For me, the word pennywise always brings up a mental image of Benjamin Franklin and a printing press. It just seems to have a nostalgic ring to it. That’s why, when the opportunity came for us relocate to a historical landmark only five miles from our home, we jumped on it.

We started PennywiseLearning.com in 2002. Like a lot of home birthed businesses, it started in one part of the lower level and eventually had taken over most of the house. Which by the way is a great problem to have. By spring of 2008, we really had no choice but to look at our options.

Imagine a home with eight children and two adults. Fill the entire lower level with offices, shipping areas and many thousands of dollars worth of inventory. Then add in three or four employees, UPS, Fed EX, sales people, and a tractor trailer or two waiting to be unloaded.

Do you begin to get the idea of what it must have been like visiting the Pratt house? I remember people coming to visit and saying, “you really live like this?”, and we were like, “yeah. We wouldn’t have it any other way”.

But after one very hectic morning, Kristen and I had go out to run some errands and I remember saying, “I think it’s time”. To that she replied, “funny you should mention it, I saw this building I have always loved in town that is for sale. Do you want to take a look?” So we did and within a day we made a ridiculously low offer knowing that if they said yes, it would only be the Lord. Of course, they accepted it on the spot.

The building was built in 1876. Built on the Erie Railroad it served as a dry goods store and the original post office in town. It even housed the town hall for a bit in the late 1800’s. It still has the original safe along with all of the receipts and paperwork from the 1800’s to the 1950’s.

This 7,000 square foot building is a treasure to us. There is enough room for inventory, offices, and even a warehouse outlet store. There’s even a loading dock where the horse drawn carts used to load and unload. To top it off we have the hitching post sill out in front of the huge front porch.

We love the fact that we have the opportunity to recycle and reuse this building as much as we love the history of it. Located less than five miles from our home, we could not have asked for a better location for PennywiseLearning.com

We spent the first two months gutting, cleaning, and remodeling the inside. After a lot of work, we moved in October of 2008. Of course there’s a long way to go finishing it off but we’re off to a great start. Best of all, now when I think of the word pennywise, I think of Ben Franklin, the printing press and of course, the Pennywise building.

This is an actual photo of the building in the early 1890’s given to us by the Town of Collins Historical Society. Notice the horse in the front and Rte. 39 is a dirt road.

Our building was featured as one of WNY’s Historical buildings. This is a sketch that appeared in the book.

Later that night after DH was settled into his hotel room, he gave me a call and we discussed the idea of purchasing NewCenturyHomeschool.com.  We decided that we would love to have a website that focused on Homeschoolers but we would start from scratch.  I suggested Pennywise…something as a name and DH said what about Learning, and that was the moment PennywiseLearning.com was born. Lesson #5: Never underestimate the value of a good name.

I immediately went to work on our new endeavor.  The first company I contacted was Alpha Omega, the publisher of Horizons, LIFEPAC, Switched-On, and Weaver Curriculum as well as Bridgestone Media.  That call went well and now we had a supplier.  We filed for our resellers tax ID and our DBA (doing business as) with the county and we were now officially in business.  That was in the summer and fall of ‘02.

DH had some limited experience putting together websites but we really needed more help.  Meet Tom Foy.  DH and I went to a little private school in Western New York.  Our graduating class of ‘87 was made up of three people.  DH, myself, and Tom.  Tom had his own printing business and he and DH had worked on some projects together so we knew what he was capable of.  Tom was the first person DH turned to for advice.   Tom has truly been a key to our success.  DH asks him if he can do something and usually within a few hours, Tom has a solution.  Lesson #6: It’s true, your network is crucial to your success.

We had NO money at that point to invest.  Tom helped us set up our domain name and signed us up for a $9/month hosting account.  He sent us a disc with a free trial version of a web authoring software called Actual Drawing.  We set up our shopping cart with Paypal.com. As Tom and DH set-up the basic layout of the site, I spent hour after hour entering in products and detailed descriptions.  Most business ideas die right here between the “Great Idea” and the “Start Up” because its a lot of mind numbing work.  I don’t know how many pages I would work on  for hours only to have my computer crash and lose it all.  Lesson # 7:  There are no get rich quick schemes.  Starting a business takes a lot of hard work.  Lesson # 8:  Frequently save your files. (lol! I’m still working on that lesson.  You’d think I would be an avid file saver, but just the other day it happened to me again.)

For three months, day and late into the night, I entered products.  Finally, the site was ready to go live.  We launched the site on January 1st, 2003.  Our first sale was a western DVD.  Here is our first logo in 2003.

In 2004, we added the SAVE tag and our tag line, “The Best Homeschooling…Made Affordable!!!”

In 2005, we changed the color of the SAVE tag to red and started using Jagger font.

