Wagner was pregnant with her third child, home with her two other children, and living in a Baltimore neighborhood with no other children.  She told her husband she was feeling very isolated during the day.  He suggested she get out in the evenings when he was home—maybe take a class and try something new.  A few weeks later she was in a cake decorating shop where she occasionally shopped, and she saw a sign for a weekly cake decorating class.  She signed up for it and discovered that cake decorating was a creative outlet for her.  “I needed creativity in my life at that point,” says Wendy.

 

Initially she used her newly-developed skills to make cakes for her own children’s birthday parties. “But the bug had bit,” she says.  “I took an intermediate class, next one dedicated to making flowers, then one on borders, and so on.”  The problem soon became what to do with all the cakes she was making for practice in her class.  “I began to give them to my friends’ for their children’s birthday parties.”  Other moms would see cakes at the party and ask the host who had made it.  Soon Wendy’s friends told her that she needed to make business cards.  At that point Wendy thought, “Maybe I should do this as a business!”  She grew her business from word of mouth and established a good client base in the Baltimore area.  Someone in her family (Wendy can no longer remember who) coined the term “Cake Diva” and the name stuck.  My happiest professional moment is seeing the expression on a child’s face when they first see their cake with their favorite character on it, and their name in icing.  “You think you are Santa Claus based on their face.”

 

But a move was in Wendy’s future—her family relocated to Leesburg, VA and she had to start over building a new client base.  In the process of setting up her email account she used the name “Cake Diva” in her email address.  At the DMV she registered for a license plate with the name on it, too.  “I’ve gotten a lot of business from those two decisions.”  Her email address was included in a mass email to the PTA of her child’s school and a school volunteer called her to make a cake.  “Once a woman followed me home after seeing my license plate, and when she got out of her car shouted ‘I’m not a stalker—don’t worry!  But do you make cakes?’”  From then on Wendy began carrying business cards in her car.

 

Wendy doesn’t do too much marketing at this point since she typically does about two cakes a month and that is the perfect amount since she can schedule the cakes around her home life.  As her children get older she knows she will be able to put more time into her business.  “Eventually I would love to see myself rent a space in an industrial park. Then I can have huge ovens and fridges, and grow the business to hire assistants.”

 

As far as inspiration, Wendy loves Ace of Cakes Baker, Duff Goldman.  “I’m in awe when I see what he can make.  And there is always something that goes wrong.  They show the disasters and I love to see how they resolve it.” 

 

Wendy’s contact information and pictures of her fabulous cake creations can be found at:  www.divinecakesbywendy.com. 

Stick-to-itive-ness

Ellen Hamilton was born with an entrepreneur’s heart.  Couple that with her ability to learn from her mistakes it was only a matter of time before she became her own boss.

 

Ellen created Yellow Dot Studios in the early 1990’s and produced graphic designs as she was taught in college—using paste-ups, crops marks and overlays.  She worked her business and was getting paid, but as computers began to change the graphic design industry she began to give more and more of her profits to pay a typesetter.  She needed her own computer.  She began temping, working at a variety of jobs until she found herself working as a receptionist, and no longer doing any business as Yellow Dot.  

 

“I had a Bachelor of Arts and an Associates Degree in graphic design.  I was MOTIVATED to use my degrees.”  Ellen eventually found a job for a publishing group and was using those degrees, but due to some internal issues with the company many of the employees’ workloads were light.  She found herself sitting around.  This motivated to self-publish two calendars, doing the work on her calendars at home.

 

“I used my own money to do it, but [the calendars] didn’t make money.  So I started to do more work outside of the design firm.  I am married to a Scottish man and we travel abroad regularly.”  She took pictures on the trips and created a web site called ‘Ellen’s Images,’ which still exists today (ellensimages.com).  Ellen hoped that people would access the site and buy her images for commercial use.  She put about six months of time and $4,000 into the site, and did not have any return on her investment.  She decided she needed some help.  She called the Alexandria Small Business Development Center (ASBDC) in her town, Alexandria, VA (www.alexandriasbdc.org).  “I explained to them what work I had done so far and their comment was ‘There are some business ideas just are not good’.  They suggested I go for a walk in the woods and regroup.  I needed to find a way to approach my business differently.” 

Around this time Ellen was reading The Millionaire Makerby Loral Langemeier and a phrase from the book kept coming into her mind:  “Do what you know.”  She realized that photography was a relatively new skill for her, and that her design skills were what she knew best.  She resurrected the name of her first business, changing it from Yellow Dot Studios to Yellow Dot Designs and she was off to a quick start.  She worked with the ASBDC to create a business plan and define her target markets.  Her business is ideal for anybody who needs something designed for print, or posting on the Internet.  Now she is actively working to build her customer base by networking, marketing her company, producing a monthly newsletter and directly contacting businesses in specific industries. 

 

Her near-term goals include increasing her number of customers and getting a recurring job like producing a catalog or annual report.  Eventually she would like to get an inexpensive office space outside her home and hire other employees.  And, she has a goal to offer her employees health insurance.  “There is no point in jumping before I am ready,” says Ellen, “but I know where I want to take this business.”

 

 

You can learn more about Ellen’s business and find her at the following contact sites:

Yellow Dot Designs

www.yellowdotdesigns.com

ellen@yellowdotdesigns.com

Phone:  703-328-8046