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Home base
By MELIA BOWIE, Times Staff Writer NEW TAMPA -- The CEO shows up for work barefoot, in shorts and a Waikiki T-shirt instead of pinstripes. "I don't even own a business suit," admits Brian Germain -- owner of Big Air Sportz. He never has. At his office, says the parachute manufacturer and world champion skydiver, casual day is every day. Welcome to the world of the home business owner -- an increasingly popular alternative for homeowners tired of fighting traffic and looking for a little flexibility. At home there are no dress codes, no office politics, no time clock to punch. Rush hour is a couple of cars in the driveway and the daily commute takes two minutes. "I have everything all in one place," said Germain, who patented his first parachute in 1996 and founded the company in 1998. "I can get out of bed in the morning and pick up that first phone call. I can sew parachutes in the back room," he said, his gaze circling the Richmond Place house he shares with his wife, Michelle. "It's my little submarine." In a stagnant economy, the home business movement is mounting with an equal split among men and women, say officials at the University of South Florida's Small Business Development Center. "We've seen 467 distinct businesses that operate out of their home in the last eight months; that's three a day," said Jim Parrish, a management consultant with the center. "The stigma used to be you're not real serious if you're doing it from home. That doesn't exist anymore except in pockets," he said. "Any business where you're not going to have a bunch of clients coming to you -- if you go to them -- then why do you need an office? We're seeing a lot of people come to that realization." Office SpaceThe greatest numbers of home-based entrepreneurs sell real estate, said Gloria Moreda, an urban planner with the city of Tampa. Other professions include accountants, hairstylists and consultants in varying fields. Zoning administrators classify the work sites as "special use 1." They cannot occupy more than 25 percent of a home's floor space, and those who work there must live there. The goal, said Moreda, is to be invisible to neighbors. The laws do not permit a steady stream of customers, warehouses, or signs larger than a 2-by-12-inch nameplate. The owner often is supposed to seek an occupational license, she added. But she said people only need one if "the home is the sole address of the business." That leaves the door open for Mary Kay cosmetics distributors, wholesalers, medical equipment salesmen and others who could be headquartered in New York or the local shopping center. The only caveat for entrepreneurs in New Tampa's master-planned communities is a permission slip from their homeowner association, said Moreda. Hillsborough County issues two-year permits for those based outside the city limits. "Folks probably don't even know they need a permit to do it," said Steve Gouldman, a principal planner for the county. And "we're not going around knocking on doors asking people if they run a home business. ... We might not even know about it unless a neighbor complains." While hard numbers are elusive, Moreda estimates that fewer than a dozen home-based businesses existed in the city's New Tampa neighborhoods just a few years ago. Current records list at least 60, although some of those are defunct. "It's growing fairly rapidly," said Parrish, at the USF center. "You're in a situation where you see a lot of people taking the skills they developed in corporate America and utilizing them at home. ... In 1999 the percentage of our clients who were home-based was 11 percent. So far this year its 30 (percent.)" Undercover executivesKnow this, say members of the self-staffed workforce: There are major perks and pitfalls to a home-business lifestyle. "I couldn't see myself working in an office; I just didn't like the routine," said Mark Hensleigh, who, from his Tampa Palms home, covers half the state selling medical imaging equipment to hospitals for Netherlands-based Philips Ultrasound. "I've always worked out of my house; most of the people in the medical sales business do," said the 48-year-old Tampa Palms taxing district supervisor. "There's maybe 50 or 100 of us in the country so there's no point in a (corporate) office. There's nothing I could do there that I can't do at home," he said. "I have my own fax, copy machine and computer." Working at home means time to see family, run errands and set your own schedule. But privacy can fall by the wayside when relatives barge in and out. "It's a double-edged sword," said Hensleigh. "It's nice to have the flexibility when your kids are growing up. You can change a diaper or make lunch. Take the kids to the doctor. But there are certain negatives." Loneliness can be a big deterrent. Time management is another challenge. "Ultimately I'm basically a homebody," said Germain, the 35-year-old parachute maker who also teaches advanced parachute and body flight. And "fortunately, the phone keeps me busy." Big Air Sportz now manufactures most of its $1,900 to $2,000 chutes in a DeLand factory. Big Air also builds $200-$900 kites for extreme kite-flying (an event that incorporates windsurfing.) Stock parachutes, prototypes, promotional videos and copies of Germain's instructional skydiving book fill the house like old friends, as does the $4,500 sewing machine he still uses. The environment is familiar and the overhead nonexistent, said Germain, who considers a storefront too confining. Others are turned off by the high cost of commercial real estate. "If they want to be in the New Tampa area, storefront is going to cost them anywhere from $20 to $26 per square foot," said Mehdi Belhassan, an agent with Florida Executive Realty. "A free-standing parcel with frontage on Bruce B. Downs is going to cost anywhere from $800,000 to $1.2-million," almost in league with South Tampa, he said. Controlling costs is important for Paul Beaver, 51, and his wife Dolly, who run an international adventure travel company from their two-story Cross Creek home. While caring for their 6-year-old daughter, the couple coordinate trips to their Amazon lodge from an office above the kitchen. "We're a family business," said Paul Beaver, who founded the venture in 1995. The Tahuayo Lodge works with the Peruvian government and provides travelers access to 800,000 acres of nearby reservation land. Its nerve center relocated to New Tampa in 1996 so the couple could be accessible to both their daughter and customers. "Our clients, when they're traveling can always reach us here," said Dolly Beaver, 31, as she entered bookings into a computer. "If we had an office, after hours you couldn't reach anybody." They still take turns traveling to Peru, teaching and overseeing the 17-cabin lodge and a newly built conservation lab. So a normal 9-to-5 office schedule would never work, said Dolly Beaver. Besides, "normal is boring." The discipline dilemmaSome days it would be so easy to take a nap or go for a swim. "I have no problem finding times to play," confessed photographer Ryan Joseph, who manages his studio, R. Joseph Photographics, from the Tampa Palms home he shares with his wife, Dyane. After a stint working for a South Tampa photography studio, Joseph, 33, decided to strike out on his own doing fine art wedding photography and documentary work. Now he takes assignments around the country, consulting and editing from home. "I can separate things fairly well," he said. "That's huge if you're working at home. You have to have that balance." Jazz spilling from his stereo, Joseph reached to pet his dog late one afternoon as rush hour traffic crept by on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. This arrangement is more favorable for him, said the photographer. "The convenience of it is as good as gold." -- Melia Bowie can be reached at bowie@sptimes.com.
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From the Times Marlene Sokol |
