Tamra Malaga, founder and driving creative force behind Vera Plum, is a designer living in Los Angeles.  Her whimsical graphic designs for infant and child clothes are bright, original and appealing, and she is growing her company while continuing to create adorable designs.  The multi-talented Tamra is also a performer, writer and producer as part of the Josh and Tamra Show.

1.  How did you get started doing what you do?

 I started my career in 1999 as a graphic designer in New York City.  I designed graphics for the creative services and marketing departments of broadcast networks, on projects such as posters, postcards, media kits, branding, trade ads, web graphics, package design, and apparel promotional items. I had the privilege to work for many top shows like Saturday Night Live, and major networks including HBO, Food Network, A&E, History Channel, WNET  CourtTV, Comedy Central and Troma Films. 

As a designer, I wanted to expand my creativity, so I took a huge pay cut and landed in high fashion, at Aeropostale, in New York City. My boss, the creative director, became a huge mentor to me. He taught me the ins and outs of the fashion graphic world from trend shopping and designing to production. I fell in love with the process and found great success, moving up to senior graphic designer. A year later I had the opportunity to work for clothing companies such as Ecko Red, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hanes, Old Navy and the Gap, designing top seller graphics, trend shopping around the states, and loving every moment of it.

I had tons of great ideas for tshirts and accessories but,I was very limited as to what I designed for the corporate clients, since I had to design within the brand limits and their trend reports. So, in my spare time I had friends come over my Sunnyside, Queens apartment for “Craft Night.”  Everyone brought a fun craft project they wanted to work on like painting, sewing, or beading necklaces. During craft night, I designed a bunch of out-of-the-box style graphics and I applied them to baby tshirts and onesies.  I got great feedback from my friends and so, Vera Plum – my own company was born. I’ve been hooked ever since. 

2. What is your biggest joy and what is your biggest headache?

My biggest joy is when people express to me how much they love the items they purchase. I am happy that they are excited to buy them as a gift for someone special, or have their children wear a tshirt or onesie I designed.

My biggest headache is that I am a one-woman operation. I do everything from designing, PR, website maintenance etc.  I wish I could multiply myself. I also wish I had a bigger budget. The eceonomy is really bad right now.

3. Where do you spend most of your time online (business-wise)?

I spend it trend shopping, searching for trade shows, and filling orders.

4. What is the one thing, person, service or resource you can’t do without? 

I am very grateful for my web designer Nicole from 368 Design. My business would not be as successful if it wasn’t for her amazing talent. 

5. What do you wish someone had told you the day you started your business?

It’s going to be a long, long, long educational journey and enjoy the ride!

Shannon Manning is a writer, producer, and performer. She has written and produced for TV news and weather, the Chicago Bulls, LifetimeTV, Fuse, Kraft, and more. She helps manage the Charles Mingus nonprofit organization and touring bands, is webmaster for Pathetic Geek Stories, published and edited Pipe Up! Magazine, was the Corporate Cash Manager for a major multinational newspaper and internet company, and recently helped create a web and stage show with Lizz Winstead, co-creator of The Daily Show. She has taught, directed, and performed improv at Second City, IO, Upright Citizens Brigade, Magnet Theater (which she also co-founded), and Drinkytown, and has performed on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

After a recent stint as New Media Deputy for Obama for America, she returned to developing her artist collective/production company Sparkle Television, which launched a music/comedy/art webshow called Beauty Love Truth in April.

 1.  How did you get started doing what you do?

I’ve always been a DIY-type - this is my fifth company. First was a computer/video animation company with my mom, then two companies with my sister - one creating weather graphics for TV, and another as one of Chicago’s first web design companies. I came to New York and, ten years after falling in love with improv from studying with Del Close in Chicago, co-founded the improv school and venue Magnet Theater.

I currently freelance on TV projects; producing, directing, shooting, and editing webshows and pilots; sometimes acting; and, trying to put all these experiences into Sparkle Television to produce comedy, music, drama, and art for art’s sake! It’s a way to work with people I admire and with whom I share creative goals.

