Ronda Jackson picked up a check from a decorating side job and saw a number twice the size of her monthly salary. Most people would frame that check. Jackson quit the salary. The single mom of two went on to build Décor Interior Design, a commercial design firm serving Fortune 500 companies and the federal government, and she wrote the whole playbook down for TIME’s “The Boss” series.

Her solo-mom status, stated plainly: Jackson married, had her first son, and then, in her words, “before I could blink, I was getting a divorce.” She raised her two sons, Jackson and Matthew, as a single mom while building the firm (TIME, August 2018).

Before

Jackson was born and raised in a project tenement on the west side of Chicago, went to college, and landed what she calls an amazing job with an international furniture manufacturer. On the side she decorated homes and offices for private clients. Then the marriage ended, suddenly, with a five-year-old asking why. She was a single mom with a corporate paycheck, a side hustle, and a decision to make (TIME).

The turn

The decision arrived as arithmetic. One side-job check was double her monthly salary. She has said that moment showed her the freedom to write her own paycheck and control her own schedule, which is the exact freedom a single parent needs most. She left the full-time job and launched Décor Interior Design in Los Angeles.

The early version of the business nearly died. By the mid-2000s revenues were in six figures with three employees, almost all of it residential work, and then the 2008 housing crash took the phone off the hook. People told her to shut the doors. Instead she rebuilt the company from the library up: she rewrote her business plan with help from local business development centers and the Small Business Administration, enrolled in Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses and UCLA’s executive education program, went to networking events five nights a week, and applied for every diversity certification she qualified for (TIME).

The build

Then the phone rang, and the caller changed the business:

• The Warner Bros. call: a facility manager had seen Jackson’s episode of HGTV’s Designer’s Challenge and invited her in. That one commercial project became the portfolio piece and the reference (TIME).
• The pivot: Décor moved from residential work to corporate clients, growing revenue by 400 percent and quadrupling its employee count, with Fortune 500 companies and the federal government on the client list (TIME).
• The recognition: Jackson was named an Enterprising Woman of the Year by WBEC-West in 2018, the year TIME ran her story (DTLA Weekly).
• Since then: she opened Studio D Contract Finishes in downtown Los Angeles, launched programs that hire veterans and foster youth, and has served the City of Los Angeles as a small business commissioner (DTLA Weekly).

Through the whole climb she was the only parent at home, running the family the way she ran the firm, on purpose and on a schedule. Her sons watched her do it. She has written that they see her as a dream maker and promise keeper, and that she plans to always deliver for them.

“Ultimately, I realized my divorce only defined my marital status. Single, by my definition, does not mean alone.”

Ronda Jackson, TIME, August 2018

That line carries the whole story. Jackson refused to let one legal fact describe her life. As Décor grew, she built a circle of clients who became mentors, cheerleaders, and what she calls family. The firm fixed her finances. The community she built around it fixed the isolation that no paycheck touches.

She has been honest about the cost of the climb, too: over 15 years of averaging four hours of sleep, and sacrifices that included the marriage itself. We do not print that as a prescription. We print it because real numbers beat inspirational fog, and because she closes her TIME essay with the operating rule that got her through it: “Be grateful for what you have, create opportunities and be fearless in the face of change” (TIME).

What you can take from this

1. Side income is data. Jackson’s side jobs were telling her something for years before she listened: the market priced her skills higher than her employer did. Track what your side work pays per hour against your day job. When the numbers cross, you have evidence, and evidence beats courage. The Business toolkit shows you how to run that test without quitting first.
2. When the phone stops ringing, retool. Her recession answer was a syllabus: SBA help, free business development centers, certifications, five nights of networking a week. Every resource she used still exists, and most cost nothing. Our Money toolkit keeps the household stable while you rebuild the plan.
3. One anchor client changes everything. Warner Bros. was not a marketing campaign. It was one relationship, handled so well it became a reference that opened the Fortune 500. Land one client you can over-deliver for, then let that work speak. More women who did exactly this are on our Stories of Success page.

More stories, more tools

Ronda Jackson’s story is one of a growing shelf. Read the rest on our Stories of Success page, and join the weekly SoloMom email from the homepage to get each new story in your inbox with the tools to use it.

Verification note: solo-mom status, business facts, and the quotes above were checked against the linked sources in July 2026. Quotes are reproduced verbatim.