Building a successful home-based business - includes resources for the home-based business owner

Black Enterprise, Sept, 1997 by Wendy M. Beech

Featured below are three businesses that industry experts consider to be among the top home enterprises for the '90s. Although there are hundreds you can launch from home, we made our selections on the basis of their low start-up cost, long-term profit potential and high marketability. The companies chosen are also positioned in industries expected to experience tremendous growth after the millennium.

BECOME THE LIFE OF THE PARTY: EVENT AND MEETING PLANNING

Virtually everyone likes attending black-tie affairs, summer festivals and golf invitationals. Forty-something Rusty Jackson not only attends such events, she plans them. For 12 years, Jackson, who was the national group manager of community relations for Coors in Washington, D.C., did everything from tapping beer kegs, gathering T-shirts and hanging banners to developing community relations events and strategic planning. But after three downsizings, she took her strategic planning and event management skills and branched out on her own. In January 1996, Jackson invested about $25,000 in start-up capital to open Rusty Jackson Productions, (301) 333-0003 a special events management company in D.C. But commuting expenses to and from her office in Georgetown got to be a bit taxing, so she removed the entire operation and her staff of six into the basement of her Mitchellville, Maryland, home.

"When the lease expired, my staff encouraged me to move the business into my home," says Jackson, who operates her home-based business full time. "We're fully set up. There's a computer on every desk, file cabinets, two printers, a fax machine/ scanner and a phone system set up for billing."

Meeting planners work with corporations, organizations and nonprofit groups to plan annual conferences, fund-raising events, trade shows, shareholder meetings, banquets and other special occasions. Starting this type of home business is easier if you have a public relations background or prior experience as a meeting planner, but it is not a prerequisite. To get started, you will need a computer, fax machine, word processing software and a two-line telephone system. Depending on the types of equipment and resources used, startup cost ranges from $2,750-$8,500.

To secure clients, network among caterers and travel agents. Visit your city's convention and visitors' bureau for a list of upcoming events or volunteer to plan a community event as a way to demonstrate your skills and drum up business. "I was fortunate that during my years at Coors I had worked closely with a number of organizations, so word-of-mouth has been my form of advertisement," recalls Jackson.

Jackson has planned many events including the 15th annual African World Festival in Detroit, the annual Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association Conference (to be held this year in Puerto Rico) and a Celebration of Activism, a celebrity reading of Alice Walker's latest book, All Things We Love Can Be Saved. "We also do a number of golf tournaments and have about 10 events that we're working on managing for 1998," she says.