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If you now operate, or have ever operated, a successful home business that was inspired by an article you read in MOTHER, tell us about it in around 500 words (write to THE MOTHER EARTH NE WS P. O. Box 70, Hendersonville, North Carolina 28791): Be sure to mention when and where you started your venture and with how much "seed money"; what you make (net), and anything else that might be of assistance to other entrepreneurs. If your story is used in this column, you'll receive [1] the satisfaction of knowing that you may help someone else start a business and [2] a free two-year new or renewal subscription to THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS ®

We were already into November of last year when I faced the fact that I couldn't think of a single way to earn money for Christmas gifts. Then my husband handed me our most recent issue of THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS, which he'd opened to Leslie Peters Cline's article, "A Holiday Artist" (No. 72, page 10). Well, since I'd decorated windows as a teenager, I knew right away that Leslie's business was the one for me!

We held a brainstorming session and concluded that I could get started at a cost of as little as $10. With that amount I purchased sponge brushes from the hardware store and powdered tempera from a nearby art supply shop.

Then I decided it'd be worthwhile to have business cards printed. They cost me $20 more, but proved to be the only "advertising" I needed.

Once I had all my equipment, I picked a street with a row of storefront windows and went to each one, leaving my card and explaining my service. Soon I was lining up appointments to begin painting the day after Thanksgiving. And I was more than busy from that day until a week before Christmas . . . I worked five half-days a week and probably could have painted away the other half-days as well. In fact, while I was on the job, people would stop and ask me to decorate windows for them. . . no selling was necessary. Why, in one instance I solicited a single pizza store and was hired to do five!

I soon learned to vary my rates with the size of the window and — in the course of my first season — earned over $300. This year I'm going to advertise early and confirm all jobs before Thanksgiving so that I can concentrate on the enjoyable part — the actual painting — from then until Christmas. I'll also deliberately solicit jobs from businesses with shops in more than one location . . . and I think I can double that $300!

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