HOME WORK ASSIGNEMENT:
Gurnee woman fills Role of mother and Web designer
Cover Story, Pages 28-30

Publication: SUN PUBLICATIONS
Publication date: 03/08/2001
By: Jeremy Fischer

Text Box: Brandon clamors for attention as his mom, Kristie Tamsevicius, takes a business call in her Gurnee home. A work-at-home Web designer and a mother of two, Tamsevicius often finds herself literally balancing the two responsibilities. "A lot of times I'm on a client call and he sits at my desk and says, "Mommy, I love you," and the client hear," Tamsevicius said with a smile." Most of the houses on Lawson Boulevard in Gurnee are still dark. One particular living room on the block, however, is glowing.

A fluorescent desk lamp, a green fish-tank light and the blue tint of a computer monitor illuminates Kristie Rimmele as she begins her workday. She is, of course, in her flower-print pink pajamas. The red numbers on the Tazmanian Devil clock on top of her monitor read 6:14 a.m. Kristie is clicking her mouse expertly -- opening and closing windows, scrolling through menus and files, fingers typing furiously to answer e-mail after e-mail.

Her husband, Joe, and their children, Nicole, 6, and Brandon, 3, are only beginning to wake upstairs.

The commuters begin to whiz by outside and an occasional bus rumbles past her window, but the calming effects of the fish-tank bubbles keep Kristie focused.

Kristie, 31, is both a work-at-home Web designer and a work-at-home mom.

From the early hours before 6 a.m. until her daughter comes home off the bus at noon, Kristie manages to balance time with her 3-year-old son and her 2 1/2 -year-old business, Kristie's Custom Design.

Her Internet development, hosting and promotion firm is more commonly known in the Internet marketing circle as www.kcustom.com.

"Every day it's a delicate balance," says Kristie, sipping hot coffee from her Tweety Bird mug.

"If it's something between my clients and my kids, my kids are going to get it.

Caller ID is really helpful."

After seven years in a corporate marketing job with Efficient Market Services in Deerfield, where she met her husband, Joe, Kristie decided to trade in her cubicle for time with her children and her own online business.

In just more than two years, she has developed and maintained more than 84 Web sites, about 100 clients and self-published her first e-book, titled "The Ultimate Guide to Creating and Marketing eBooks."

Text Box: Straight from bed to the desk, Tamsevicius usually starts work at her computer before sunrise, taking advantage of some early morning quiet time. Pajamas are the normal dress code, and at non she showers and mentally changes gears , telling herself, “OK, I’m a mom now.” Kristie found corporate life incompatible with family life.

"We shifted our hours when Nicole was born," Joe says.

"She worked until 2 p.m. I worked later, starting at 10 a.m. We used a sitter for a while."

After a difficult second pregnancy, Kristie said to herself, "If I get out of this, I'm going to live life differently."

"I knew I wasn't getting what I wanted out of life," she says.

"We just didn't see each other that much. Kids weren't happy. We weren't happy."

She quickly taught herself hypertext markup language and Web design through online classes.

"It started with a genealogical Web site for my kids," she says.

"And I really enjoyed it."

Soon, designing Web site after Web site for friends and family, Kristie slowly accumulated enough Web knowledge, combined with past marketing experience, to help others with their own fledgling businesses.

"My core customers are entrepreneurs and small businesses," Kristie says.

Text Box: Kristie Tamsevicius left her corporate job two years ago to spend more time with her family. She started her own Web design business, Kristie’s Custom Design. “He’s turn off the computer on climb on me during client calls,” said Tamsevicius of her son, Brandon. He put forth his own opnion of work. “Mommy don’t work,” he said. “He does get really torn sometimes,” Tamsevicius said. "I work with the little guys, the start-ups, and I enjoy helping people achieve their dreams."

"The little guys" include many nonprofits, such as Joy Lutheran Church in Gurnee, where her family worships; Nicole's Daisy troop; and Wonderland Camp for disabled children in Missouri.

At 7:33 a.m., Kristie sets her empty cereal bowl and spoon on top of her desk and a copy of Working Mother magazine -- next to three random crayons and a glue stick.

 

Nicole is quietly watching TV before school and eating a dry bowl of Fruit Loops.

Kristie Rimmeleurns around in her swivel chair.

"I'm surprised Googy isn't up," she says.

A few minutes later "Googy," Brandon, groggily walks into the living room, still in his Scooby Doo pajamas, and kisses Mom.

Text Box: Daughter Nicole, 6, front, and her friend Katrina Ulnick, 5, run off the bus to meet Tamsevicius, who is always waiting in her doorway at exactly 11:45 am. Kristie's workday distractions now begin.

Brandon picks up a small alarm clock that sings, "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands" over and over and over again.

"Pokemon" comes on television in full volume, blaring, "Gotta catch 'em all." Brandon joins in for attention, "Mommy, Mommy Mommmmyyy," while climbing over her chair onto her desk.

Kristie calmly peals him away from her computer.

"You keep life interesting -- you know that?" she says.

"Give me my desk back."

Brandon runs over to the plastic box with stuffed animals and begins to rummage through them.

Text Box: When her daughter, Nicole, comes home from Kindergarten, Tamsevicius devotes time to her children. “I’m a stay-at-home mom. I work 6 am. To noon, she said. Her clients are aware of her schedule and are asked not to call in the afternoon unless there’s an emergency, she said. He leans against Kristie's bookshelf that holds titles such as "Asserting Yourself," "1001 Ways to Market Your Books," "Chicken Soup for the Women's Soul" and "To Your Success."

Kristie attributes part of her success to the guidance of her business coach, Philip Humbert, a personal success coach based in Oregon.

"I had a lot of troubles at first," she said.

"I was working weekends, and my coach helped me with that balance."

Humbert works with home-based entrepreneurs such as Kristie Rimmeleo set priorities, to balance work and family. "I will remind Kristie, help her find the best combination," says Humbert, who has coached Kristie for about one year. "If something is going on (with the kids) at school, if one is sick, the business can go on the back burner. With a business that's that small, the potential for her entire business to evaporate in 30 days is very real."

Humbert helps Kristie look at every aspect of her life in relation to her business and family, including this story for The Sun.

"Well, why are you doing that interview? What is your goal?" Kristie recalls Humbert asking.

Text Box: With crayons in hand, Nicole scribbles down her friend’s phone numbers while her mom puts in a little overtime on the Internet. "I hope that other mothers will want to work from home, achieve their dreams, and secondly it opens up more business opportunities," she says.

"The clients that come my way who read this article would be more accepting of me as an at-home working mom, and those are the clients I want, those with family values."

Kristie Rimmeleells the story about the day Nicole got her ears pierced.

 

While Kristie was on the phone with a client, Brandon reached at Nicole and ripped her earring completely from her ear.

"I screamed and said, `Uh, daughter. Earring. I have to go.'" She hung up.

When she called back to explain, the client understood.

Text Box: The Tazmanian Devil reads 10:29 a.m., and after about a half-hour of uninterrupted work on an article for SitePoint.com, Kristie picks Brandon off the floor and goes into the kitchen to microwave chocolate milk -- nicknamed "Juba" -- in his favorite yellow plastic cup.

"If you have enough microbursts of focused work," Kristie says as she holds her son in her arms, "it doesn't matter if you get interrupted 200 times."

Juba in hand, Brandon begins to sing in a quiet little voice as he plays.

Kristie smiles.

"Can't you just love listening to that while you're working?"

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