Bend, Dallas, Sante Fe, and Tumalo: This epsiode of the television show first aired in 1998. Even then there were millions of businesses based in homes. Some of these have web sites that function like, and sometimes rival the look and feel of, Fortune 500 companies!

Meet our home-based business owners and find out how they are creating the lives they have always dreamed about having. We go to the front lines of the small business revolution.

The most successful home-based businesses are being run by techno-savvy professionals who are applying their years of experience working in more traditional venues to their own ventures.

KEY IDEAS.

• On the positive side:
  Technology allows anyone to work at home.
• Precaution #1:
  Starting a home-based business without experience in the field is risky.
• Precaution #1:
  Before you start a home-based business, you must have your sales channels in place.
• On the Negative side #1:
  A home-based business may not provide the right positioning for your business.
• On the negative side #2:
  A home-based business may not be conducive for you to produce your best effort.

Meet Greg Steckler; a designer of log homes; he has generated business in Norway, South Africa and Japan as a result of his home page on the Internet. He says, "The global community, the Internet is just tying people from every single city and even rural areas all over the world."

Meet Joel Greene, a painter, who works at home and sells his artwork to the world through a gallery on one of the busiest streets of Sante Fe. Go to Sante Fe; it's a treat; but if you don't have the time, look at Joel's artwork right now, from anywhere in the world. It is on the web.

Joel sums up the motivations of many:
"I don't have a lot of money by other people's standards, but I manage to spend my time doing pretty much what I want to do."

You will also meet Sue Coffman; she is a grammar doctor and wordsmith (her business name, The Grammar Doctor) who keeps the periods, commas, and verb tenses correct for many large corporate newsletters.

She even works for people she has never physically met.

Brett LaSorrella is a software guru. He knows how to write the most sophisticated code and he is in constant demand to create. His company, Mind & Motion, summarizes what he does best.

He says, "My goal is to be able to live and work any place in the world." The last we heard from Greg he was living in Paris and operating his business from a laptop with WiFi while sipping coffee at Au Bon Accueil, a bistro in the 7ème arrondissement.

But Brett cautions others to think carefully about starting a home-based business; he says, "If you're going start a company, you have to be good at something and you have to love it. And then, you'll have something to offer to others."

• READ THE TRANSCRIPT: All the words of this show, for free!
• CASE STUDY GUIDE: Case study material in over 1000 colleges and universities throughout the country. A partial list schools is also provided.
• STEPS 1 - 4: STARTING A BUSINESS. Congratulations if you have already turned in your resignation and you are now formally and officially on your own. It is a milestone. Review the stories of other businesses within your business type. Review those stories within Step 4.
• WATCH TV. Check to see which shows are airing on local PBS-member stations.