2.  What is your biggest joy and what is your biggest headache?

My favorite thing in the world is to see someone develop or build on an idea of mine, or to watch someone that I’ve taught, promoted, or worked with find success. My own accomplishments always leave me immediately thinking, “Ok, cool, but what’s next?” That’s the freelance/entrepreneur default mode/psychosis…always hatching the next plan, looking to the next project.

Most of my projects rely on collaboration. That’s a joy and also a challenge. Working with other people inspires me, and makes me accountable for my time, ideas, and integrity.  Working with talented people makes me step up! I also like to take the reins on a set or project, and create a beautiful, efficient machine with a happy team that feels proud of their work and the final product.  Creative people often thrive with structure. When they are in a safe and trusting environment, they can just focus on their work.  Creating that environment is always a challenge.

The biggest challenge in collaborative efforts is to clearly define your role, so your role does not get defined for you, and you don’t get stretched too thin! I am great at stepping into multiple roles, and welcome input and change; but then I have to step back and make sure I’m on my right path and make sure communication stays open and honest. And if it’s not working, and obstacles seem insurmountable, I have learned not to spend too much time trying to fix it. It doesn’t have to be dramatic (the band is breaking up!), it’s just the nature of collaboration.  There’s always another idea, project, opportunity, even if I have to create it myself.

 3.  Where do you spend most of your time online (business-wise)?

I try to focus on spending time creating rather than consuming online. I like to use productivity tools like Bubble Timer to keep me focused.  43 Folders is also a great productivity-meets-creativity blog.  I use social networking to see what friends are up to performance-wise. Mediabistro, Freelancer’s Union, and LinkedIn are great sites and communities for freelance issues, professional development, political activism, and job postings. I also like Cynopsis - it’s fun to gawk at the money that’s getting tossed around to executives in the latest gold rush to monetize the web and creativity.

My latest trick is to work on my own priorities before even checking email, and to avoid being immediately responsive to every email or phone call. It was hard at first, but this way I get to choose which things get done first instead of technology doing the prioritizing for me.

4.  What is the one thing, person, service or resource you can’t do without?

The internet on/off button.  There’s so much information, entertainment and interaction available, I have to be vigilant and step away. I need to recharge with real face-to-face community and activity. I need to go to live music, theater, comedy, and political meetings, to remind me why I live in New York!  I need to get my news from professionally edited newspapers and magazines without user comments, and I need to write with pen on normal paper.

But then I have to turn the internet back on because it is a constant reminder that there are no gatekeepers anymore; that there is nothing to prevent anyone and everyone from creating and publishing and, yes, even monetizing your own creativity. You don’t need a stage, a camera, or any technical abilities, as long as you have good ideas and friends who believe in them and also in you.

5.  What do you wish someone had told you the day you started your business?

“I must Create a System, or be enslav’d by another Man’s. I will not Reason & Compare; my business is to Create.” -William Blake

I love that quote because “reason” and “compare” do not usually get a bad rap in business and management, but they are great hindrances to creativity.  So is relying on old systems or paths, especially when they are broken or littered with unnecessary obstacles.  On a practical level, I discovered it is helpful to work in two different roles: one the Big Picture, thinking, planning boss, the other the efficient loyal employee. The boss writes everything down, from top level goals, objectives, processes and priorities, to clear tasks for the employee. If I’m feeling inspired, I can just write or plan or jot down my crazy ideas without judging the practicality because I know that my employee will try to make it work (she’s great!) And if I’m not feeling inspired or having doubts, I can just tick things off the list and trust that the boss knows what she’s doing (she’s great!) It took a while to learn that when you work for yourself you have to have discipline, but when you are creative worker, you also have to learn to listen to yourself so you’re not forcing yourself to work counter-productively.  That goes for the real people I work with, too.  Always trust them, always communicate, always treat them like poets and geniuses (so said Del Close); then, together you can overcome any obstacle and create whatever system is needed.

Originally from Providence, Rhode Island, Shayna Kulik began her career working as a textile designer for Longina Phillips Design Studio in Sydney, Australia.  Relocating to New York in 2003, Kulik joined the design team at ES Originals.  She spent two years with the mass-market shoe manufacturer, conceptualizing a wide range of kicks for corporate accounts such as Target, Rampage, and OshKosh. Kulik went on to Playboy Enterprises where she worked as a product designer developing their accessories and menswear lines as well as managing brand control with the company’s global licensees.

