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Motivational Monday: Interview with Naomi Dunford

October

22nd

Genesis

This week, we have an interview with Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz.com. I came across her blog recently and loved her writing style . . . then I discovered that she is also a wahm! A successful one at that, she earns about ten times what I do per hour. Enjoy!

1. What is your business?

Man, what isn’t my business? My husband and I run Itty Bitty Marketing, a marketing consultancy firm for very small businesses with very small budgets. We specialize in organic and grassroots marketing strategies. In marketing code, “organic and grassroots” generally means “cheap or free”. I write a blog, IttyBiz, with tips for working from home. I’m a freelance writer and editor. And my husband’s getting into web design. Oh yeah, and I’m writing a book.

2. How did you get started?

When I was about 13, my guidance counselor asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. I said I wanted to name make-up colors and write all day. When my mother got wind of this, she said “Oh, you want to work in MARKETING!”

However, both of my parents ran their own businesses. I have no comprehension of what is involved in working outside the home. No role models. I’m totally unemployable. Deep down, I believe it is my basic human right to work in my bra and panties and I get sullen when I can’t. Every time I tried to hold down a job outside the home, I sucked at it. Finally my husband got sick of the whining and the job-hopping and told me we should seriously think about working from home.

3. What mistakes did you make when you were starting out? What did you learn from them?

I waited too long and I wasn’t direct enough. It’s not that I was dishonest, but I had this belief that in business, we needed to communicate in some kind of detatched corporate speak that did nothing but confuse, alienate and annoy.

If I had to do it over, I would have started five years earlier and been radically honest in all of my business communications. If I didn’t want a job, I would have said, “I don’t want this job.” If I did want the job, I would have said, “This is incredibly important to me and I’m going to bust my ass for you.” Every time I’ve spoken with that kind of honesty, the results have blown my mind.

4. How long have you been working from home?

I’ve been freelancing for about ten years, although I’ve been full time at home for a little over two years now.

5. What are your tricks for balancing work, kids and household chores?

First, I hire out anything I can get away with. On a good day, I get paid $150/hour for my work, and my nanny charges $5. The cleaning lady charges $10. I don’t know why I kept doing my own vacuuming for as long as I did.

Second, I had to learn to delegate. I had this theory that I was the only person in my house capable of doing laundry properly. Same with dishes. And bathing the baby. And a long list of other things you don’t have the space to print. Now that I’m allowing my husband to take an active part in the household, things have gotten a lot better, although I’m loathe to admit it.

Third, I had to get over my perfectionism. My kids are not going to suffer because the lasagna came from a box.

Fourth, I got rid of every single thing in my home that was not incredibly useful or shockingly beautiful. I’m ruthless. Less stuff equals less stuff to keep clean.

I also gave Jack his own laptop. It’s an old one that’s totally useless to anyone over the age of two, but that way we get to “work” together and he doesn’t feel left out. It helps a lot when we’re on deadline.

6. How many children do you have? How old are they?

I have two children - Jack, who’s 13 months, and Michael, who’s 8. I share custody of Michael with my ex-husband.

7. When do you usually work?

I am always working. I’d love to qualify that somehow, but then I’d be lying.

8. What is the best part of being a mompreneur? And the worst?

My God, how much time do you have? I don’t have to get dressed up to go to work. I pick my own hours, although I generally have to pick about 16 of them. I have total creative control over my work. My son doesn’t have to go to daycare and pick up every cold and flu that comes around. My child care costs have dropped like a rock. My husband and I eat three meals a day together. I meet completely awesome people from all over the world. I can have a glass of wine at noon in the middle of a business meeting and no-one will ever know. I get a discount on my pedicures because I can go on a Monday afternoon when everyone else is working. I can have sex in the middle of a Thursday morning. There just isn’t enough time for me to explain how much better my life is since I started working from home.

The worst part is that I have to schedule time to do things for myself, like read a novel. I can finally afford to buy as many books as I want, but now I don’t have any time to read them! I have to be viciously protective of my down time.

9. What are your plans for the future of your business?

I would like to write a book and get more involved in public speaking and seminars. If small business owners understood how incredibly easy marketing is, they’d need to hire a consultant for about two hours and could do the rest on their own. If we can get into something with a wider reach, we can start helping the people who can’t afford a marketing consultant, which is like, everyone.

10. What advice would you give new work at home moms?

Can I give two? Number one, start now. The most common complaint I hear from other small business owners is that they wish they’d started sooner. Unless your job makes you blissful, which I highly doubt, you’re wasting your life.

Number two, be different. I hear a lot of women being discouraged from starting businesses in markets that are deemed to be oversaturated, like greeting cards or gift baskets. A market is never inherently oversaturated. It’s oversaturated with businesses that are all the same. There’s always room for one more, as long as that “one more” has something unique and valuable to offer. You want to start a greeting card business or a gift basket business? You go ahead, just make sure you’re different from the other 90,000.

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