One year at the helm: the first year in business brought hard work, new responsibilities, and good money

Home Office Computing, Dec, 1990 by Corey Sandler

The woman spoke quietly and carefully, like a diplomat . . . or a spy.

"I have a buyer who is looking for a business like yours to purchase," she said, pausing long enough to hear the air leave my lungs, "Would you be interested in talking about it?"

Word Association, Inc., had just celebrated its first anniversary. I run the business from a fully equipped office in the basement of my rural Massachusetts home; my partner, Tom Bladgett, holds down his half of the work from an office on his Tennessee farm. Other independent contractors work from wherever they live.

In our first year of business we had worked harder than we ever had before, taken on tasks and responsibilities we had never considered, and had met our financial goals with a few thousand dollars to spare. And the second year looked as if it would be even better.

BUSINESS GOALS

When we started our company in January 1989, I set the following goals:

1. I wanted to give up the grind of a daily commute. I had been enduring a grueling drive into Boston, a daily round-trip of about two-and-a-half hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic with crazy lane weavers. I figured the net cost to me in time was about 600 hours a year--or one lost month per year! (And I don't care what you say about cellular phones and portable transcribers and books on tape; most of the time spent commuting is simply lost.) I also figured it was costing me close to $10,000 per year to own and operate my car.

2. I wanted to spend more time with my wife and children. As editor of a biweekly national computer newspaper, I worked from about 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., with regular excursions deep into the night. On Saturdays and Sundays--when I wanted to do nothing at all--my family wanted to do everything they couldn't do when I wasn't there.

3. Since I understand how to use computer technology well, I wanted to fully explore the possibilities of a totally portable means of earnings of living. As I suspected, all I really need to earn a living is a portable computer, a modem, and a telephone connection.

4. Finally, I wanted something of my own. I had spent more than 20 years as an employee of one corporation or another. I had done some good work and contributed to corporate profits, but all I had ever received was a salary. I wasn't looking for my name up in lights, but I did want to see it down on an incorporation form.

BUSINESS RESULTS

How has it turned out? I'm writing this column on a Saturday at my summer house on Nantucket, 30 miles off Cape Cod in the Atlantic Ocean. As the sun rose over the old whaling port and lit up the sand dunes, I made my way down to the den and fired up my portable computer for a few hours of work before the rest of the family awoke.

My commute took 30 seconds, down from the bedroom and into the office. I have reclaimed those 50 hours a month that I used to spend on the turnpike and now use them productively.

My family enjoys about as much of me as they can stand. We've learned the joys of being able to travel on a Tuesday or a Thursday and avoid the lemminglike crush of the Monday-to-Friday crowd; we can go to the circus for a Wednesday matinee if we choose.

We're taking full advantage of the portability of the business, too. Within the constraints of my children's school schedules, we can travel at the drop of an AC adapter. This winter we packed up for a 14-day sojourn on a Caribbean beach; I put in a full day's work every day, split between early morning and evening.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

What has it taken to get the business off the ground? I can point to several things:

1. It ain't easy. I have never worked so hard in my life, and I have never had such an uncompromising boss.

2. I've had trouble keeping my personal life separate from my business life. My office creeps into the living room and bedroom. And, living above the store, as it were, it's sometimes difficult to decide to spend a Sunday afternoon at the beach instead of at my desk. This is a critical battle I must win; if I can't carve out personal time, I'm better off taking a job in an office.

3. I've tried to keep my work situation a secret from my clients, or at least fuzzy. In some eyes, a business run from the comfort of home is not quite as serious as one conducted from a midtown rabbit warren. I've selected a nearby hotel restaurant as my official location for meeting some of my clients.

4. I have put a lot of effort into creating an impressive end product. I picked a PostScript laser printer and use high-quality rag paper. And I use a wonderful device called a Unibind thermal binding machine to finish off proposals and reports with a clear plastic cover and handsome nylon-edge binding. The sealed reports, up to three inches thick, impress clients.

5. I've surrounded myself with a professional team--including an accountant, banker, insurance broker, attorney, and printer. Each understands the nature of my home-based business.

6. I periodically prime the pump to keep business coming in. This means attending trade shows, meeting with potential clients, and schmoozing with current clients.