Kelly Dinoff, Owner, Sonance Communications in Nashua, NH

Kelly with Alysse, her daughter

It’s been nearly 8 years since Kelly Dinoff was downsized from a major technology company after the Internet bubble went ‘pop.’ A week later, she found herself pregnant with her first child, and just a month after that, 9/11, all factors working against her securing another corporate position. But as it so often turns out, the world had other plans.

Today, Kelly is the owner of Sonance Communications, a full service marketing and creative agency based in Nashua, NH, where she provides marketing, design and public relations services to companies around the globe. While an experienced marketer with over 15 years of experience, Kelly never set out to be a business owner – too much work, no security – she never considered herself a risk taker. But as her belly grew and job prospects dwindled, Kelly put her permanent job hunt on hold, vowing to start again after the birth of her daughter.

Her first break came as not a traditional job, but a project. A former coworker asked Kelly to help launch a new company. For nine months, she worked on building the branding, marketing materials, and first several marketing programs to get the company off and running, all the while still looking for that ‘perfect’ new job.

But it seemed every ‘opportunity’ had its flaws. Too far away, too many hours, not enough pay and many positions simply disappeared. Funding was pulled, divisions and whole companies went under. The economy was better, but many companies were still smarting from the hard lessons learned from the tech bubble burst, and many others were simply playing it safe.

So Kelly continued contracting and filled the time between interviews with more and more project opportunities. The friend with the new company. A real estate agent needing an extra hand. A few hours here, a few dollars there, and then the ‘Big One’ – the growing biotech company searching for someone to work as an extension of their marketing team. It wasn’t long before Kelly was just too busy to interview.

Eight years after her lay off, Kelly is the owner of a thriving business and is more secure and happier than she ever was in her corporate career. After a career filled with successive lay-offs she had found security from not just one, but several employers (aka clients). Somewhere along the line she had become a business owner, an executive, the one who called the shots and was, at the end of the day, responsible for it all. And it wasn’t anything like she thought it would be. She had more time, more flexibility, more satisfaction and more security than ever. The layoff that had kept her awake with worry had pushed her into one of the best decisions in her life. Today, Kelly is a mother of two, beautiful children; a loving wife to a successful and supportive husband; and the owner of an accidental business that gives her the chance to enjoy them all.

For more information visit
www.sonancecommunications.com