Working from home is the highest career goal for some—freedom from rigid schedules, a more lenient dress code, no commute. Others fear the loss of social contact or the omnipresent temptation of the fridge.
Mark Grishman knows both sides of the coin. During a long career as a CPA in Dallas, he was a master of long commutes and frequent, extended work travel. As his 40th birthday approached with kids on the way, he and his wife, Ellen, a pediatric endocrinologist, wanted a drastic life change that would allow them to enjoy their first trip through parenthood.
What was once a wish morphed quickly into a need after learning they were having twins. The Grishmans considered franchising and, ultimately, decided to take over the CruiseOne travel franchise Mark’s mother had run for years.
The pros? A pre-existing love of travel, including a honeymoon cruise around the Galapagos Islands. The cons? Learning how to balance a growing client base with the challenges of first-time parenthood times two.
"Having an opportunity like this to have my own business, work from home, have a flexible schedule and actually enjoy my wife and kids, it just made a lot of sense and was really appealing," he said.
Grishman’s not alone in his quest to contain fatherhood and business ownership in the same four walls. According to the Pew Research Center, more than 2 million American dads work from home.
According to the Pew’s Gretchen Livingston, the latest recession doubled the number of stay-at-home dads, but caring for children is an even larger, longer-term influencer. "Fathers represent a growing share of all at-home parents—16 percent in 2012, up from 10 percent in 1989," Livingston wrote in a recent report.
Three and a half years into his new life, and toddlers Rachel and Avi have becoming more active, continuing the theme of constant change at the Grishman house. Selling cruises and land-based vacations requires a significant time on the phone, with one of his primary challenges presenting a professional appearance in a non-professional environment.
"I have learned that I shouldn’t try to answer every call that comes through," Grishman said. "If I am not ready to answer a call without screaming in the background or some other commotion going on, it will hurt me worse to answer the phone than it will for the call to go to voicemail."
He added, "nobody wants to call a daycare" for advice on planning a luxury vacation.
Planning around naps, his most coveted work time, has occasionally involved tactics like turning the family minivan into his personal office space, using the rhythm of the road to lull the kids to sleep.
"Every time I think I have things figured out, something changes and things are thrown completely up in the air," he said.
The most memorable day at the home office came after Grishman heard innocent sounds coming from the kids’ bedroom during the potty-training phase. A few minutes later, he left his work to check out the situation, and was horrified to discover a feces-based art project in progress.
"My daughter looked up at me with this sweet, innocent grin and she was like, ‘I made a boat!’—she had made a boat out of poop," he said. "I’m like, ‘That’s not cute.’ Whatever I was doing that day was gone, and now I have to deal with this situation."
Working from home, he says, is "full of extremes," including many idyllic days spent with the kids, now three and a half years old. He misses the serenity of his daily commute, as well as chatting with coworkers over a cup of coffee at a proper office.
Life has become easier as the kids recently started attending preschool three days a week, giving him much more untethered time for client meetings and attending volunteer networking events he uses to meet prospective clients.
He has advice for expecting or new parents considering franchising from home: take baby steps, and try out the new lifestyle before jumping in head first. "I had the luxury of still having solid income coming in and not as much pressure to grow the business right away, so I’ve been able to enjoy the time with my kids knowing that’s not always going to be there," he said.
Time for honesty
Meg Schmitz is a Chicago-based franchise consultant with FranChoice helping prospective franchisees choose a business that complements their lifestyle. From her own experience as a single mother running a handful of Great Clips locations in the 1990s, Schmitz is intimately familiar with the challenges of such a life.
"I take my role in the selection process very seriously, because I ended up divorced because of a bad choice," she said. "When I do my consultations with people, I want to know what’s the household dynamic."
She meets face to face with couples considering buying a franchise, reading their body language to determine if both parties are fully in alignment. "I ask people to just get naked, get honest with me," she said.
"If they’re not honest with me about how the dynamics of their marriage and household really work, I ask them to go through what does a day in the life look like."
From her own experience, Schmitz feels the traditional stigma of working from home has softened, if not dissolved entirely, with more professionals choosing to forgo the office and set up shop at home.
Still, situations like a broken glass in the background, a barking dog or a crying baby still present awkward situations—ones that can be diffused with a clever explanation like saying, "Oh yeah, it’s bring your dog to work day."
While some of Schmitz’s married clients hesitate to involve their spouse before the prospective business venture becomes more of a sure thing, she advises them to abandon that notion and immediately include the spouse and consider all facets of their personal lives in the decision.
"I have to be respectful of every living thing that’s in that house, including the dog," she said, "to make sure the business you think you want to run is really something that will work for you."
