House works

There was a time when the success of a business was measured by the number of its employees and the elegance of its offices. An administrative staff and a fancy suite of offices in a downtown high-rise definitely heralded achievement.

On the other hand, businesses run from spare bedrooms or dining room tables were not so highly regarded. Could a one-person business, intentionally small and manageable, ever really be considered a success?

To a growing number of home-based entrepreneurs the answer is yes. Not that they have a uniform definition of success. For some, success is the chance to work at something they love. Some define it as the ability to make money while meeting family responsibilities. And for others, it's the ability to be their own boss. Maybe it's backlash from the homogeneous malls or the cool efficiency of Internet shopping, but many of today's home-based entrepreneurs are finding success, however it's defined, by creating unique products and selling them through home parties, trunk shows, boutiques, and even out of their own living rooms and on their websites. Many had no previous experience in their chosen field, and they're doing quite well, thank you very much.

These entrepreneurs, many of them women, are carving out niches for themselves that suit their lifestyles and interests. Stringing jewelry while their kids nap, cashing in on sewing skills by making handbags to sell to friends, or otherwise combining their skills and interests in a way that fits their lifestyles, they are finding that their creativity can, in fact, be profitable. Historically, women who made and sold unique, handcrafted items out of their home were neither respected as craftspeople nor as business people, according to Erin M. Fuller, executive director of the National Association of Women Business Owners in Washington. "Society tended to devalue what they did," she said. "The skills and expertise required to deliver a high-quality product were not appreciated."

But this isn't the rule anymore. And while these successful entrepreneurs may have different skills and areas of expertise, they have similar, well-thought-out business values. They want their home-based business to fit their lifestyle, not take over their lives. They are willing to invest time, but not a lot of capital. They are not afraid to use sophisticated technology or good old-fashioned networking. They want to keep control of what they started. And, oh yeah, they want to make money. These women, Fuller says, mean business. "Just because they are making and selling things from home doesn't mean it's a hobby," she says.

What follows are the stories of a few home-based entrepreneurs in the Boston area who are finding success on their own terms.

Roberta Ferrara: Soapy Topia Roberta Ferrara won't sell you her soaps unless you're going to use them. And don't dare tell her you're going to stick them in your underwear drawer.

The 56-year-old Brockton soap maker has an infectious love of her product that makes you wonder how you survived this long without her soap-encased loofa sponges or her bright-red soap lips.

After a brief stint on the West Coast in the late `90s where "they were selling soap for $9 a slice," Ferrara, a soap fanatic, noticed a dearth of designer soaps in the Boston area and saw a niche she could fill: handmade luxury soaps.

With no money, no job, and no prospects, Ferrara, who is single, borrowed $300 from a friend in 1999 and started experimenting with vegetable glycerin, fragrances, and colors in her Brockton kitchen. Besides a unique product, Ferrara had a target market in mind that she thought couldn't miss -- high-end hotels.

So she wrapped her soaps in organza bags, dropped them off to the hotels' general managers, and soon started taking orders from the Ritz-Carlton in Boston, The Castle Hill Inn and Resort in Newport, and the Tahoe Tradewinds Resort in Lake Tahoe. Now, four years later, her company Soapy Topia (www.soapytopia.com) has other clients and is generating more than $100,000 in annual sales, and Ferrara is considering renovating a barn on her property into a studio. Ferrara, who plans to begin exporting her soaps to Japan in the next few months, says the secrets to her success are simple: she loves her product, and she had confidence in her idea. Her soaps retail for between $5 and $10 apiece and come in more than 100 shapes (including clenched fists, open palms, and torsos) and fragrances, which include buttered rum, ginger beer, and lemon grass.

Ferrara, who spent 20 years as a hairdresser, was accustomed to running her own shop and says she built Soapy Topia by instinct. "I just wish everyone could have one of my soaps," she says with a big wide grin.

Stacey Santo, Michaela Carlin: A Perfect Setting

Stacey Santo and Michaela Carlin met in 1987 at their first public relations job, just after Santo had graduated from Boston University and Carlin from Boston College. Since then they married and became full-time mothers. But after several years at home with small children, the women, now 38, decided they wanted to get back into the work force without having to work full time.

