Contemporary Business 14th Edition by Louis Boone, David Kurtz

تمرين 13

Businesses Based at Home Are Booming The idea itself makes perfect sense: you're laid off from your full-time job, or you've recently moved to a new area, or you just had a baby. Working from home seems like the ideal solution. But until a few years ago, home-based businesses were not really considered legitimate by the business community in general. Most people viewed home-based work as no more challenging-or lucrative-than stuffing envelopes. All that has changed. Today, more than 6.6 million home-based businesses contribute at least half of their owners' household income. It is estimated that homepreneurs employ about one in every ten private-sector workers-and their businesses are as competitive as any other. Technology has made all this possible.Some homepreneurs run businesses entirely based on technology, such as Web development. Stephen Labuda, president of Agency3, is a former programmer for Deutsche Bank, a large international banking firm. He built Web sites on the side for several years before he quit his job and made Agency3 his full-time, home-based career in Boston. The firm's revenues are now in the millions and Labuda has about half a dozen employees. Labuda loves working from home. "I'm not intending to go rent office space," he notes.Other homepreneurs rely on technology to reach customers, fulfill orders, ship goods, or provide other services. When Michael and Mary Ferrari retired, they realized they needed to supplement their savings-and they didn't necessarily want to stop working. So they formed UnusualThreads.com based in California, which sells fashions worn by celebrities. The couple still only works the site part time, but they earn enough money to augment their savings and can take time off to travel. Another such homepreneur is Marco Barberini, who launched OvernightPetTags.com in Michigan several years ago and now grosses more than $8,000 a month. Barberini discovered a way to manufacture and ship pet-identification tags cheaper than his competition. His goal is to tag every pet in the United States Barberini echoes the advice of every successful homepreneur. "Most people give up too quickly," he says. "Just make sure that [your product is going to be something that's in demand, and do it."
-Could any of these home-based businesses succeed with-out the heavy use of information technology? Why or why not?