Kristen Severs was in a “comfortable” job in the marketing department at Meredith Corp., living the life of many other working moms. But when she found herself eating raisin bran for dinner and spending only two hours a day with her infant daughter, she knew something had to change.

Severs decided to follow in the footsteps of several similar businesses across the country and address a problem that plagued her family and hundreds of others in Greater Des Moines.

“When you get home from work after being gone all day, the last thing you want to do is go to the store and try to make dinner,” she said. “You want to play with your kids. We just kept thinking that there has to be a better way. We began to ask why we were waiting around for someone else to do this.”

Severs’ business, What’s for Dinner, Des Moines?, is scheduled to open Oct. 13, despite original plans for an Oct. 6 opening, as a meal preparation center unique to the area. In two hours, customers use tested recipes and prepared ingredients to assemble 12 meals that are ready for the freezer, at a cost of $190 per session (two people can split a session as well). The atmosphere will conducive to groups of friends or family members who can prepare meals together while enjoying food and beverages, and child care will be available two days a week.

Severs and her business partner, who is remaining anonymous due to her employment situation, hope their new enterprise will take the stress out of dinner time for busy families by making meal preparation less of a chore.

“I think anyone who comes in and tries it is going to be hooked because having food in your freezer that you just need to thaw out is money in the bank,” she said.

With the expertise of a home economist, WFDDM will offer new meals each month, all tried and tested. A pork and sweet potatoes recipe went through six trials before Severs and her partner approved it.

“I don’t want to open up a business with a mediocre product,” Severs said.

October’s menu includes entrees such as tamale pie, pork lo mein, marinated prime beef roast with herbed vegetable and three-cheese stuffed shells. WFDDM will offer a signature hot sandwich every month, as well as free fondue for new customers and referrals. The owners believe that the meals are not only tasty but easy to prepare, even for those who can’t find their way around the kitchen.

Severs’ brother was trained at the Culinary Institute of America in New York, and her mother belongs to a gourmet cooking group. “I got none of that,” she said, but notes that WFDDM puts nutritious meals on the table in her home.

“Anybody can do this,” she said. “People who like to cook can just come and slam it together, and people who don’t like to cook can slam this together because you can’t screw this up. It’s got the recipes, it’s got the ingredients, it’s got the right measuring devices. You’re going to have good food no matter how good you are.”

Developing a product was the least of the owners’ worries. Although both women have business backgrounds, neither has started a company from the ground up. They sought help from the Iowa Small Business Development Center, which offered cost-free counseling on every issue from their business plan to financing to their lease.

“We wouldn’t have been as buttoned up as we were without them,” Severs said.

They began working with contractors, subcontractors, a Web site designer, an architect, lawyers, accountants and suppliers, primarily enlisting the help of friends. Severs believes God is playing a major part in this venture, as all of their needs have been taken care of, while still being able to work within their “squeaky-tight budget.”

Contractors are still putting last-minute touches on their facility at 800 S. 50th St. Suite 103 in West Des Moines, which they believe is an ideal location to serve their targeted market. Severs pointed to a statistic provided to them during the planning process – 67 percent of West Des Moines households with children under the age of 4 are two-income families.

“This is working mom’s best friend,” she said. “This is going to help people. So we decided we needed to help them as much as possible and be close to them as possible.”

Severs and her partner have visited similar businesses in Omaha, Kansas City and Minneapolis. Though they gathered some ideas during their visits, Severs said the primary outcome was confirmation that WFDDM can succeed. Let’s Dish in the Minneapolis area is preparing to open its third locations after just 10 months in business. Supper Thyme USA, located in Omaha and Lincoln, is preparing to grant franchises.

Severs said that though the growth of similar businesses in nearby cities is encouraging, it is somewhat intimidating as well. With their concept, the possibility exists to open similar facilities elsewhere in the area, such as What’s for Dinner, Ankeny? “But I just want to get this one open,” she said.

The owners are expecting 10-hour days during their four-day workweek, but from food preparation to cleaning to management duties, they know it could be more.

Severs’ entrepreneurial spirit has kept her going since leaving Meredith on June 1. She has kept in mind her father’s advice: “The only way to get anywhere in life is to be your own boss.”

“I always wanted [to start my own business], but it had to be its own unique thing,” she said. “I didn’t want to do anything that had already been done.”

Severs’ desire to spend more time with 15-month-old Isabelle and her husband, Mark, gave her additional incentive. Despite some concern from her husband about setting out on this business venture, he understood the couple’s difficulties in finding enough time to balance all of their responsibilities, while still making time for their daughter.

“If we needed it as bad as we did, surely other people did, too,” she said.