Kulik now brings that unique perspective to clients including Bumble and Bumble, Elizabeth Arden, Marc Ecko, MTV and Panasonic through her design and trend forecasting studio, Pixel Rumor located in New York’s East Village.   Kulik is also founder and editor of Pattern Pulp, a web forum devoted to print and pattern design.

1.  How did you get started doing what you do?

Internships in New York, DC and Sydney laid the foundation for my interest in the commercial art world, and led to my first paying gig as a shoe designer.  Following a few more in-house roles, including a stint as a product designer for Playboy Enterprises, I founded Pixel Rumor.   Most recently I’ve started Pattern Pulp, a weblog that covers design, marketing and creative trends in the print and pattern worlds.

2.  What is your biggest joy and what is your biggest headache?

Biggest Joy:  Trend assignments that incorporate travel

Biggest Headache:  Tax season

 3.  Where do you spend most of your time online (business-wise)?

I hop around a lot, but the frequent reel includes: news sites like New York Times, Wall Street Journal; design and trend sites such as NOTCOT, Cool Hunting, QBN, ffffound; media professional sites like MediaPost and mediabistro; and any random link that gets forwarded to me throughout the day.

 4.  What is the one thing, person, service or resource you can’t do without?

  It’s a three-way tie between my camera, Wacom tablet, and passport

 5.  What do you wish someone had told you the day you started your business?

 Trust your gut with people, projects and goals - it will rarely fail you.

Myra Binstock is the owner of Myra Binstock Legal Search, a search firm specializing in the placement of Intellectual Property attorneys (patent, trademark and copyright).  Myra is a former paralegal whose own career includes years both as an administrative assistant to an Appellate Division Judge and sole paralegal for a Fortune 100 corporation. She understands the working environment of companies and law firms, and knows how to match the right person to the job.  With respect to networking, Myra’s particular interest is in connecting sole practitioners, an area that has been for heretofore neglected. There is a strong need for an active network from which overflow work and mergers can be developed, and she is dedicated to building this market.

1.  How did you get started doing what you do?

I got started in my business 20 years ago when I was looking for a new paralegal job.  I had been working at Ingersoll-Rand Company in Woodcliff Lake, NJ for 10 years and it was getting stale.  I was getting a divorce and my daughter suggested that I might find better opportunities in New York.  So, I had a guy I was dating drive me to a recruiting firm on 42nd Street (right by the lions at the Public Library).  I asked him to wait while I dropped off my resume.  I emerged three hours later!   The firm had made me an offer to be the new  Office Manager and I had accepted.  (Luckily, my friend was still there.)  After learning her business for  a year, I moved to another firm that subsequently went out of business.  At that point, I had been placing intellectual property attorneys and I decided to start my own firm.

2.  What is your biggest joy and what is your biggest headache?

My biggest joy is feeling a sense of accomplishment and being able to make my own business decisions and succeeding.  Before, I was just a cog in a big wheel.  Now, I’m at the helm, and if I make a mistake, I pick myself up, dust myself off and start again.  It gives me a sense of who I am and what I can do.  My biggest headache is the pressure of being in a commission business and learning how to allocate money towards expenses.  There is a definite ebb and flow in my field of work. 

3.  Where do you spend most of your time online (business-wise)?

Most of my time on-line is spent at sites of law firms and corporations I want to call for job orders.   I familiarize myself with what they do and how they work.  And, then I call applicants who, I feel, would  be good for a particular client.  I also spend time on IP-related sites and Linkedin.

4.  What is the one thing, person, service or resource you can’t do without?

I can’t do without a daily game of Scrabble with my daughter on Facebook.  It keeps me close to my family and grounded.  We’ve never gotten along so well before and we can make comments to each other and stay in touch.  I go back to work reinvigorated and feeling renewed.

5.  What do you wish someone had told you the day you started your business?

I don’t wish I had been told anything before I went into this business.  When I was younger, I wanted to be an archeologist.  That wasn’t in the cards.  Now, I view all the things I’ve learned in my business as an adventure to discovering an old relic….. me!

