Kidding around: children change the pace of doing business at home

Entrepreneur, Sept, 1996 by Cynthia E. Griffin

Mixing children and a homebased business is just begging for Murphy's Law to kick in double-time. "I can remember some very trying moments--in particular, one time when I was on the phone talking business," recalls Karin Lamb from her rural Eureka, Montana, home. "My youngest child picked up [an extension] and started making noises, complete with raspberries and little squeals of delight every time I said, 'Hang up the phone!'"

As a result, Lamb, whose Bo Peep Productions Inc. creates videotapes for toddlers, decided to separate her business and home phones.

Meanwhile, Greg Wilcox, who runs a homebased business in Edina, Minnesota, with his partner, Dyke Williams, had to contend with a child who was sleepless in Minneapolis.

"My first child never seemed to need a nap. By age 6 or 8 months, he wasn't sleeping during the day at all," says Wilcox, who started selling snowshoe-making kits in 1983.

Coping with the sometimes capricious needs of children and a business requires developing coping mechanisms tailored to your business and lifestyle. Wilcox and his wife, Victoria, who works part time as a registered nurse, sat down together and decided how they were going to handle working, children and a business.

"The original idea was that we both wanted to have an active role in raising our kids," explains Wilcox. "We had fathers who ran their own businesses. Typically, they worked 80 hours a week, and we saw them very little. We didn't want that to happen to us. On the other hand, Victoria didn't want to give up being a nurse. We felt the need to have one parent home with the kids because we didn't want to do day care."

What eased the couple's decision was that, for the first 10 years he ran his business, Wilcox also worked full time as general manager at a summer-oriented business. His employer let him work from home during the slower winter months--the same period when the snowshoe business booms. Thanks to the flexible schedule, he and his wife were able to easily juggle the child-care responsibilities.

"It was a good mix," remembers Wilcox, who handles the order-taking and shipping end of the business, while his partner takes care of marketing, promotion and new product development. Today, Wilcox and Williams Inc. has expanded and, through its catalog, Traditional Kits, sells kits for making everything from snowshoe-style laced furniture to musical instruments.

* WORKING IT OUT

Once you understand why you l running a homebased business, the logistics of the endeavor can be worked out to assist you in achieving your goal, says Wilcox.

Lamb's techniques include incorporating her children into as many aspects of the business as possible, such as having them appear in her educational, live-action videotape series. Now that the children are 9 and 11, Lamb, who started her company in 1988, has moved the children on to bigger jobs: "One of the children helps me screen the tapes to check for defects in the master, and they both find little jobs they like to do in relation to the business."

Of course, sometimes you can't incorporate children into your business, either because of their age or the nature of the business. Sean Spoonts' son, at age 2, was much too young to be involved with the Patriot Group Inc., which designs and manufactures computer accessories sold in retail outlets, including Kmart, CompUSA and Computer City. The Puntagorda, Florida, entrepreneur had to learn to work around his son's schedule.

"I brought in a playpen and put it in my den, which was 10 or 12 feet away from the office, and put him down for his nap there," says Spoonts, whose wife worked odd hours as a restaurant manager while he stayed at home with their son and his business.

"I worked around his naps--usually about one or two hours. I'd have a long list of things that had to get done in that time. It was like being a sprinter," adds Spoonts, who also found himself working odd or late hours because many of the earlier hours were spent entertaining his son. "When you have kids, something unique occurs," he says. "You can't really concentrate on anything but that child. Anything else you are doing stops immediately when you hear him make a noise."

With older youngsters, Lamb and Wilcox say it's important to teach them to respect certain limits. Their critical limit is a closed office door. "They know that means `Don't disturb me unless it's an emergency.' If the door is open, they can come in," says Wilcox. One drawback: "They have to be about 4 or 5 before they can comprehend this."

Until that age, distractions work well, says Lamb, who found that an elaborate sandbox in the yard of her home could almost guarantee two hours of uninterrupted work.

"Being clear with each other about your needs is important [in relating to your children]," says Lamb. "It means having mutual respect for each others' needs and taking them seriously. Then it becomes a two way street, and they understand."

She admits this takes time to develop, however, and that it's not a perfect system because children tend to forget the rules when excited.