"It really came down to flexibility," said Santo. "When you work for someone else you're tied to certain hours of the day. We didn't want that."

They knew first-hand the freedom of entrepreneurship since both of their husbands are self-employed. Santo's husband, Frank, owns Isabella, a restaurant in Dedham, and Carlin's husband, John, runs an environmental consulting firm. With their shared interest in home fashion and what Santo describes as "a good eye for what's current," they knew they could put together a beautiful retail shop, but they agreed that a commitment to retail store hours would feel like a prison sentence.

Santo had been global marketing director for women's fitness at Reebok before quitting in 1998, and based on market research, they identified home parties as a growing niche that would suit their lifestyle. (The women use the words "home parties" and "trunk shows" interchangeably to mean a gathering at a private home in which they display their product line for sale.) Once they chose their business model, they had to find a product.

"We looked around and said `What's not being delivered?' " says Carlin of the trunk show circuit that was already crowded with jewelry, handbags, and children's items.

They decided on unique tabletop items such as glassware, custom linens, and flatware, and "A Perfect Setting" was born.

They shop for products in New York and hire local seamstresses to fill custom linen orders that they design themselves using high-end fabrics from Brunschwig & Fils, Victoria Hagan, and Clarence House. The partners stage trunk shows at friends' homes, setting the dining room table with their wares and instructing the hostess to invite friends for a "girls' night in" to socialize, drink wine, and shop.

"We've found what works best is for the hostess to invite her friends and pour wine," says Santo. "Then it's fun for her and her guests, and just more successful all around."

There is no sales pitch. For her trouble, the hostess receives 5 percent of the women's gross sales in merchandise. A night's sales can run anywhere from several hundred dollars to several thousand. Their inventory includes candles they sell for as little as $12 and custom linens as high as $300.

Since they began last fall, the friends, who've plowed their modest profits back into A Perfect Setting, have found that basing their business at home lets them tend their growing families as well as their growing business. Santo, who still has children at home during the day, gets work done during naptime and after the children go to bed, while Carlin puts her hours in while her older children are at school. Most of the home parties are at night or on weekends.

Each woman also maintains a showroom in her home (Carlin lives in Westwood, Santo in Wellesley) for browsers who need last-minute gifts. They recently launched a line of custom linens under the name Polka Dot Design.

We've learned a lot," says Carlin, "and it will be interesting to see where this business takes us."

Susan and Will Towner: Susan Towner Totes

When Will Towner of Amherst, N.H., was laid off as a commercial airline pilot in September 2002, he and his family found themselves in a jam. His wife, Susan, hadn't worked since her second child, now 7, was born, and the job market for pilots was bleak. With no design, sales, or sewing background, Susan, who had spent summers as a child on Cape Cod and "always liked preppy things," started sketching design ideas for a line of tote bags and belts.

"Will and I always like the Cape Cod look, oxford shirts and loafers with no socks," she says. "And a good, sharp accessory is always in demand."

Asked to explain why she decided to take a huge financial risk in a field already crowded with competitors, she paused and said, "I can't put my finger on it. It just came down to why can't I design my own handbags and belts?"

With her designs in hand, she searched for fabric and trim she liked and found a small manufacturer to create the bags, which are made of bright, cheerful fabric, lined in oxford shirting, and trimmed in ribbon.

Then she started calling on specialty retailers and boutiques to see if they would carry them; her husband helped with operations and bookkeeping.

"Our goal the first year was to get into 10 stores," she said. "We got into 20."

She astutely discerned that preppy styles are enjoying a resurgence, though Towner says this is a double-edged sword. At a trunk show on the Cape last year, she says, "there was enough grosgrain to go from Boston to Hyannis 15 times."

Totes and other ribbon-trimmed items -- Towner has expanded the line to include belts, key fobs, and ribbon bracelets -- are serious business for the Towners. They have a written business plan that continues to evolve (it's "full of post-it notes") and they've made a significant financial investment. Unlike many of their colleagues on the trunk show circuit, their revenues are the only source of the family's income. Retail sales account for 75 percent of the Towners' business, 15 percent comes from trunk shows, and 10 percent from their website, www.susantownertotes.com.

