Home-based heroes - profiles of 51 home-based business persons - Cover Story

Home Office Computing, Sept, 1994 by Jenny McCune

NEW MEXICO

BONNIE GOLDEN, 45 Runs outdoor adventures Arroyo Hondo, NM BUSINESS: Taos Fitness Adventures (TFA) GROSS INCOME: $24,000 YEARS IN BUSINESS: 1 HARDWARE/SOFTWARE: Packard Bell 486, HP LaserJet 4L; Microsoft Money, Microsoft Works WHAT'S YOUR WORK? TFA is a week-long vacation with a health and fitness bent. I've got programs of day hikes, sunset hikes, ballooning. I lease a lodge for the summer in the ski valley. I have two cooks, massage therapists, and evening programs where an astrologer, artist, storyteller, or local historian will come in, have dinner with the guests, hang out. HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN THIS? I worked at Canyon Ranch in Arizona. I'm trying to get people to come here instead.

NEW YORK

STACY HORN, 38 Runs online BBS New York, NY BUSINESS: Echo Communications Group Inc. GROSS INCOME: $300,000 YEARS IN BUSINESS: 4 HARDWARE/SOFTWARE: Three generic 486s (running UNIX), Macintosh SE, Macintosh PowerBook, 48 modems; Caucus [BBS software], FileMaker Pro, PageMaker, Write Now HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE ECHO? As an electronic salon. It's made up of various conferences. Each has a general heading--books, performances, culture--and each has conversations going on. People participate by joining whatever conference interests them. We cover both pop and highbrow topics. Our discussions are mostly highbrow...it's not like American Online--not that I want to diss the competition--but it's pretty intellectual. HOW MANY PEOPLE SUBSCRIBE TO ECHO? We have 2,200, almost 40 percent female. Forty percent is unheard of for a BBS. It's wonderful for us. So many women. It pleases them, it pleases the men. It pleases everyone. HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND ONLINE? When I'm in the office, I'm pretty much always logged in so people can reach me. We have this realtime "yo" message. People will "yo" me about dinner plans. WHAT'S YOUR OFFICE LIKE? The computer area is surrounded by all sorts of little toys. All these modems sit on top of red shelves with sequins. I try to make it a work of art rather than technology. Godzilla is on top of my computer.

NORTH CAROLINA

JOSEPH SCARANO, 38 JANE SCARANO, 39 Software publishers Cary, NC BUSINESS: DS Design Inc. GROSS INCOME: $230,000 YEARS IN BUSINESS: 3 HARDWARE/SOFTWARE: Gateway 386 PC, One Step Computing 486DX2, Macintosh IIci, PowerBook 180c, HP LaserJet 3, Newgen 400p laser printer, Epson 500 printer, Microtek Scanmaker II, two CD-ROM drives, SyQuest drive, Co-Active Connector network, Brother 680 fax machine; Excel, FileMaker, PageMaker, Photoshop, QuarkXPress, QuickBooks, WordPerfect WHAT SOFTWARE DO YOU PUBLISH? We specialize in graphic design tools. We came up with a niche--clip art and font packages called KidBag where children create all the art. We also publish graphic enhancements for desktop publishers. WHAT'S IT LIKE WORKING TOGETHER? Sometimes we're more temperamental. Sometimes we make each other laugh. It's great because we know each other so well.

NORTH DAKOTA

GAIL BENSON, 43 PENNY ANDRIST, 34 Performers; publishers Fargo, ND BUSINESS #1: Kids Kollectibles BUSINESS #2: Playground Publishing GROSS INCOME: $60,000 YEARS IN BUSINESS: 5 HARDWARE/SOFTWARE: Two Gateway 2000s, HP LaserJet 4, Epson LQ800 printer; Microsoft Profit, PowerPoint, Word-Perfect WHAT DO YOU DO? Kids Kollectibles began as series of musical performing workshops for children who couldn't learn in traditional ways. We created Playground Publishing to publish our work: tapes of the music, activity books, and other educational materials. WHAT ARE YOUR PERFORMANCES LIKE? We have costumed characters, sort of like Sesame Street. We talk about self-esteem, good decision making. One of our characters is Bernie, a cuddly bear who loves to play basketball. He plays it all the time and that's the problem. He gets into trouble until he realizes that the best place to use his basketball talents is in the gym. Happy ending. All our stories are musicals.