The shortest commute: women-owned, home-based businesses
are on the rise—but they're not for everyone
It's still dark outside when Katie Riker Sternberg
throws on workout gear and tiptoes down the hall
past her sleeping family. The 36-year-old marketing
pro is on her way to the gym, but not before
stopping by the office.
She doesn't have far to go.
Like millions of other women, Sternberg works from home.
The corporate space for her, business, The Marketing Source,
is a room beyond her kitchen. Early each morning she starts
working, responding to overnight e-mails and preparing a
mental punch list. A typical day may include having lunch
with a prospective client, meeting her business partner at
their field office (Barnes & Noble) and wrapping up Internet
research before picking up her children from school.
Experts say home based business ideas for women are on
the rise because of the low overhead, flexibility
and around-the-clock accessibility they afford. The trend
is enhanced by factors like improved home technology and
increased acceptance of telecommuting.
"It's become much more common compared to even 10 years ago,"
says Daniel Pink, author of the bestseller Free Agent Nation
and the recently released A Whole New Mind. "People no longer
feel the need to disguise that they're working from a spare
room in their house."
For women, working from home is often tied into the need
for personal balance. Many professional women are opting
out of the corporate world to free up time for children
and aging parents. Home based business ideas for women
are a hot topic but experts are quick to say this
doesn't mean the home office is fluff.
"We need to bust the myth that women are sitting around
the kitchen table working on hobbies," says Sharon Hadary,
executive director of the Center for Women's Business
Research in Washington, D.C. "Women-owned, home-based
businesses occupy a significant part of the global economy."
In 1995, Hadary's organization did a study that found
3.5 million home-based women-owned firms in the U.S.,
which provided employment for 14 million people.
Hadary is raising funds to update the study.
Sternberg launched The Marketing Source in 1999 after
she and her husband relocated to Baton Rouge from New York.
In New York, she had a fast-paced career as worldwide
marketing manager for Origins Natural Resources,
a cosmetic line within The Estee Lauder Company.
She launched products, oversaw manufacturing,
traveled extensively and routinely worked 12-hour days.
"It was a huge decision to quit," she says.
"I loved my job."
In Baton Rouge, Sternberg did a short stint as a
consultant with Estee Lauder, which planted the
seed for setting up a permanent home based business
ideas for women. Then she met Alison Kurpius,
another new arrival and former executive.
The two formed The Marketing Source, a company
that provides marketing, planning and implementation
strategies. They both operate from their homes.
Sternberg and Kurpius brought years of national
experience to the table, but they also brought
a need for balance. As mothers of small children,
the women built in time to attend school plays,
make doctors appointments, go on vacations and
handle emergencies.
At times, Sternberg is working while her children
are in the next room with a sitter. Interruptions
"happen all the time," she says, but are not
unwelcome. "I can see them throughout the day.
If they need me, I'm right there."
Sternberg's setup is typical for home based business
ideas for women with small children. Hadary says
their study showed running a home-based business is
not a substitute for childcare. "Many women had
childcare in the home while they were working," she says.
Welcome solitude
Nearly five years ago, Jan Bernard converted a third
bedroom into the center of operations for a new business
she named Public Affairs Consulting. Bernard, 46,
provides $1,000-a-day consulting services to local and
regional businesses and public entities.
A former reporter who later served on the staff of Mayor Tom
Ed McHugh, Bernard welcomed the chance to channel nearly
20 years of experience working for others into a business
where she called the shots. Doing it from home has been
an added bonus, she says. "I worked in crowded places:
a newsroom, the Mayor's Office. The pace now allows me
more time for focus and creativity."
Bernard's routine starts with exercise, checking e-mail,
having coffee and watching the news. Some days she leaves
for face-to-face consulting services. On others she's planning,
researching or preparing for client strategy sessions.
But unlike when she worked in an office, Bernard says she
may "crank up the music as loud as I want, pet my cat,
or catch up on the national news in the middle of the day."
Does she ever feel isolated?
"There are times," she says, but adds that replicating water
cooler chat is an easy fix to fill. To work more efficiently,
Bernard sometimes pulls in partners. She has colleagues
who do similar work and sometimes hires them to tackle
specific components of a job. Since she started,
Bernard says, she has turned down full-time job offers.
Her current priorities? "Freedom, flexibility and balance."
Need help? Buy it.
Professional coach Cookie Tuminello spends most of the
day on the phone. She helps clients develop strategies
for changing careers, negotiating raises or dealing
with difficult employees. Tuminello, 59, started her
home-based coaching business in 1994. She fetches
$150 per half hour of coaching, most of which occurs
by telephone.
The only downside to working from home, she says,
is the tendency to work too much.
"Because it's in your home, you tend to stay in there
more if you don't set boundaries," she says.
"For me, I don't take calls after 5 o'clock,
and I try to have Fridays off."
Tuminello says she has seen women shy way from starting
their own businesses because they are afraid of
losing benefits.
"I say if you need benefits, buy them."
Like Sternberg and Bernard, Tuminello's office is a
separate room dedicated solely to her professional work.
The equipment is similar to that of any business:
Internet access, telephone, fax and printer.
But with no IT department around, home business owners
have to either fix their own problems or turn to companies
like Nerdworks Computing, a 3-year-old Baton Rouge computer
consulting company.
House calls are on the rise, reports owner Greg Derbes.
He says his staff does 15 to 20 offsite calls a week,
many for women-owned businesses. For $85 an hour,
Nerdworks technicians help clients set up new equipment,
install software and undo the damage caused by viruses
or spyware.
Leaving home
For some, working from home doesn't always maintain its
appeal. Event planner Tracey McKee converted "the whole
downstairs of my house" into an office when she launched
her business, TMAC, four years ago. As she got her
business off the ground, she found herself working
around the clock.
"I'd go downstairs in the middle of the night and feel
like I had to start working," says the 44-year-old McKee.
And having other staff in the house was uncomfortable.
"It was weird for me to have people working there and
having a key to my home, even though I needed the help."
As the lines between her work and professional lives
became increasingly blurred, McKee looked for other
options. While her business had grown, she didn't
feel it was at the point to justify paying rent.
But she took a leap, hoping a new environment would
make the work pour in. She secured office space in
downtown Baton Rouge.
"It's the best thing I've done for myself, both
personally and professionally," says McKee.
But one thing McKee can't do as she saunters down
Third Street to her office is enjoy the perks relished
by home-based business owners.
"I love the flexibility," says Tuminello. "I love the
idea of being able to walk into my office in my nightgown,
put on a headset and be open for business."
MAGGIE HEYN RICHARDSON is a Baton Rouge-based freelance writer.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Louisiana Business, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group
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