Inspired: Be Your Own Boss | Young House Love

Tell us about your “job”.
My husband John and I run a home improvement blog called Young House Love which is basically our DIY diary. It started as a hobby and grew into our full time job (no one is more surprised about that than we are). So we spend our days doing projects, photographing them, writing posts, answering reader questions, coordinating giveaways, and managing sponsors – and raising our two year old daughter. It’s sort of like running a little two-person newspaper (with a toddler running around the office) since we share twice-daily posts about our home-related adventures. There’s always something to do/paint/write about!

Describe yourself in three words.Too excited sometimes.

Where do you work (home office, on location, brick and mortar, on your couch, at your favorite coffee shop)?
We have a home office with a two person desk that we made with thrift store cabinets that we got for a dollar and framing lumber from the hardware store. We also tend to work on the sofa at night with our laptops (and in the car on our iPhones). The Internet is 24/7 so we tend to be “on” a lot. It’s hard to set boundaries when you work from home, but we try to give our daughter as much uninterrupted time as we can.

What are your goals for the next 3 years?
We always say that five years ago we never would have guessed that we’d be here, so we have no idea what the future holds for us. It’s easy to get nervous and neurotic when you have all of your eggs in this one small-business basket, but we have faith that if we keep focusing on the blog, our family, and our readers, it’ll all work out.

What advice would you give someone who is considering starting her own business?
We always laugh and say “don’t quit your day job!” – haha. It took us five years of blogging and over 2,500 posts to get where we are today – so its definitely not a get-rich-quick method. But if you’re doing something you love (which perhaps just starts as a hobby) and you do it without expecting to make a dime, it’s amazing where it could lead over time!

Share the love: Tell us about a mentor or supporter (in your industry or niche) who has helped you get where you are today.
I really admire Abby from Style Me Pretty. She’s just such a sweet and savvy girl, and it’s amazing to see what her blog has grown into. That girl is inspiration times ten. And of course Katie Bower from Bower Power is someone I met through blogging who is now one of my best friends. We even vacation together and our kids are friends. She’s a phenomenal photographer so she inspires me to keep trying to figure out my dang camera.