Wendy Whitehurst, Custom Marketing Solutions

Listen to this article

Position: founder and chief strategist,
Custom Marketing Solutions

Lives in: Charlotte

Family: divorced; Emily, 15, Megan, 12

The biggest moments in life are often unplanned, a lesson Wendy Whitehurst learned firsthand.

Whitehurst, the chief strategist and founder of Custom Marketing Solutions, didn’t plan on starting her own company. In fact, she was working for Time Life in the Washington, D.C., area when she had to move to Charlotte for personal reasons.

At the time, Time Life wasn’t able to pay her to be a freelancer, at least not as an independent contractor. Remote employees didn’t exist, but she was determined to continue working.

So in 1996, Whitehurst opened her own company, called it Custom Marketing Solutions and kept on working.

“It was unplanned, and so many things are when you’ve evolved in your career and your life,” Whitehurst said. “Things happen that push you in a different direction.”

That direction, as it turns out, hasn’t been so bad. She’s kept the company open for all these years, and now she has two daughters at home. They’re the very reason she’ll never go back to the corporate world.

Finding a balance is difficult for Whitehurst, as it is for so many working mothers, but it would be downright impossible if she were in the corporate world, she said.

“The reason that I wouldn’t go back into the corporate world is … my girls at home,” she said. “I can work when I want. Being able to spend that time with my girls is the most important thing.”

She said she’s been known to put her children to bed, start work at 10 p.m. and finish up at 2 a.m.

“I’m able to be home when my girls get home from school,” she said. “I can take them to soccer … and when they get to bed, I can work from 10 to 2. Having my own company has also given me a lot of flexibility to get involved with nonprofits.”

One of those is the Ada Jenkins Center, where she serves as events coordinate and helps with fundraising.

While owning her company has offered the ups and downs that small-business owners experience, she’s pleased that she’s doing so.

Which is good because she’s entering her 16th year owning an unplanned business.