Home Based Businesses More Desirable

SonomaNews:

Wineries, hotels and restaurants play a high-profile role in the local economy, but many Sonomans quietly make a living without even a storefront to announce their presence. Home-based operations make up 20 percent of businesses in the Valley and are becoming not only more common, but a more desirable option for people seeking independence and flexibility.

Some businesses start out of the owner’s home and grow into an office or retail space. Other times, owners have no intention of leaving home.

“It’s come to a new position of envy,” said Patti Peters, who has run a business-training company out of her home for 15 years. “In the old days, people would comment that you probably couldn’t get a job anywhere, now they’re asking, ‘How can I do that?’”

She presented a seminar for owners of home-based businesses last September as part of the city-chamber economic development partnership.

Many of these businesses are service-based, one-person operations. They run the gamut - electricians, contractors, tile layers, handymen, decorators, accountants, Web site designers, artists, landscape architects, and business and professional consultants, as well as the occasional dog-walker or vending machine owner.

Sonoma has long been a small-business kind of place with 60 percent of jobs in the City in businesses consisting of fewer than five employees.