Crissy Heron Gipson 2.0

This is the second in my series designed to introduce you to Work at Home Moms who are implementing the best 2.0 practices into their businesses. This week I want you to meet Chrissy Heron Gipson of Indie Biz Chicks, a fellow Michigan gal currently transplanted to Alaska.

Crissy, when did you first decide to look for a way to work from home?

I’d always been interested in owning my own business, even as a child. I remember when I was very young, I thought that it was just amazing when people had their own businesses.

This was back in the early 80’s and GM was going through massive lay-offs. I’m from Flint, Michigan - almost all the men in my family worked for GM. My dad was laid off for a whole year, my aunt and her family ended up moving out west to look for other forms of work, this was a tough time for lots of people.

My mom ended up working a few part time jobs, one as a waitress at a bar and one as a cashier at the gas station down the street from our house. Her waitress “uniform” consisted of a tight shirt and short-shorts, and it really bothered her to have to wear it. (Again, it was the early 80’s and ’sexual harassment’ was not a phrase that people took seriously).

She started selling Avon and I thought that was just the coolest. We had an Avon lady in the past, so I was familiar with what Avon was, and now I got to “see” the other side of it. I was 4, so I was at that “helper” stage. I would help my mom put the catalogs and samples in bags and we would drive around and she would pull up to a mailbox and I would hang the bag on the mailbox. And of course, I loved the fact that I didn’t have to go to a babysitter, that I could be with her when she worked.

So like I said, I’d always been interested in finding a way to have my own business, but I spent my teens and early twenties going to college and working for employers.When I was 23, my husband and I moved to Alaska and that was a real shock. Everyone I knew and loved was in Michigan. I had never lived more than 40 minutes away from my family before, and now I lived 4,000 miles away!

I knew that taking a regular job meant that I would have 2 weeks of vacation, tops. That simply wasn’t going to cut it. I needed to see my family and friends for more than 2 weeks a year.

So that is when I started getting really serious about working from home and started exploring my options.

How did you sort through your ideas for a work at home business?

The first thing I did was turn to the internet. This was in 2001, so the internet was still fairly new. There was some information out there, but it was somewhat sparse. It’s much easier to find that kind of information now. I didn’t want to do direct sales (party plan), because I didn’t want to be driving around Alaska in the dark, in the snow and ice, trying to avoid hitting a moose, to do a home party. I wanted something I could do from home, take with me when I went to Michigan, and found at least somewhat interesting. It was a long process and took a lot of searching, but I knew it would be worth it in the end.

Where did you look for inspiration?

I thought about myself as a kid, and what I wanted to be when I grew up. I always loved school and thought it would be neat to be a teacher. I was an avid reader and thought it would be really cool to become a writer and see my name and my words in print. My mom liked to watch reruns of old shows on TV and I grew up watching Bewitched. I thought Darren had one of the best jobs, ever. He just thought up catchy slogans and drew them on a big pad of paper in front of Larry and some clients. (I ended up majoring in Marketing.)

Is there anything that you’ve tried that you would say didn’t work for you?

Definitely! When I first started looking, I looked at working with a company. I didn’t have a clue about how to build a website, and I underestimated myself and felt I couldn’t learn how. So, I joined a company and started marketing their products on the web. When someone set up an account with this company and purchased products, I earned a commission. To advance with this company, the people you refer have to build a business. It sounds like a pyramid scheme, but it’s not. Anyway, I was working day and night, but I couldn’t get anywhere if these other people simply wanted to be a customer. I got paid monthly, and my biggest check was around $1800.

My goal was to find something that would allow me to express myself through writing, allow me to teach people things, and be based on what I was good at: marketing…. (it took a while, but I found something)

I started getting fed up with that in 2005, and I knew I wanted to create my own website. I registered a domain that summer. We had moved back to Michigan, and had been there for a year and a half, when we suddenly ended up in Alaska again. That’s enough to put you in a tailspin, and then, very unexpectedly, my husband’s business partner died. We went into a survival mode. I didn’t focus on anything business related - it was all about helping my husband at that point.

In the summer of 2006 I knew I needed to do something; I wasn’t happy and wanted to find something that I could work on my own terms, something that reflected my personality. Right before I turned 29, I made a “deal” with myself that I was going to learn how to build a website and have it up before I turned 30. I spent the next year learning everything I could, and in the summer of 2007, right before my birthday, I launched my site.

What do you love about what you are doing to work at home today?

I love EVERYTHING about it. My site combines everything I wanted to be when I grew up. I get to express myself through my articles and podcast, I get to teach other people about marketing and help them come up with catchy ideas and slogans, and I get to put my personality into it. As long as I have my laptop and an internet connection, I can set up shop wherever I am. It’s completely portable.

How are you applying Web 2.0 tactics to your business?

I set up a MySpace before my site was launched and started to generate some buzz that way. I keep a good eye on my stats and I know exactly where my visitors are coming from, and the vast majority are coming from a few forums I participate in. I also get some good traffic from being mentioned in other people’s blogs and so forth. I always go back and leave the author a “thank you.” I do get some traffic from Facebook and Twitter, but for me, forums have been the best.

I think the info on my site can apply to any type of business, but one of my biggest readership bases is made up of indie crafters. I am planning on taking my “show” on the road and going to some of the large craft fairs. I would like to do some marketing classes / seminars, as well as just get in front of people and introduce myself and my website to them. I am currently trying to find some sponsors to help with the expenses.

What are your hopes for the future?

I am going to be participating in a conference later this month, as a panel guest and the keynote speaker. I hope to grow my business more in that area. I love being able to work online, but I am looking forward to meeting the people who visit my website face to face.

And of course, I want to keep growing my site and providing high quality information that truly helps people.

What advice would you give a new work at home mom?

First and foremost, you have to believe in yourself. You CAN do this. Working from home, and actually making money, may seem like an impossible goal, but it really can be done. Take some time to find out what you really want to do.

If you need money fast, go ahead and join a direct sales company or take a customer service telecommuting job. But if you aren’t truly happy with that, keep looking for what WILL make you happy. You can start your own business while working from home with another company.
I know that it can be very confusing when you are first starting this journey, but try to keep an open mind AND open eyes when exploring new things. There are people out there who take advantage of others and it can be easy to fall for a scam.

And try to think of this in the “long term.” I know you want to make money fast, but try to think about creating a business that you can grow with for many years to come. If you have young children, your first instinct may be to do something child-based, but your children are going to grow up. Do you still want to be working on something child-focused when your kids are in their teens or twenties?

Figure out what truly appeals to YOU - something that you will still want to be focusing on ten or twenty years from now. Do some market research to see if you can make money with the idea, and if everything looks good, go for it!

Visit Crissy at Indie Biz Chicks.