Running a small business… (Day 3 of 30)

… from home, with two very young children around, looks something like this: today, we were finalizing the details of our first set of products because we had to place an order with a foreign supplier this afternoon. In this scene, my older daughter Z is eating salami and watching the little mole on her father’s iPad, and my business partner just got my younger daughter E’s lunch ready. B, the dog, is quietly waiting to the right of her high chair for a handout. He usually shows up when the girls eat and he always gets lucky. There is a dress sample folded up on the table, and our notebooks in which we took turns writing things down while one or the other of us was making lunch, changing a diaper, wiping a nose, breaking up a fight, making a booboo feel better… So businesslike, I know. The table is my kitchen counter a.k.a. Planning and Cutting Station and Center of All Life in the apartment. You can’t see the sewing studio because it’s behind me (I’m taking the picture). Though to be honest, ‘studio’ is possibly an overstatement as it’s more like a very large windowless closet with decent lighting, lots of shelves and some tables to sew/iron on. Oh and the most businesslike detail of all? I took this picture in my pajamas (it’s lunchtime!) because I hadn’t had time to change my clothes yet. We were on a deadline, which, I am happy to say, we met.