Starting and Managing a Business From Your Home

Introduction: "There's No Place Like Home"

Because women now enter business at a rate five times faster than men, the trend of operating from home is growing. A natural starting place for many businesses seems to be the garage, basement, or den. A recent Census Bureau study showed that over 300,000 women's businesses are operated out of the home.

Homemakers, hobbyists, retirees, people interested in a second income, and the disabled are just a few of the groups attracted to home enterprises. A young mother's craft business began when she started appliqueing decorations on her children's clothes. A retired government worker bought 36 beehives and sold honey to local health food stores and at craft fairs. A teacher did typing and secretarial jobs for her husband and friends until she realized the potential market and opened a full-time secretarial service from her apartment. Others have become home business owners by using their skills in catering, counseling, teaching, day care, sewing, writing, photography, consulting, market research, and landscape design.

The list of services that have been successfully operated from home is endless: chimney sweeping, maid services, messenger services, wake-up and answering services, home nursing, mail order businesses, party planning, dog grooming, kitchen and closet planning and organizing, and others too numerous to mention. As you explore the questions asked in the first chapter, "Home Entrepreneurship: Is It For You," let your thoughts run freely through the possibilities until you can target exactly the right type of business for your skills, your home space, your market, and your part of the country.