Owning a home-based business can be rewarding and challenging

Owners of three local businesses – a health product distributor, advertising specialty firm, and custom fitted dress company -- are entrepreneurs discovering the joys -- and a few challenges – in owning a home-based business.Their businesses are widely different but they all offer a flexible working schedule, the opportunity to earn a living during a tough job market, and a chance to try something new.A piece of the piePam Roberts sells a wide variety of promotional products through her Auburndale-based company Impressive Advertising Specialties, LLC, but she sees it more as being in the relationship building business.
The company offers a wide variety of products including business cards, wedding invitations, car magnets, banners, hats and visors, pens and pencils, and water bottles.A Wedding Industry Grows, Slowly, in Harlem.But she sells more T-shirts than anything.While items have been shipped to Texas and Switzerland, most of the company's business is local. Plumbing companies purchase embroidered shirts; schools order tee shirts for graduation classes and groups like elementary school patrols. Organizations request magnets and other items for fundraisers.
Roberts, 50, worked in a pharmaceutical factory for years before devoting time to purchasing houses, fixing them up, and selling them for profit. When the economy put a halt to redoing houses, she took a leap of faith and purchased a promotional items business package found during a trip to a home show.She and her husband, Kevin Roberts, who worked for Watkins Motor Lines at the time, attended training in Idaho and learned the ins and outs of the business -- how to print shirts, use a vinyl cutter, set up supplies, and organized invoices.
Pam Roberts basically ran the business until her husband lost his job a year or so ago. Recently they made him business cards and he now handles much of the shirt embroidery and printing.The space devoted to the business, located just off their kitchen, includes a computer and printer, screen printer, vinyl cutter, and embroidery machine. Shelves are lined with samples of personalized bags, Frisbees, caps and visors, and T-shirts. The laundry room doubles as a stock room and holds storage bins filled with merchandise: pens, invitations, water bottles, bandanas, books, and stress balls.The bulk of Pam Roberts's time is devoted to marketing, which she refers to as building relationships.Many of her customers developed through the network. She and her husband also attend special events and trade shows with plenty of give-away items and posts information and product photos on Facebook.