Virtual Entrepreneur

Wired.com:
A Canadian company has made the jump to cedar-wood 2.0, modding its standard hot-tub enclosure and marketing it as a backyard DIY home office kit.

Cedarsheds specializes in gazebos and spa enclosures, and each kit includes a customer survey. The company noticed a demand for home office kits surfacing in the surveys and got serious about offering one in February. Using the basic design of a spa enclosure, it created the office kit that debuted at the national hardware show in Las Vegas in May. ‘Everyone’s trying to become their own boss. It’s the flexibility, and being able to call your own shots,’ Cedarsheds President Bruce Cheng said. ‘With that and gas prices, people want to work from a home office and employers are getting more receptive.’

Nearly 1 in 6 Americans – 20 million – works from home at least once a week, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and over the last 5 years, the self-employed segment has grown from 6.4% to 7.4% of the American work force.

Cedarsheds‘ basic kits run $13,000 and include prefab materials to construct a sturdy 10-foot-by-12-foot office with a 9-foot-by-9-foot deck. Although he admits the kits are a little pricey, Cheng argues they cost less than a room addition, don’t require contractors and can be assembled and ready for use in 1 to 4 days.

Home-based businessman Bill Kraemer, who sells specialty plants from small growers to nurseries, knew this was the building for him. Not only does it meet his requirements for the physical world, but he plans to use it to project his business image online. ‘I think in five years everybody is going to have free, worldwide internet. That will be my storefront. I will set it up as if I was at the national hardware show, only permanent,’ he said. ‘It just looks cool, it looks like nature. It looks like I’m out in the woods. That is the picture I want to project.’

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