FINDING A BALANCE BETWEEN WORK AND FAMILY IN THE HOME

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 8, 1993                   TAG: 9304080437
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: N-21   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
FINDING A BALANCE BETWEEN WORK AND FAMILY IN THE HOME
Sometimes a home-based business becomes a family affair. Gina Hirsch, an interior decorator who operates as Designs by Gina, says her two children, Steven, 7, and Lauren, 4, often answer the telephone for her when she's busy.
They know her suppliers, sales representatives and workers. Sometimes they even meet their mother's clients if they happen to be out of school when she has a consultation, and the client doesn't mind.
At home, the children's playroom adjoins Hirsch's basement office so she can keep an eye on them. But the three of them have understanding that when Hirsch is in the office, she is working and shouldn't be bothered. It works pretty well, she said.
"I try to balance it, and my kids are really good."
Her husband, Gary, who works at Ingersoll-Rand, is pleased with her success, but he mostly just encourages Hirsch to keep her samples in the office and out of the garage and dining room.
"I keep a large inventory" of fabric and wall covering samples, she said, and "sometimes it gets out of control."
Hirsch began her business seven years ago, with an investment of only $500, when Steven was just 5 weeks old. She and Gary had moved to their north Roanoke County home from Philadelphia, where she had been a middle-school principal.
At first, Hirsch said, she planned to get back into teaching, but when she discovered she would have to start as a substitute, she decided to try something else. Besides, she said, "having kids just changes your life."
Although she has a strong background in both art and math, and sewed for other people as a hobby, Hirsch fell into owning her own interior decorating business by accident.
A friend who was a free-lance decorator hired Hirsch to sew and install curtains for some of her clients. Later, the friend turned entire decorating jobs over to Hirsch, and when she left the area, Hirsch went into business for herself.
Hirsch said she works up to 50 hours a week, juggling the children's schedules with appointments with clients and suppliers. She has spent practically nothing on advertising, she said, relying instead on recommendations from the more than 200 clients she has worked with.
"Roanoke is a real word-of-mouth town," she said. Hirsch said she only put her number in the yellow pages a few years ago to "legitimize myself."
People thought that because she wasn't listed, she wasn't qualified, she said.
Hirsch will do jobs of all sizes, from simply helping someone choose wallpaper, to creating long-range plans, to redecorating an entire house.
At first, Hirsch said, "I tried to keep it small, just to keep myself busy while the kids were little," but the phone calls kept coming in.
"The workload is really heavy," Hirsch said, and although she does not make enough to support herself, she does make a small profit.
Hirsch has found that the advice given to her by her accountant has been invaluable. "If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have the business," Hirsch said.
These days, Hirsch has other people do all of the sewing and installation. She is careful to make sure that the people who represent her do quality work, she said, and only recently found a carpeting installer who pleases her.
"It's hard to send people out under your name," she said, but she has worked with the same window-treatment installers for years, and "I'm very comfortable with them."
When the children are older, Hirsch said, she hopes to be able to move her business out of the house and into an office, although doing that will cost her overhead she doesn't have now.
The best part of her job, she said, is that because she sets her own schedule, the hours are flexible. But that also means that a lot of the bookkeeping, ordering, and design drawing has to be done in the evening, after the children are in bed.
But the really hard part, Hirsch said, is looking at all of the new samples that come in. "It makes me hate everything I have," she said.
Designs by Gina can be reached by calling 362-3662.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB