By Jessica Long

San Diego Business Journal 

With marriage, couples usually settle down to long-term careers or entrepreneurial activity. But when your spouse is in the U.S. military, settling down can be impossible - especially if you want to start a business.

It's a fact known all too well by Julie Wartell, a Coronado-based schoolteacher turned businesswoman and Navy wife.

So, she designed her business with mobility in mind.

The mother of a toddler, Wartell has moved three times since 2001, each time following her helicopter pilot husband, sometimes with a few weeks' notice.

Still, she's able to operate two online retail stores from the comforts of wherever might be her home. Wartell runs MilitaryBabies.com and 9StorkAvenue.com.

The first touts apparel and other merchandise with patriotic themes, such as a baby sailor suit and camo T-shirts, while the second has items designed for the general population, such as pink and blue monogram booties, maternity wear and nursery dйcor.

"Teaching was great, but it was hard to leave the students ... after only a year," Wartell said. "Sometimes I move to a new place after the school year has already started or would leave a job early if we were scheduled to move during the school year."

Wartell doesn't have to look far to find others in the same career-building predicament.

Government agencies estimate that there are 80,000 military spouses and their dependents living in the county.

According to Thomas Aiello, the vice president of marketing for Military.com, the career challenges faced here are faced nationwide by 1.1 million military wives and husbands.

In addition to news, the site, a division of Monster Worldwide, Inc., operates the Military Spouse Career Center.

It's there that Aiello, a former Army captain, said spouses can find military-friendly employers, many of whom can offer spouses transfer opportunities.

Aiello said it's impossible to quantify just how many spouses are running their own companies, but it's "a large percentage" thanks in large part to today's technologies.

"It's always going to be difficult to relocate but it seems the spouses we have in the military today are so much more talented and driven and able to make it work," Aiello said. He added that it's not uncommon to find spouses using online message boards to do research and share their successes and failures.

"I know other wives who have portable businesses," Wartell said. "My public relations person is a military wife. She recently moved out of the country and now she consults with me via e-mail or phone. My Web designer is on the East Coast, her husband is a submariner in Charleston and we also work over the phone and e-mail - the Internet is everything to my business."

Wartell knows military wives who are massage therapists, party planners, photographers, graphic designers, crafts people/artists, tutors, seamstresses, caregivers and pet sitters. All are prepared to set up shop wherever they go, she said.

A Familiar Story

Lisa Mendenhall is a former vice president for New York-based Hill & Knowlton, one of the world's largest PR firms. But when her Navy pilot husband got his orders to come to Coronado, Mendenhall was forced to make a decision: should she commute from Orange County and still live with her family?

Mendenhall decided; she left her job to become a full-time mom.

But six months later, she missed working and joined the ranks of military spouses starting their own businesses with mobility in mind.

Mendenhall launched her own PR consulting business in San Diego in March 2005, earning an estimated $30,000 in revenues for the year. Just last month, Mendenhall picked up her career again and is adjusting to life in Japan - without worrying about losing her job.

"The only challenges I'm facing with my business is juggling the move overseas; adjusting to both living in Japan and on a military base, helping my family get settled and supporting my clients back in the states," she said. "When you work for yourself, there is no one else to delegate to or pick up the slack."

Common Challenges

Although the freedom to move a business anywhere is an enormous benefit to career-minded military spouses, challenges are inevitable.

"The disadvantages of shipping prices change as I move around, getting local business licenses and permits, etc.," Wartell said. "I form good hands-on relationships with my artists, manufacturers, photographers - usually where I live and when I move it changes things a bit - but new places also enable me to explore new options for all of those things to add to my resources."

Wartell is optimistic about its future.

"My business is small now but I hope for it to grow quickly," Wartell said. "This month, so far, I have received orders almost every day!"

Another military spouse following in Wartell's and Mendenhall's footsteps is Mae Domine. A few months ago, the Navy wife launched a home day-care business with the hopes of building the basis for a business that could be started up no matter where she lived.

"Mobility is very important," Domine said. "My husband is in the Navy so we will move every few years. The disadvantages are leaving the children my daughter and I have grown attached to and finding new clients when I relocate. However, I found it easy this time. I used Craigslist.com to advertise."

Because all three are still in the early stages of building their businesses, Wartell, Mendenhall and Domine all have a ways to go before they can call their businesses a total success. But it appears the women are on their way.

According to Military.com's Aiello, it was not that long ago that spousal employment in the military was a negative issue many would rather not think about because relocating issues were so complicated.

"What was a negative aspect of service has turned into a positive aspect of service, which is great," Aiello said.

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