JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – Monday mornings at 4 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, before service members start their weekday morning physical training, Army spouse Lupe Najarro is busy baking at home.
“It’s just easy baking time. I don’t have distractions or anything. The kids are asleep, the dogs are asleep,” she said. “It’s relaxing.”
But baking isn’t her hobby – it’s her job. She sells homemade Mexican sweet bread (conchas) to customers on the installation, as part of her home-based business, Café Dahlia. Military spouses like Najarro living on JBLM can start their own home-based businesses with a new, streamlined process.
A mom of two whose family moved to the base in July 2024, Najarro brought her business to JBLM from Fort Irwin, California. She worked with Ro Hicklin, JBLM’s Home-Based Business Program manager, to “transfer everything over,” Najarro said.
Now, she has regular customers on base for her decorative dessert, which she describes as “Hawaiian bread with a very thin sugar cookie on top.”
Her advice for other spouses thinking about taking the home-based business plunge?
“They definitely should,” she said. “I am someone who was not a baker, and I am someone who was also self-taught,” she said. “So, it does take a lot of failure for you to learn what you’re doing and to perfect what you’re doing. And honestly, it’s the failures where you learn the most.”
Starting a home-based business has many benefits for military spouses, Hicklin said.
“Entrepreneurship is one of the hottest trends in today's transformation business environment,” she said. “And you are able to work from your home endlessly and, as an HBB owner, you have the freedom to choose where and when you want to work.”
Najarro knows how that freedom feels.
“It feels awesome, ’cause I never thought that I could do it. You see other people doing it, but you never think that it’s possible for you. I like the flexibility,” she said. “As a military spouse you’re the primary parent and everything falls on you. … So, it feels awesome to be able to have control of everything that’s going on.”
In addition to gaining a new daily activity with her business, Najarro received confidence and creativity boosts.
Currently, four spouses have approved, registered home-based businesses on base. They’re selling wooden earrings, handmade wreaths and gifts, gift boxes and baked goods, Hicklin said.
Such businesses provide job stability during the military’s ongoing permanent-change-of-station seasons.
“My husband retired after 29 years active duty,” Hicklin said. “Whenever you, as a military spouse, are moving every three to five years, it puts a lot of stress on the family” for the spouse to constantly have to find a new job.
But, with a home-based business, instead of a spouse having to give notice to an employer every time they prepare to move, “their business moves with them,” she said.
“This is actually wonderful for a lot of families that the spouses are able to still remain in their homes without going outside the homes looking for work, and putting out money for gas, putting out money for daycare, or before- and after-school care,” Hicklin said.
Najarro knows the value of her work.
“Moving to Washington, it was very expensive,” Najarro said. “California’s also really expensive. So, being able to bring in that extra income helped a lot.”
To get started with their own home-based businesses, spouses can send an email to JBLMHBB@army.mil or call 253-967-2906. The Home-Based Business Program will schedule appointments to meet with the spouses. They’ll review paperwork and information regarding insurance, along with possible licenses and certifications.
Hicklin teaches HBB classes, titled “Home-Based Business: Be Your Own Boss,” at the Service Member and Family Assistance Building, 9059 Gardner Loop, JBLM. To register for the next class, to be offered April 3 from 9 to 11 a.m., visit: jblmerp.timetap.com. Click “Next,” and then click “Employment Classes.”
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