Virtual Entrepreneur

Forbes.com:
When art major Melissa Schmechel graduated from Smith College in 2004, she chose to cut her teeth at two small shops in San Francisco. But she also had grander entrepreneurial designs.

“I saw small studios and letter-press printers make it work on their own,” says Schmechel. “I felt like there was a big enough market out there.”

Skills honed, the entrepreneurial 26-year-old launched her own graphic design shop, Darling Design, out of her apartment last year.

She figures that an office lease would have cost an extra $1,000 per month. Sure, the home office can get a bit crowded–Schmechel shares the cramped three-bedroom rental with two roommates–but she’s happy she did it. “I couldn’t have started the business without doing it in my house,” she says.

Schmechel charges $50 an hour to spruce up brochures, business cards, catalogs, case studies and occasionally Web sites. Her tools of the trade include a computer and basic printer. (For high-end printing, she heads to Kinko’s.) Additional overhead: a mere $10 per month for a Web site hosting service. Initial marketing amounted to posting an ad on Craigslist. Darling Design’s first-year profits: about $50,000, she says.

Who needs a nasty commute when you can make a decent buck but a few feet from your kitchen? Over half of all U.S. businesses are now based out of an owner’s home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. With the economy shedding jobs, the ranks of the self-employed may well keep swelling. Plenty more entrepreneurs may look to eliminate rent and fuel costs to pinch pennies. Read on…

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