Meet Brenda Marquardt

The Northwestern:

Q You could very well be the patron saint for stay-at-home-moms who want to work. You created your own firm at home and it grew like gangbusters. How did you get it going?

A A lot of it was word of mouth. It was friends and family who owned businesses. I didn’t do a lot of advertising. My husband works in a large company and he was always promoting it.

Q You started this business when you were pregnant with your first child in order to stay home?

A Yes. What’s kind of ironic is I moved it out of my home when I was pregnant with my third child. The business got too big for the house and my second child was kind of a monkey and he was always crawling on the machines. He wouldn’t get hurt because they have lasers and would stop. But he wasn’t helping my business.

Q How did you balance work and kids?

A My husband works shift work so he was home with the kids a lot. I hired an employee so I could take over when he couldn’t. Plus we always had a room here where the kids could play. This is their second home.