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How to Break Away from What's Making you Unhappy
An Interview with Kristie Rimmele
By Lynne Schlumpf - Part 1

Lynne: Please tell me how you started out as a home-based business. Did you work full-time before, and if so, what made you decide one day to stay home? What deciding factors or motivations inspired you to do this?

Kristie: A few years ago, I was a 9 to 5 corporate worker just like many of you. I directed the marketing department for an information services company. After 7 years on the job, I found myself being less challenged at work. But I still held to my day in day out work routine.

My husband and I were expecting our second child. What started out as a regular pregnancy, quickly spiraled into a difficult and scary experience. After 6 weeks of complete bed rest and 6 weeks in the hospital, my second child was born. This was a real eye opening experience for me. After suffering from depression and worry over my health and fear of losing my baby, I decided to live my life a little differently. I wasn't sure WHAT I wanted to change in my life yet, but went to work to discover it and set a plan to achieve it.

After staying at home with my newborn for 6 weeks, I headed back to work for 6 hours a day. But found that even working 6 hours at the office left me unhappy, and overstressed. My husband and I were working opposite hours to cut down on babysitter fees. We were fighting a lot. I felt like I didn't have any of ME left for my children.

It was then that I started to look inward for answers. I developed a new hobby building a genealogy web site for my children. I felt like I was doing something really special to preserve our family history for my children. It was then that I discovered my love for the creativity and expression that building web sites had to offer.

I had toyed with the idea of starting a business for about a good year, tossing around one business idea after another. After taking a teleclass on "How to Build a Web Site to Market Your Business" I decided that building web sites was what I should do.

For six months I worked carefully on building the business while I was still at work. I built my web site, developed my service offerings, and set pricing structures, and carefully put money aside to help with the transition. I set myself on a crash course in html and learning about online business. Then in November of 1998 I made a break for it and quit my day job to focus on building my business and enjoy spending more time with my children.

I built my first web site for a client for $75 for an entire five page web site. It offered me a chance to test my newfound skills and build a portfolio. After completing that project, news quickly spread. Before I knew it, KCD (Kristie's Custom Design) had lots of clients, and by word of mouth, a little marketing, and a lot of determination, KCD grew.

Two and a half years later, I am the president of Kristie's Custom Design, a full service web development and hosting firm. KCD helps small businesses all across the United States go from concept to successful online business.

"I can't tell you the satisfaction I get out of helping ordinary people make their dreams come true. I feel so lucky to do something I feel so passionate about and get paid to do it. But most importantly, I am getting to watch my babies grow up. It's those everyday moments with your children, that sometimes are the most memorable. Thanks to God, I get to be here to see them and experience them, and cherish them."

Lynne: What would you say is your strongest point in business? What is your weakest point, and how do you improve yourself?

Kristie: I really feel that my strong devotion to personalized service is what has helped me get ahead. Simply said, I do what I promise I will do. I do it for a very reasonable price. I exceed client expectations. I go beyond the mechanics of the job, putting my whole effort into helping the client to succeed.

Secondly, I put great emphasis on the client relationship. I am naturally a very caring and giving individual. I work hard to get on a personal level with my clients. I work to build a kinship and sense of community with them.

I enjoy sharing in the exciting journey of working from site concept to site completion. By really getting to know my clients, I get a better feel of WHO they are and HOW they do business to create a site which truly reflects them.

Lynne: What are your main talents and how are you able to express them in your online business?

Kristie: My passions are to be creative and to help people. I extend this creativity in many ways. I take a creative approach to the web site concept. I tap into this passion and emotion when writing the copy for my client's sites. I then work to find creative solutions for finding their audience and reaching them through marketing efforts.

My heart reaches out to the little guy. I enjoy working with start up companies. New business owners still have that fire in their hearts. I tap into that fire, let it fuel me, and then work my darndest to help them realize success. If you ask my clients, they'll tell you that I am HIGHLY dedicated to the overall success for my client's. I go beyond building a web site to ensuring the realization of my client's businesses dreams.

Lynne: What types of tools do you use to create websites? Software, favorite books, etc..?

Kristie: I used to code web sites by hand for the first year till I discovered HTML editors. Macromedia Dreamweaver is my editor of choice. It's very intuitive for me and allows a precise level of control thru easy access to directly edit the source code. It is a powerful and flexible editor. It's easy for the beginner, and offers fantastic features for the advanced developer.

I still feel it's very important for developers to know how to hand code. Being able to tweak the software generated code allows for an increased level of control on page layout.

For graphics I use both Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro for various tasks.

As far as books go, I recommend a little book called, "The Non-Designer's Web Book" by Robin Williams and John Tollett. Beyond HTML mechanics, it teaches you about layout, basic design principles, graphic basics, color usage, etc.

If you want to improve your HTML skills, the HTML Writers Guild (http://www.hwg.org/) offers some excellent courses on HTML, XML, Javascript, and more for a very modest price.

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