In 2006, we cleaned it up a bit and made the dot red.

Here is our logo today.  You can see how it evolved to what it is.

Let me introduce you to an old friend of ours.  This is Penny.  Penny became a mascot of ours early on when we started adding Creation Science materials.  She can be seen throughout the PWL archives.

I really love this pic.  It just makes me feel good.  I think I’m going to have to  convince DH and Tom to bring her back again.  Anyways… (to be continued)

When people ask what we do for a living, they are often intrigued and inspired to think that an average family like ours could build a business like PennywiseLearning.com.  Many of us dream of the freedom of owning our own businesses, especially when we hear the rags to riches stories and think, “If only…”.

Our story is a God story.  He is woven into every detail and has proven Himself to us time and time again.  The scriptures that we are reminded of when we think of the last few years in growing our business is:

“Many plans are in a man’s mind, but it is the Lord’s purpose for him that will stand” Proverbs 19:21

“The blessing of the Lord–it makes truly rich, and He adds no sorrow with it, neither does toiling increase it. Proverbs 10:22

Pennywise Learning (PWL) was birthed in 2002 but the story starts long before that.  We had begun Homeschooling years before when my husband (DH) resigned as the Principal of the private school my oldest daughter (DD) was attending.  Just like most new Homeschoolers we entered the arena with fear and trembling.

DH’s new boss had a desktop PC that had been returned from an installation for some reason.  At that time a good PC would have cost us over $1,500 and we never would have been able to afford it in our own.  DH’s boss knew that DH would work just as hard at home if he had PC so his boss gave it to him.  The PC even had a modem which seems funny to mention now but owning an Internet capable PC truly enabled us to start a journey we wouldn’t have started without it.  Lesson #1: The Lord provides.

At the same time AOL launched unlimited dial-up Internet access for $19.95 a month.  That was a lot for us to swing at that time but we received a free trial disc so we figured we’d give it a try.  It was that night that our online personalities vansneeze (DH) and eladah (me) came to life.  We were given the PC and dialed into AOL for the first time on our second day of Homeschooling.

That night we stumbled across a chat room on AOL called “Homefront Hall”.  Homefront Hall was filled with other Homeschool moms just like me.  We supported each other, we argued about traditional schooling verses unschooling, we prayed for each other to make it through another day, and we made some of the best friends we’ve known.  To this day, some of the connections I made almost 13 years ago in that chat room are my best friends. Lesson#2: The Internet can be used to support Homeschooling mothers who otherwise would not have the support.

Now Homeschooling my DD, bless her heart! was not an easy task.  In comparison to Dr. Dobson’s description of a strong willed child, she was an over achiever. lol!  She battled me through every page of her work.  Finally, one day she pushed to the point of no return and I expelled her!

I called DH at work and told him she was his!  I didn’t care what he did but I was done trying to Homeschool this child.  “Dear Sir, Your Daughter Is No Longer Welcomed At My School!!! Yes, That’s Right, Consider Her Expelled!!! (…don’t judge me, you know you’ve thought of doing it. lol)

DH is a  sweet and caring man but he has this theory when it comes to the kids and Homeschooling.  “They’re gonna regret making this my problem”…and so it was with DD.  The first thing he did was went looking for a curriculum that would do as much of the work for him as possible and that she could do on her own.  He came across Switched-On Schoolhouse, a PC based curriculum that automates much of the teaching, scoring, and record keeping.  Every day the computer would tell her what she needed to do and the PC could care less what attitude or fit she was pitching.  He set her up on a fast track and off they went.  Lesson #3: Out-of-the-box Homeschool solutions are wonderful!

Now I should note, she is an exceptional young women.  Both DH and I appreciate spunk and spirit.  We wouldn’t want her any other way.  I think it’s important to mention the struggle because it was the struggle that led us down a path we would not have taken otherwise.  Lesson#4:  Sometimes the greatest blessings come from the greatest struggles.

Here is where the story begins to unfold.  I purchased our Switched-On Schoolhouse from an online vendor called NewCenturyHomeschool.com.  The had great prices and a very easy to understand website.  One day when I went to the website and they had a “For Sale by Owner” sign on the homepage.  When you clicked on the sign, they told the story of how their business had grown to the point that they couldn’t manage it and they felt it was time to get out while the getting was good.  They posted their sales numbers and I have to say it was really impressive.

I got really excited about the possibility of owning a Homeschool related business.  I called DH, who was out of town on business, traveling through New York City in a taxi cab.  Considering he’s been in two NYC cab accidents, the cab ride was more dangerous than anything I was about to propose to him.  We agreed to give it some thought and talk about it later once he got into his hotel room.

That night…  (to be continued)