Banned by the US Catholic League for her dirty ditties and ribald jokes, controversial New York musician Jessica Delfino combines a host of quirky videos and instruments, from the flying-V ukelele to the rape whistle, with her own smart and edgy brand of comedy. She has performed in many festivals such as the Montreal Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Fest, Dublin Comedy Festival, NY International Children’s Film Festival and more. She has written songs for the documentary “What Would Jesus Buy?” and has had her music videos featured on YouTube and Myspace.  Visit Jessica’s Wikipedia entry to read her extended bio.

1.  How did you get started doing what you do?

I had a very funny Italian family and we watched a lot of movies and stand up comedy together. Later in life I met a comedian who told me that women couldn’t be comedians. That combo platter pretty much sealed the deal. I also heard that my great grandmother (my grandfather’s mother, but she was also pretty great) was a very ribald woman who told dirty jokes all the time, so it may even have been beyond my control. I might have been forced into this line of work by nature and genetics. Thanks a lot, DNA!!

2.  What is your biggest joy and what is your biggest headache?

Biggest joy - appreciation for what I do, from peers I love and admire and from miscellaneous weirdos alike.  There is nothing like hundreds of people in a room laughing at something I wrote, or someone I have silently admired for years from afar emailing me to say they love my work.

Biggest headache - flying. I cannot WAIT for the instant teleporter machine to hurry up and be invented already.  (What is this, 1954?  Where’s the damn insta-porter?)

3.  Where do you spend most of your time online (business-wise)?

Watching videos on YouTube (mostly old Chaka Khan and other music videos) and dicking around on Facebook.  It may sound like I’m just horsing around but I actually get a lot from those sites.

4.  What is the one thing, person, service or resource you can’t do without?

Mac products have really changed my life. My MacBook is an amazing piece of machinery, and my iPhone makes me feel like I’m super-organized even when I’m not. With those two tools, I can run my whole business anywhere in the world.  Of course, the technology is useless without my guitar, my flying-V ukulele and my rape whistle and other instruments with which I use to kick out the jams. But ultimately, a pen and piece of paper is really all I need.

5.  What do you wish someone had told you the day you started your business?

Welcome to your vampire lifestyle. You are going to be busting your ass every second that you’re awake for many, many years to come. The Catholic League will denounce you, Youtube will ban and remove your videos, and industry people and peers will try to sabotage you. But then other surprise people and heroes and great shows will keep you going. You are going to fall into bed like a baked potato around 2 or 3 AM every night. You are going to have to fly a lot. But now that I think of it, someone did tell me all that. And I did it anyway. 

Summer is a healthy chef, nutrition coach and owner of Summer’s Nutrition Kitchen.  She has been passionate about food and the power to heal her whole life.  She cooks all kinds of food, but specializes in vegan/vegetarian cuisine, along with cooking for people with food allergies, candida, and digestive issues.  Her formal training includes the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts and the Academy of Healing Nutrition.  Summer specializes in making healthy food delicious, fun, and easy.  Summer currently cooks as a private chef and conducts cooking workshops throughout New York City.  She grew up in a small town in rural Nebraska and attended college at Iowa State University before moving to New York.

1.  How did you get started doing what you do?

Since I was in my early teens, I developed an interest in food and specifically the effect it has on the body.  Over time I began researching information about food and health.  It was just very interesting to me and I saw myself change in the process.  I adapted my diet to a more healthy way of eating, and I felt myself getting healthier, happier, I lost weight and many of my allergies went away.  So to me, that was a huge motivation to get into the food and nutrition business because I wanted to share my knowledge with others.  After several years of working in office jobs that I had no interest in, I decided it was time to make my passion my career.  I quit my job, went to culinary school and holistic health counseling school, and began the business I have now.  I created my own business because I was trained in a more alternative way of diet and nutrition coaching (along with the fact that I live that way), and the majority of what is out there is based on conventional nutrition, which I disagree with on several accounts.  However, things are changing, which is great to see.

2.  What is your biggest joy and what is your biggest headache?

My biggest joy is creating my own vision.  My biggest headache is running my vision and taking on the business aspect of it, rather than just being able to work on the creative aspect of it.

3.  Where do you spend most of your time online (business-wise)? 

I did find use the free resources provided by NYC for those starting up a business.   [Ed. Note – there are great city and state resources all over the web.  For locals here in NYC, the most comprehensive I’ve found is here on the NYC website.]

