Home-Based Businesses Booming in a Slow Economy

Friday, November 1, 2002

Five days a week, Carlotta Moon arrives in her Valkaria, Fla., office promptly at 8 a.m. A typical day of work might include tracking down files for a university professor, serving as an expert witness in court cases, putting together a presentation for a financial adviser or paying bills for an attorney.

BY JENNIFER WIRTH
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

But Moon rarely, if ever, sees the people she works for.
With an office just down the hall from her kitchen, Moon is part of a growing group of American workers who have decided to say goodbye to rush-hour traffic by starting a business at home.

"I was spending more time on the road than I cared to — traveling from Valkaria to Titusville to Orlando and everywhere in between," Moon said. "I knew there had to be a better way to spend my time."
About 20 million Americans agree. That’s the number of home-based businesses the National Association of Home Based Businesses reports were active in 2001.

Laurie Pearson of Satellite Beach, Fla., owner of Professional Marketing Services, takes on jobs ranging from the creation of marketing plans for other businesses to image consulting and bookkeeping.
As a single mother, Pearson has an understanding with her children that while she may be home, she is working from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. It’s something she said her children respect.
"You have to educate family members so they know what’s going to happen," Pearson said. "The key is discipline and having a solid plan."

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, home-managed businesses are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. economy, with an annual growth rate of 10 percent. Among popular home-based job categories are day care, running errands, party planning, pet-sitting, house cleaning, Web site design and decorating.
An important consideration, said Victoria Peake, director of the Small Business Development Center at Brevard Community College in Cocoa, Fla., is whether the business requires a license. This varies by municipality, but all home business managers should check with their city and get a license if they need one, to make sure they are operating within the law, Peake said.

She said there also might be special circumstances if the home office is located in an area with a homeowners’ association or in an apartment complex, which may prohibit home-based businesses.
For the last 11 years, Brenda Sue Balsamo-Rana has run a licensed adult-care center in an area of Palm Bay, Fla., which permits that type of business activity. Her five-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot home also is home to a middle-aged woman with Down syndrome, a 55-year old man who suffered a stroke and three residents ranging in age from 70 to 100 years old.
The idea of starting a home-based adult-care center was sparked during her years working as a certified nursing assistant at a Palm Bay nursing home.

"I knew they would be so much happier in a home environment," Balsamo-Rana said.
In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., journalist Jeff Zbar created his own business by teaching others how to successfully run one themselves. Zbar, who has written several books on working from home, frequently travels as a consultant.
The U.S. Small Business Administration recently named him the 2001 Small-Business Journalist of the Year.

Zbar said the most-important factor for anyone working from home is that he or she take the business seriously. Too many businesses fail because the budding entrepreneur does not make a solid commitment to the venture.
"People forget it’s a business that just happens to be in an alternate location," he said. "It’s essential to realize that their success should be just as important to them as it is to the big executive who runs Coca-Cola."

Moon agrees with that philosophy. Her 5-year-old venture won a Business Achievement Award from the Melbourne-Palm Bay Area Chamber of Commerce this year.

http://www.sltrib.com/11012002/business/12300.htm