My name is Linda Alberts and I own Decorating Den in Regina. Decorating Den is a franchise and it's a mobile interior decorating service and I've bought the company, my company, seven years ago.

I decided to get into this field because it's something that I've always done anyway, and I love doing it, and I was ready for a career change and I just saw information about this business and the idea appealed to me because it was a service that I could offer to everybody. Because it's a mobile service and I go right to your home or office, it suits everyone's lifestyle.

I think my personality suits something like this. I think I have lots of patience. I think I have a creative mind and can visualize, which you need to have in doing this sort of business. I love working with people. And I've met such wonderful people and customers have become friends. It's really, really a great business. I'm practical, I think. The business part, the business books, accounting, that kind of thing is my weak point, that's for sure.

Even though I'm virtually on my own I have associates. I work with a whole team of trades people and other business people. And say, a project involves a complete renovation or a major renovation you have a lot of trades people in, and I've really been fortunate in getting working relationships with plumbers, and painters, and electricians. So, I call on those people and we work as a team. And I think that's important and I'm sort of the team leader I guess or I co-ordinate the project so that the customer will call me if there's a concern or question, and the tradesmen will call me. They don't have to try and track each other down and I know what everybody is doing (sort of) on the project. So, I think team work is important in that respect.

Having a positive attitude is important as well because there are some bad days and you get down. And especially working more or less on your own, you think "Why am I doing this? What have I done?" and you have to be able to pull yourself out of that.

Change is a constant in this field. Things are always changing. You have to learn, be aware of what's coming on the horizon and what new things are coming out. Also, you have to be flexible with your customer because sometimes they can change in mid-stream. You go into a home with them with one idea in mind and you sort of focus on that and then it may switch. So, you have to be able to make those adjustments.

Decision making I think is a constant part of owning your own business. Deciding whether to…well as simple as buying new samples; getting new, working with new suppliers; deciding who you're going to go with, who you're not; deciding on what advertising you're going to use; what marketing method you're using. All of those kinds of decisions I think are common to every business.

I think people skills would be more important in this job than training or experience. I think customers will only work with someone, maybe work with lots of people once, but they'll only work with someone a second time if they trust them, if they feel comfortable with them, if they're listened to, and if they're feeling that they're getting their money's worth. All those things are very important to customers and I think people skills are what a person needs to have in order for your customer to feel those things.

I probably spend my first hour, hour and a half, in the office phoning probably out of town, out of province to suppliers and things like that; making, placing orders. I would never have more than one appointment per half day because I don't like to rush a customer. I always allow at least two hours or more for an appointment. So, I may have an appointment in the morning, and I may have another one in the afternoon, and I may have a third one in the evening. But that would be the maximum for the day and that would be unusual to have three a day. But often I have two a day.

When I'm not doing appointments I'm either working, running around, picking up, dropping off, going to the work room, checking on how orders are doing, placing orders, just…every day is different.

Not having someone who is in the field, in the industry to bounce things off on a one-to-one basis sort of, that's probably the most difficult part, the most challenging part. But as time goes on and I meet more and more people in the industry and I have these networking groups, that I feel that less all the time.

All the wonderful people I meet as customers and seeing them happy with the project that we do, it's…I miss…at the end of a project I try to find ways to keep going back to see them because I miss them. They become friends and if the project's done, you know, there's no reason for me to go there so I hope that they will call me again. And they do. I've been around long enough that I'm getting a lot of repeat business now. And so it's great to work with old friends.

The business plan end of it, make sure you understand that. Make sure you have enough financial backing so the cash flow isn't always such a problem. Though I don't know, it seems to be for everybody and every business. And just believe in yourself. I guess if you really want to do it, you'll do it. Just go for it.