First comes
love then
PEGGY REVELL
rom a hobby to home-business. It’s just one of the many ways that people in Southeastern Alberta have created businesses throughout the region.
“I thought I’d maybe have a few orders here and there, I never dreamed it would become a full-time job,” said Kaleigh Haslbeck, whose business, Westoria Creation, designs and creates wooden signs for home decor.
success F
then home- based business
It is one of many home-based businesses that have taken off in recent years, as those in southeastern Alberta — especially mothers — find niche markets to fill, all while bringing in some extra income to the family.
For Haslbeck, Westoria comes from a combination of her two eldest children’s names — Weston and Victoria. She
36 “I had never sewed in my life, but I baby,
Kaleigh Haslbeck poses with her three children and the many hand-painted signs she's created as part of her growing home-based business, Westoria Creations.
started the business three years ago when her family’s third child was on the way, and their family had just built their home, which included a barnwood wall in the kitchen.
“Just with the leftover wood, I started making home decor,” said Haslbeck — first for herself, and then others.
“From there, people just started placing orders. I just started with a small page with people, and now there’s thousands.”
She loves the freedom her customers give her when it comes to creating items — she’s learning something new every day, and there’s always new design requests and styles.
It’s a similar story for Raegan Maurer, who launched her business Little Jaimes Gray while being a stay-at-home mom with her young family.
“My daughter was born in 2014,” said Maurer, and she always hated how other headbands for children left a red mark.
thought ‘Hey this shouldn’t be too hard,’ she recalled. With an old sewing machine given to her by her father, she started designing and creating her own headbands for young children
“They were terrible, when I look back now, I was so proud of those headbands,” she said — but she kept sewing, learning and getting better. She started off by selling her headbands on a Facebook mom-swap site, eventually moving onwards to more social media sites.
“It just kind of took off.”
She enjoys the creativity that comes with the business, and the free rein people give her.
“Before kids I always worked,” she said — but she knew she wanted to be able to stay home to raise her family. “ But I just felt the need to do something to bring in a little. I wanted to have something that was just mine.”
For Haslbeck, her business means the chance to be a stay-at-home mom and
spending time with her children, all while making an income. Once her children are older, she has her sights set on opening a storefront that will sell items created by moms.
While some go the handmade route, numerous other home-based businesses take the form of selling products — scentsy, partylite, leggings are just some of the many home-based businesses people have got on board with.
“I started in Epicure, five and half years ago,” said Joleine Hartman, describing a popular brand that sells spice and seasoning mixes for dips, salad dressings, dishes and more. “It appealed to me because there’s a lot of home-based businesses out there, but this was something that was consumable so people would need to keep purchasing it.”
“The home business route was something that I could do in my spare time to make some money, I could kind of make my own schedule around my work, around my activities.”
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