Home Business Information

Here's how you can live, work and make money under one roof.

Every ten seconds, somebody starts a new home-based business in the United States. As if this statistic - courtesy of BIS Strategy Decisions - wasn't striking enough, the trend is accelerating: In the past 14 years alone, the number of home-based workers has grown from six million to 32 million - with no slowdown in sight.

With home-based workers earning roughly double the average salaried worker's annual wages of $25,000, it's no wonder that more and more folks are joining the ranks of the self-employed.

In fact, an estimated 8,493 new home shops open up every day. Roughly three out of four will still be in business five years from now, according to Paul and Sarah Edwards, authors of Working From Home: Everything You Need To Know About Living And Working Under The Same Roof (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York, $15.95). If you're seriously considering starting your own home-based business, various indicators suggest that you may be riding the wave of the future.

Once based on an industrial economy, the United States is now driven by an information-and-service economy. Over the past decade, Fortune 500 companies have laid off 4.4 million workers, and smaller companies have steadily reduced their workforces.

As corporations continue to downsize, reorganize, merge and purge, many professionals will search for ways to take control of their careers. At the same time, technological wonders - namely personal computers, modems, fax machines, laser printers and desktop copy machines - make working from home as productive, efficient, competitive, and certainly as convenient as working from an office.

Every November BLACK ENTERPRISE profiles individuals who have forsworn traditional nine-to-five office jobs and are making their homes pay off in more ways than one.

TRADE SECRETS: WORKS OF ART

FOR DISPLAY AND WEAR

Realizing that a home-based business would give her the creative and financial freedom she desired, Marcia Duvall took the concept of a "home salon" - popular in Europe in the early 20s and 30s - and established Trade Secrets in 1992. The former manager for Circles Salon Boutique in Washington, D.C., and 20-year retail industry veteran aspired to go beyond designing a home-based clothing boutique that was the equivalent of just a rack in someone's living room.

Rather, Trade Secrets is a fascinating showplace where merchandise is displayed on the walls like fine works of art on exhibition. The difference is that everything is for sale, with prices ranging anywhere from $10 for a necklace to $150 for a Gabardine wool coat.

Trade Secrets offers an array of clothing, accessories and collectibles. Peruse Duvall's one-bedroom apartment and you'll see how she has weaved textiles, mud cloth, sculptures and fashions into a unique design of colors and textures.

As the sole entity of Trade Secrets, the 40-year-old Duvall is buyer, fashion coordinator, systems administrator, customer relations and public relations expert. Working on a by invitation or appointment only basis, the savvy entrepreneur has a stable clientele of 75 to 100 buyers. Her four seasonal salon shows, plus at least two holiday events per year, draw a crowd of about 300.

Duvall believes in marketing a total package. Past shows have had provocative themes, for instance, the theme for last February's extravaganza was "black women and empowerment." The previous year she displayed various African sculpture from the Benin Kingdom. Duvall hopes the themed shows set a positive tone for her customers.

Her handiwork doesn't end there. Duvall has brought the salon to potential buyers outside the capital. Traveling several times during the year, she recreates her concept in other homes, breaking down dining rooms and turning them into clothing boutiques for the day. "This is a good way for me to establish markets outside of the area," she explains, "without having to operate store-fronts in those places."

Starting out, Duvall had a hard time getting a wholesale license. The idea of a home clothing salon may have had backing across the seas, but it had no real model in the United States. After filing tons of paperwork and submitting cost projections, the licensing bureau could not envision the nature of the operation and rejected Duvall's request.

"Without a wholesale license, I was unable to attend major boutique shows those first couple of months," she says. After dipping into her personal savings - taking out $7,500 for operating capital - the resourceful entrepreneur beat the streets or stores of New York to obtain the stylish merchandise for her first show.

Eventually, Duvall had to recruit someone to troubleshoot the license for her. "It wasn't time-effective for me to spend two to three hours a day sitting in an office, waiting just to talk to someone," she explains. It took more than 60 days and half a dozen visits before Duvall was officially licensed.

# posted by Medical Information : 6:13 AM