After gaining experience on the intranet of her employer, Karen Caile decided to ditch the nine to five grind and set up her own web design and hosting company, Sunnyside Business Services, from her own home. She tells Startups.co.uk how she's getting on.

Name: Karen Caile
Age: 36
Business: Sunnyside Business Services
Type of business: Web design, web hosting, Search engine optimisation and submission, office and bookkeeping services
Start date: May 2004

When did you first decide you wanting start your own business?
Starting my own business was always in the back of my mind. When I had my first child, I arranged with my employer to reduce my working hours to fit in with the family.

After I had my second child, it was going to be so difficult arranging childcare and travelling to work etc that I decided to give my business a chance. I have a wide range of skills to complement the main web design service that I offer.

Tell us about your business
The main activity of my business is web and logo design. I offer design packages to small and medium sized companies and have currently concentrated my work on other parents working from home.

My business is based at my home as the work involves Internet communications. For companies who have no Internet skills, I offer a fully managed service or I can guide more knowledgeable enterprises to achieve the results they want.

Was it your first business idea and where did it come from?
Yes this was my first business idea. I have 5 years experience working on a large company Intranet and enjoyed the work so decided that I might as well do something I like.

Was your decision to start a business inspired by any other companies or individuals?
My family are very supportive and gave me the encouragement to start up in business. I was given the opportunity to build a web site for a Steam and Craft Show and thought this would be a good start to my portfolio.

What makes you think there’s a market for your business?
Following research of the market, I realised there was potential for a female web design company as I found that there were quite a lot of other parents working from home who needed a website and a female approach would suit them.

Also, as I am able offer flexible payment plans; this is very favourable to small and newly formed companies who may not have a large budget for advertising.

Once you’d decided to start a business, what did you do first?
Contacted Business Link and went on a Women into Business programme to learn how to form my business and write my business plan

What research did you do?
I compiled a questionnaire and sent to a parenting forum where other wahp’s hang out.

I also researched many other web designers, large and small to study their portfolios and pricing methods

Talk us through the process of writing your business plan.
I wrote my business plan after attending the Women into Business Programme. I started with my marketing strategy and have developed it from there. I didn’t use any specific software, just Word, and Excel for my cashflow and sales forecasts.

How much did it cost to start the business?
I invested around £400 for some initial advertising and PR help. I also purchased a new PC and software to cope with the amount of work, which cost £1700

Have you made any provisions for business not being as prosperous as expected?
No, my husband supports the family anyway. If it doesn’t succeed, I will go back to employment, but at the moment I can’t see why it shouldn’t do well.