4.   What is the one thing, person, service or resource you can’t do without?

I can’t do without a lot of things.  I think right now it would have to be my IT guy.  It might be different next month.

5.  What do you wish someone had told you the day you started your business?

I did a lot of research before starting my own business and no matter what anyone told me, it was something I needed to experience hands-on because no matter what there are a million things that you come across, some of them you are warned about and some of them you are not.  So I’m not sure if there is any secret bullet of advice that I would have liked to have gotten.

Aimee Davison is an actor and model hailing from Montreal’s West Island.  She studied at the University of Calgary and has been acting and modeling commercially for the last decade.   Always creative and entrepreneurial, Aimee’s modeling career has not been limited to corporate clients, like Lise Watier, French Dressing Jeans and Avon: her self-produced artistic fashion editorials have been published in Maisonneuve Magazine.    

She created Fashion Ambush in the Fall of 2008 as a means to connect the average man or woman with major fashion labels and the experience of editorial photography.

1.   How did you get started doing what you do?

 After working as an actor and a model for nearly a decade, I decided to take my fate into my own hands and start my own web series.  I realized that I had a previously untapped passion for production, so I came up with a series idea, saved up and shot the pilot in September 2008. 

2.  What is your biggest joy and what is your biggest headache?

My biggest joy is performing and interacting with the people that we ambush on the shoot date.  I love getting out there and making my show happen.  I’m a go-getter and a people person! 

My biggest headache is not knowing if the series will attract viewers.  I need an audience for my show, so I can keep producing more videos.

3.  Where do you spend most of your time online (business-wise)?

I usually check my series, Fashion Ambush, on YouTube (several times a day) to see if my numbers have gone up.  I usually celebrate at the 5 view increase mark!. Other than that, and against every artistic grain in my body, I have started writing in HTML to maintain my website.  We are sitll in beta, but man, it is a lot of work to change even the smallest thing.  Maybe I should have listed that as my biggest headache!

4.  What is the one thing, person, service or resource you can’t do without?

I couldn’t do without my partner, Eric and my production team, Moonday Productions.  They have stood by me through all this and continue to help to build the project.

5.  What do you wish someone had told you the day you started your business?

That I would need to have the patience of a saint and the dedication of a monk (albeit a very fashionable one!)

Julie Tice is the owner and principal of Eastend Design Group in Baltimore, Maryland, and has a background in sustainability and historic preservation. Her focus is on small projects like residential renovations and rehabilitations, which satisfies her need to help find solutions to problems, as well as catering to her short attention span. Thanks in part to her compulsive volunteering, she has developed a network of contacts and clients that has kept her firm busy entirely through referrals, but thinks that it’s time to get her own website. In her abundant spare time, she serves as a board member of two non-profits and is working on the finishing touches of her recent home renovations.

1.   How did you get started doing what you do?

I decided to be an architect because of my 7^th grade history class – I fell in love with ancient Rome at a time when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, and realizing that I loved both art and math and wanted a career that could encompass both. (I wonder if I really figured it out way back when, or if I’ve just been too stubborn or lazy to come up with something different.)  After finishing my degree in architecture and working for a few different firms, I realized two things: 1) I really love small projects and working with people to create spaces that make their lives easier, and 2) if I’m going to work for an idiot who only knows half of what he thinks he knows, it might as well be me. So, in 2004 I quit my day job and started working for myself.

2.   What is your biggest joy and what is your biggest headache?

My biggest joy is getting to see the construction of my ideas, and hearing from clients how well the spaces work for them.  It’s also been extremely rewarding to be able to work entirely from referrals, because it means I’m doing my job well.  My biggest headache is dealing with taxes and health insurance.

3.   Where do you spend most of your time online (business-wise)?

Most of my work-related online time is spent collecting data from the city and state land records. I’ve been lucky in that Baltimore has put a great deal of public record data online, which saves me tons of time and hassle.

4.   What is the one thing, person, service or resource you can’t do without?

Professionally, it would be my computer. Personally, it’s my great group of friends who know just when to drag my butt away from the aforementioned computer and shove wine down my throat.

