Bringing It Home: A Home Business Start-Up Guide for You and Your Family

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

The entrepreneur has the ability to make working at home a dream come
true or an all-out horror show. Priesnitz, founder of the Home Business
Network, gives dozens of ideas on how to control the negatives and give
the positives of working at home a chance to flourish.

Most of the book is directed to micro-business owners—those folks who
go to work at the kitchen table or in a corner of the spare bedroom and
attempt to generate some revenue. They could be producing a newsletter,
selling a product by mail, sewing, making toys, or implementing any of
dozens of other ideas for self-employment.

While Priesnitz’s material is good, and her writing style relaxed and
approachable, she has little new or innovative to offer in the way of
content. She recommends a business plan and a marketing plan, even for
the smallest business. So does every other book on entrepreneurship. She
reviews types of businesses—sole proprietorship, partnership,
corporation—and the legal and financial implications of each. Nothing
new there. She points out that working at home can be distracting and
that the home-based business owner needs to find a way to balance work
time with child-care time. We knew that. She even tells us that having
the dog answer the door and the children answer the phone lacks that
hard-edged, professional touch many customers expect. She does convey
this tired advice with a fresh style.

The most valuable part of the work is the one short chapter on working
at home while employed by someone else. Telecommuting—using computer,
modem, phone, and fax to avoid the daily trip to the office—is a
reality at last. The author not only comments on the trend and its
social implications, she has some ideas on how to make it work. For
that, and possibly for a review of entrepreneurship basics, the book is
worth its price.