The choice to work from home where we can Mother our children while pursuing our career and business interests is becoming an increasingly more popular and more viable decision for many women.

For those women who have made the decision and succeeded -- we can all remember when we first started out. It seemed impossible, didn't it? Please consider submitting a short 'testimonial' on your triumph in becoming a freelance professional. We will post it here where it can serve as an inspiration for many other Moms.

The Eureka Moment!
By, Phyllis Emigh

The "Eureka!"moment that inspired my business came in the tub, just as it did for Archimedes when he solved the problem of how to measure the purity of gold in the Hiero's crown.

My office had been planning to convert its old fossil database to Microsoft Access, and I'd taken on the job of learning the software and implementing the project. That required a lot of time outside of my regular work hours, but I'd found it fun and challenging. My daughters were in kindergarten and 2nd grade at the time, and one evening I had the opportunity to take a bubble bath. Other moms will understand the pleasure of it all: put Dad in charge, grab a fun read, lock the door, and start the water. Maybe there was even a glass of wine in the scene.

So there I was, reading and enjoying the bath, when suddenly it hit me: "Phyllis! Look at what you're reading. There's a message here!" And so there was. My "fun read" was an Access software guide, and it was at that moment that I decided to look into Access programming as a business.

I had an interesting job at the time. It paid well, but the hours were beginning to feel less and less like part time. In addition to my 30 hours per week, travel requirements had slowly but surely been creeping up. With a three or four day trip at least every six weeks, I was finding it harder to balance life as a mom, wife, employee, and community-minded person. With my girls now in school, lack of flexibility was becoming a bigger issue. My boss was a great guy in many ways, but he expected his salaried employees to strictly keep their regular hours in spite of extra hours from travel and other after-hours work.

My husband and I toyed with the idea of a career change, and the moment of truth came a few months later. When I seamlessly implemented the new Access database, it became clear how little my boss valued all of the time and skill I had used to move between database formats. With no clients and only one Access project to my credit, I gave my notice. In giving up the financial security of my job, I felt like I was in a Beetle Bailey cartoon, leaping off the cliff and hoping there would be a little bush to grab onto.

That little bush appeared, in the form of my former supervisor, before I'd even left the job. Several years before she had left the organization to head up a new project. She called the office one day to say, "Hey, I hear that you've recently established a new Access database. We need to upgrade our database, and we were wondering if you knew someone who could give us a hand." "Why, yes, as a matter of fact I do!" responded one of my co-workers.

And so my business was off and running!

I've been reasonably busy - and sometimes too busy - ever since. The flexibility of my new career has not been without trade-offs. For example, vacations have strings attached, since I never go out of town without my laptop computer and I check at least once a day for messages from customers in dire straits.

My success has been based on lots of luck and hard work, excellent customer service, and a big dose of chutzpah. Some people might think of computer work as dreary, but I've felt everything from panic (when I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew) to exhilaration (when I come up with a great solution to an intractable problem). Best of all is the satisfaction that comes from helping my clients streamline their work and turn raw data into the information they need to track history and efficiently plan for the future. One grateful client even refers to me as "Phyllis the Magnificent"!

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