|
|
|
Quiet Revolution
Shoreline becomes a Mecca for small and home-based businesses
|
Business New Haven
6/1/1998
By: BNH
|
Once a summer haven for New Yorkers and people from all parts of Connecticut, the shoreline has become a bustling suburban community of year-round residents. Talks with town officials, key merchants and chamber of commerce leaders in Branford, Guilford, Madison and Clinton reveal that the business climate on the shoreline is healthy, with few empty storefronts in town centers. Business news is being made not in the center of town but in the cul-de-sacs. Following a national trend, many shoreline residents are opening up home-based businesses. Indeed, there is no registry for home businesses, so it's impossible to say just how many exist on the shoreline. But the shoreline chapter of the American Association of Home-Based Businesses reports healthy attendance at its meetings and dozens of calls each time it advertises a meeting.
“When we started out four years ago, the surprise for us was that we immediately had tons of inquiries,” recalls Michelle Murphy, a director of the group. “For every person who comes to a meeting, they know a couple more people who would like to come. In our group we have people who are telecommuting, who have flexible working arrangements or who have their own businesses. Some people are just starting out; others have been working from home for ten years.
“What we're seeing,” Murphy adds, “is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Group member Judy Burgarella opened a secretarial service business six months ago out of her Clinton home. Called Document Magic, the business specializes in medical transcription and provides a wide range of secretarial services.
Burgarella started her business after being laid off from an office job and seeing that the pay scale offered for her services was low. She thought she could do better financially on her own. Before opening up shop, she attended seminars offered by the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) and the Regional Business Resource Center, both in New Haven. There Burgarella learned to write a business plan and how to price her work.
She also joined the Clinton Chamber of Commerce and has worked hard to market her business and present a professional image.
“If you think you can just put up a sign in the supermarket, you're wrong,” Burgarella says. “You have to be prepared to work more than eight hours a day and wear all the different hats - bookkeeper, marketer - that you didn't wear in your previous job.”
Despite all the hard work, Burgarella can write out her daily to-do list in her pajamas or take a break to plant impatiens in the garden. She can also catch up on work late at night if she chooses. “I like not putting up with over-demanding bosses and I like being able to reap what I sow,” she says.
“I'm 53, and it's hard to find a job with good benefits as you get older.” Already, Burgarella is looking to expand her business by hiring local typists. “I'm a Type A,” she says, “so I'm kind of in a hurry.”
In Guilford, Town Planner George Kral has noticed a lot of people, many in computer or Internet-related fields, requesting information about whether it's legal to have a business in your home. The answer's yes, but regulations vary from town to town.
For example, Madison requires residents to have a permit to operate a home business and has guidelines about what one can and can't do. You can operate a home business in Madison if you promise not to “change the residential character thereof...create noise, smell, smoke or radio or television interference off the premises.”
Rules regarding signage vary, too. In Guilford, you may have a sign as long as it's no larger than two square feet.
The Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce recognizes the increasing numbers of home-based businesses, and a council for those who work from home is in the planning stages, says Mike Kreutler, the chamber's manager of membership development. The chamber would like to provide networking opportunities, as well as camaraderie and a chance to develop new business for those isolated at home.
“It's a chance to get out of the house and deal with their issues together, and to formally introduce them to the chamber,” Kreutler says.
While their businesses may vary, home entrepreneurs face similar challenges in their workday: time management, combining home and work in the same space and how best to market their services, to name a few. Although the $250 fee to join is hefty for most home business-owners, Kreutler says that those who join can take advantage of buying insurance through the chamber and earn back their investment in the membership fee.
Retail business-owners are also a barometer of the home-based business explosion. Roxanne Coady, owner of R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, reports lots of requests for books on how to start a home-based business.
Her customers include architects, telecommuters and people who work in New York City a couple of days a week and at home the rest of the time. All are clamoring for tips on working from home.
Employees at Mail Boxes, Etc., a retail mailing and photocopying shop in Guilford, say many of their customers are home-based business people using their service to ship, fax and reproduce their work.
While corporate employees take coffee breaks, how many people get to go fishing between phone calls?
David Howell of Summerhill Consultants does. With a partner, Howell runs a human-resources consulting business out of his Madison home, which has a pond on the property. He shares his home business space with his wife, Nancy Hall, a magazine journalist.
“You have to stay very focused when you work at home,” he says. “You're definitely your own boss. If I want to take a break, I can drop back and go fishing, but then I have to stop and get back to work. You have to have discipline, but the freedom is wonderful.”
Howell and his partner design compensation plans for bank employees and do some executive and board recruiting. Their clients are in the banking industry and include American Savings Bank in New Britain. Clients who choose a home-based business rather than a corporation get a high-quality product cheaper and faster because of smaller overhead and volume of work.
Independence is a recurring theme for home entrepreneurs. Guilford resident Marjorie Sopkin started her own graphic-design business, Sopkin Design, in 1994 after the company she worked for moved to Tennessee.
“I'm actually doing better financially and emotionally than I would have at a job,” Sopkin says. “I wanted the flexibility to be available to my kids.”
To her surprise, Sopkin genuinely likes working on her own and doesn't miss commuting to a job. She likes being able to take more than two weeks' vacation a year or skipping work for a day to volunteer at her daughter's school, without continually having to check in with a boss.
“I enjoy making my clients happy and enjoy the work more because it's mine,” she says.
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
