Small Business Success Story Mary Audet

When I first came across Marye's profile on hubpages I was amazed at all that she has managed to achieve. To be honest I felt exhausted just reading about her life! She has many interests and yet seems to excel at them all.

Marye is an experienced journalist, freelance writer and editor. She has a passion for food and photography and has a cookbook due for release in September. The book is called Everything Cookies and Brownies and is available for pre-order through Amazon. All this from a woman who up until a few years ago had spent 27 years as a stay at home mum.

It prompted me to ask the question, how does she do it? I contacted Mary and she kindly agreed to an interview with me.

Hi Karen. Well, I have several blogs, so rather than list them all I will just say that they can all be accessed through marye audet.com My biography, as well as links to my work and samples of my photography are there. The blog I am most known for is baking delights which is a food and recipe blog.

I am a freelance writer, though, so if anyone has need of that type of service I would be happy to talk to them. I also do restaurant and product reviews, menu consultations, recipe development, and almost any other food related job.

2. Marye, when I first read your profile on HubPages.com my initial reaction was ‘WOW! How does she fit it all in?’ You have a cookbook due for release in September. With ‘so much on your plate already’ pardon the pun, how did you manage to find the time to produce a book? Would you mind sharing some of your time management and organizational tips? I am sure our readers will be as amazed as I was with all that you manage to fit into your day.

Omigosh. I don't have mad time management skills at all. In fact I am rather ADD. I have to create a schedule and stick to it. I am sort of like the telemarketers that call- you know, the ones that if you interrupt their spiel they have to start over? Yeah.

The publisher, Adams Media, gave me approximately six weeks to write the cookbook, which contains 300 cookie and brownie recipes. I was not their first choice to write it but the other writer quit early on. When they contacted me I had only 36 hours to come up with a table of contents which included the 300 recipes I would be including.

Thank God for old, trusted recipes that had been passed down! I made the deadline for the table of contents and actually turned the completed work in two weeks early. I did work 20 hour days, and skipped church for those weeks though!

Basically I am not as busy as many people might think. When you have a large family your children must be well trained. Everyone has responsibilities and everyone is expected to pitch in and help where-ever, whenever, and however. If I have a looming deadline the older kids will help the younger kids with their school work (we homeschool) or they will fix dinner, or handle various other things for me. Once in awhile, when I am really strapped, one of the kids will do my research for me and take notes.

This was especially helpful when my husband, Marc, became disabled two years ago due to some injuries he had received in the Marine Corps in the 1980s. It was kind of an overnight thing... he went from 220 lbs of muscle and nonstop energy to being in a wheelchair on medications. He lost his job because of his disabilities and it took all of the rest of us to take up the slack. He is much better now, and even mountain biking for rehabilitation but we could not have gotten through it without everyone working as a team.

I would say that you need to keep track of your days and find out where you waste time. Facebook and Twitter can be to writers what the Sirens were to Jason! Have a schedule and stick to it as much as you can. Take breaks. Work while you work and play while you play. I also have to have time with the Lord in prayer and in Bible to center me. Find time to feed your spirit because everything will flow out of that.

3. In addition to food you have a love, and obvious talent for photography. Anyone that can make Brussels sprouts look good is definitely talented! What advice would you give to others who have doubts about their ability to turn their creative talents and passions into a business opportunity?

Every failure is the door of opportunity. Marc and I had always wanted a coffee shop so a few years ago we opened one. It was a dismal failure and closed in six months and we had to put a loan on our house that had been paid off to pay our debts. Obviously, I am good with food so it was a major rejection for me. However, I have come to realise that had we not opened that shop I would not have become a food writer, it is that simple. You have to ask yourself, “What is the worst thing that can happen if I try?” Failure?

So, have you never experienced failure before? Give everything you do everything you've got. What a pity to come to the end of your life and find that you have been an “average Joe”. I think that when I die I want my family to put the following on my gravestone, “SCORE!”.

My dad was a firm believer in nothing ventured nothing gained. I was raised to give everything my best shot and I try to do that. I think that if you approach anything with passion, excellence and persistence eventually a door is going to open up for you.

4. Do you have a business plan? If so do you use it? If not how do you stay focused on the big picture with so many things competing for your attention?

I don't have a business plan. Sorry. I feel so weird when people ask me how I ended up as a successful writer when I don't have a degree and I have only been working for two years. I have been a stay at home mom for 27 years! Business plan? Here is my secret. Every day I wake up and I say, “So, Lord, what is the plan for today?”.

5. What advice would you give to aspiring business owners?
Learn from my coffee shop mistake. Location really is important. Look at what other businesses are in the location you are looking at and how long they have been there. It will give you a clue about your own business success or failure.

Also, if you are Christian then God comes first, family second and work third. No matter who you are or what your beliefs your family needs to come before your job. Too many kids are orphans at home. I find that when people have their priorities in order as far as their families then everything else falls into place.

Another thing is that you must just keep going and be willing to do what it takes to get started. I have had more people ask me how they can make money as a writer and then when I tell them they tell me why they would never take a “mediocre job like that”. Don't give your services away but be willing to clean the toilets if you want to own the building some day!

6. If you had to do it all again from scratch to get where you are now in terms of your cooking, writing and photography what aspects would you pay more and also less, attention to?

I can't say that I would change anything. The failure of our business and Marc's sudden disability launched me into a career that I had no intention of pursuing. Everything has, quite literally, been dropped in my lap. I have to assume, because of my personal spiritual beliefs, that I am being led so any place I have been, and anything that has happened has been part of a design that is larger than I am.

7. What do you enjoy most and least about having your own business?
I have not worked outside the home my entire married life. I was a Czech linguist in the Army, which is where I met Marc in 1979. When we got married I became a traditional wife and mom, and really never aspired to do more. I guess that because of that I think it is funny when people refer to me as a business owner or a successful writer/author. I don't think of myself in those terms. I feel most successful when one of my children brags about me on their Facebook account, when I read “You have to meet my mom, she is so cool!”.

I feel successful when I see my children following their own bent, exploring their talents and abilities, and achieving their goals. Businesses and successes come and go. I am popular and easily find work today...perhaps tomorrow things will shift and I will anger someone important and fall out of favor. My family? They are forever. The most permanent impact I will leave on this Earth is not that I made an awesome cheesecake. It will be the ethics, values, and subsequent impacts that my children carry on into the future and in turn leave to their children.

When we only had two children I painted and showed my work in some of the local upscale galleries. I sold some here and there but I saw it more as a way to pay for my love of painting rather than a business. I have the opportunity to hang work in a friend's gallery in Bucks County, Pa., so I am taking up painting again in a small way.

Anyway, all that to say that I am the quintessential, traditional wife and mom. Having my own business allows me to work at home, make my own hours, and use my time as I see fit. I can sit next to my six year old and work while she is playing with play-dough. I can put the laptop down when I see that my 17 year old has something he needs to chat about. I can take time to accompany Marc to the VA hospital for his appointments.

Because I am my own boss I am free to put my family first. My house is messier than it ever was, that has certainly been a downside of working. Oddly, even though I am primarily a food writer, the busy-ness of my life has meant that we eat simpler foods than we have in the past. Yes, I may be testing a recipe for raspberry and bittersweet chocolate lava cake, and we may be having that for dessert but it could follow a main meal of peanut butter and jelly if I am really busy! Sometimes those things make me feel like I am giving my family less of me than I should be.

I think that having my own business allows me the luxury of being myself and living my life under my own terms and ethics. The downsides that come with that are really not very important.

Small Business Success Story

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Marye Audet