After a brisk holiday season, the Towners are gearing up for spring and summer, their busiest seasons. Their challenge is to grow "slowly and smartly" to be able to meet demand and continue to provide top-quality product and service to the retailers that have already signed on. Several retailers who passed on their line last year are placing orders for spring.

Susan, who says the business is profitable and providing the family with a living, spends five or six hours a day cold-calling potential retailers.

"I'll really feel successful when they start calling me," she says.

Kaajal Bakshi: Ghilaf Five years ago, when Kaajal Bakshi's children were very small, she longed for a way to keep busy and stay connected to her sister, Rakhi Nehra, who lived a world away in New Delhi.

"I really missed my sister and I was ready to start something new," she said.

So the sisters, with the help of e-mail and webcams, began designing brightly colored cashmere shawls and embroidered pillowcases that were manufactured in India and shipped for Bakshi to sell in the States. Her sister also sells the line from her home in India.

Starting a business appealed to Bakshi, 38, because she could make a relatively small investment, grow the business over time if she wanted, yet still meet her family obligations. It also gave her a chance to put some of the design techniques she learned when she took a few courses at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in the 1990s.

A Montessori teacher by training, Bakshi, who lives in Brookline, holds a show in her home twice a year, usually around the holidays and near Mother's Day. Interest in her products has grown by word of mouth and she has many repeat customers who often bring friends along to the shows. She also keeps a small inventory of scarves and shawls on hand for friends who need last-minute gifts.

Bakshi thinks she could grow the business, but doesn't want to right now. She has a teaching internship at The Park School in Brookline this year and is considering going back to school for a master's degree in education.

While sales are modest, the business has shown a profit every year. The sisters have also added pocketbooks, table runners, and small pillows to their line.

She credits their success to uniqueness of the products.

"You're not going to walk into Bloomingdale's and find this," she says of an elaborately embroidered and beaded cashmere shawl.

She and her sister also take pains to keep their products "well-priced." Items in their line run from $20 for a small scarf to $250 for an intricately embroidered shawl.

"It's fun," she says. "But the best part is that it's a way for me to stay in close touch with my sister."

Josie Hewitt: JoJoware Josie Hewitt -- JoJo to her friends -- was delighted when a friend described her style as "preppy with an edge." It's Josie's original style that helped launch her 18-month-old jewelry business, JoJoware, to immediate success.

In the spring of 2002, armed only with a freshly issued degree in media from Hobart and William Smith College in Geneva, N.Y., a small liberal arts college, and a couple of courses in jewelry design and manufacturing, Hewitt decided to invest her considerable energy and creativity into making and selling jewelry.

"It was a good time to take a risk," she says. "I had nothing to lose."

Now her necklaces, earrings, and bracelets are in 19 stores in seven states. Hair clips and belt buckles debut this spring.

When she's not combing antique stores and flea markets for vintage pins to use in her necklaces, Hewitt lives and works in a small Boston apartment where, according to the characteristically enthusiastic language on her website, "every piece goes from vision to materials to fabulous." She also uses crystals, Lucite, pearls, and semi-precious stones in her funky, brightly colored jewelry.

For someone with no business experience, Hewitt, 23, has proved a savvy businesswoman. Mass College of Art provides her with an unpaid student intern who works in exchange for college credit. She's also garnered some free advertising by getting her products placed in photo cover shots for local arts publications. Her sales have doubled since she started the business nearly two years ago and she is "making more money than my friends," who took more traditional jobs right out of college, she said.

Hewitt grew up outside Chicago and her parents now live in Dedham. She thinks the contacts she's made in retail and with other home-based entrepreneurs will serve her well in the future. The investment she made in her website (www.jojoware.com) is already paying off.

"This is the true story of one girl who asks you to be inspired, to try something new, but most importantly to never settle for ordinary," Hewitt writes on her website. She adds: "I'm always looking ahead . . . (JoJoware) is not a short-term investment for me. This is what I want to be doing for the rest of my life."