As a child, Karon Fields saw her future as a business woman. However, her desire to help people led to a 25-year career as a social worker. But the entrepreneurial spirit stayed with her.

She dabbled in a few creative side-ventures: radio, event planning, and, finally, interior design. When her career as a social worker ended in 2006, Karon committed to becoming successfully self-employed and joined Women’s Initiative to learn how to grow her interior design venture, LMC Design, into a self-supporting business.

Completing the business management course with a full business plan helped her to grow LMC Design. However, after completing the business management course, Karon had a moment of panic familiar to many entrepreneurs. SuccessLink was Karon’s panic buster, providing her with the resources to handle the professional and personal challenges of entrepreneurship.

"I feel more comfortable with my power," she declares. "I know I need to have a team and a plan to succeed. SuccessLink helped me discover that."

In 2008, even as Karon continued to build her skills, her confidence and her design business, she felt that something was missing. She missed helping people the way she did as a social worker. So, she volunteered her design services to First Place for Youth, an organization that guides emancipated foster youth through the transition of living independently.

With that volunteer project, Karon realized she could create a viable business providing her design skills in service to the community. She researched her idea to offer cost-effective, time-saving, superior design services to housing-related social service agencies. The business she created is Rooms for Change.

In two years, Karon's income from Rooms for Change has increased significantly. In 2010, she plans to increase revenue, add an intern to her staff and offer her services to additional agencies that assist foster youth. Karon’s long-term goal is to expand Rooms for Change internationally, offering services to a variety of people making the transition to independent living.

Karon's journey toward entrepreneurial success has improved her life in unexpected ways. She expected to be happier. But, she’s also healthier (her blood pressure’s back to normal), more socially connected, and more optimistic about her possibilities. "Now," she says, "I feel free."

Through Women’s Initiative Karon got the training to create and manage a successful business, and the ongoing support that helped her business to evolve and succeed. Now, she’s proud to be supporting herself doing work she loves that also supports the community, while living the vision she had for herself as a child.