5.   What do you wish someone had told you the day you started your business?

Get an accountant and a housekeeper. Seriously, I think the biggest problem for women is that we’re so used to having to do (or choosing to do) everything, that we resist delegating the “simple” things.  So, before your dust bunnies start exercising their Second Amendment rights, and the IRS starts sends hate mail, delegate to other professionals and cut yourself a break.

Nina Kaufman is an award-winning business attorney, edutainer, and author.  Under her Ask The Business Lawyersm umbrella, she demystifies the confusion and density of business law for thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners with her legal services, professional speaking, information products, and Lex Appeal ezine.  You can find out more about Nina through her websites, AskTheBusinessLawyer and GreatBusinessLawTips. 

  How did you get started doing what you do?

 I had to get off the agony treadmill.  I graduated law school into one of the worst employment markets in recent memory.  Partners were getting pink slips; I was paper-pushing, not getting training in advanced skills (like trial advocacy); I didn’t see women make partner; I was hopeless at the billable hours and office politics games.  I didn’t want to wake up in 10 years time with mo marketable skills or book of business and be told “thanks, but we don’t need you.”  Being a control freak, I wanted control over my destiny.  Thankfully, a mentor and a catalyst entered my life, and the idea of starting my own law practice was born.

What is your biggest joy and what is your biggest headache?

Greatest joy:  having freedom of choice.  I have the flexibility to schedule my day as I choose, work with the clients I like, and have multiple avenues for creative expression.  Greatest headache:  my technology ignorance, and the ramp-up time it takes to get familiar with new programs and platforms.  When technology doesn’t work, neither can I.

Where do you spend most of your time online (business-wise)?

No one place in particular – I troll the Internet looking for stories on small business legal issues for my Entrepreneur magazine columns and blogposts.  I’m glued to my email.

What is the one thing, person, service or resource you can’t do without?

My support team, which includes my husband, and my informal advisory board.  They keep me sane.  They’re my sounding board, cheerleading section, and cattle prod – and don’t hesitate to smack me around when I get down on myself.  Also can’t do without:  the more-than-occasional chocolate chip cookie.

What do you wish someone had told you the day you started your business?

How to build and structure it so that I don’t need to be actively involved ALL the time to ensure it can function.  

This is the first in a series of brief interviews with women who run their own show.  Enjoy!

Shaun Landry is the Artistic Director of the longest-running African American Sketch Comedy and  Improv ensemble, Oui Be Negroes. She is also the producer of The San Francisco Improv Festival and founder of The SanFrancisco Improv Alliance. (an improvisational resource, talent pool and production company for Improvisational Comedy) She is on the board of directors for The Next Stage Theater in San Francisco and on the Artistic Associates Board of The Chicago Improv Festival.

1.     How did you get started doing what you do?
It was really out of being miffed. My last day job once asked me (because they knew I had a comedy company) to perform at their holiday party.  When I asked them, “So what will you pay our actors,” the Human Resources person said, with a straight face,”Well, one would think you would do this gratis because you work here.”   I said no.  They brought in a theater company, who they paid quite a hefty sum, to perform.  I quit before this party and started my company, which books actors and actresses not only for these types of parties, but for educational and theatrical touring as well.  It is amazing how sheer indignation can be an incredible motivator.

2.     What is your biggest joy and what is your biggest headache?
My biggest joy:  Being able to do what I love (acting and producing) for a living.
The biggest headache: There is a joke among the producers – “The hardest part of producing? Producing.” The double changes, the booking of actors and rebooking of actors, the triple emails to people who forgot the first time around.  Those are headaches in any theater world, but headaches I don’t mind.  I have not had the headache yet of an unhappy client.  That is a joy amongst itself.

3.     Where do you spend most of your time online (business-wise)?
I find actor boards, Facebook and other company entertainment sites for resources (IMDB, etc).  I also do a lot of reading of the news (CNN, local Sfgate.com and others) to stay informed about the world, as my company and I have to parody it. 

4.     What is the one thing, person, service or resource you can’t do without?
Outlook, Gmail and Google - I cannot survive without email and research.  Also, my husband.  He makes sure I do not lose my mind and is my grounding point. 

5.     What do you wish someone had told you the day you started your business?
There are a lot of “The Dubious” in entertainment.  More than what you already knew!