Cut down that commute-bootstrap

Filed in archive Bootstrapper Tips on October 25, 2006

Have you spent way too long behind one of these?

I took this shot while testing a digital camera on my way home from a very long day at the office.

(I'm one of the lucky ones. Work is only about five minutes away for me and at least in the same zip code although sometimes it seems that I never really get done for the day.)

Since August, fellow Creative Weblogger Noel Bautista has hosted a site about how to reduce your travel time in the morning even more (down to the distance between bedroom and living room) at "The Two Minute Commute".

The site provides a variety of helpful hints including how to minimize any complaints from neighbors about your home business and how to use a CD with background office noise to sound more professional on business calls.

The title of Noel's blog is reminiscent of The Sixty Second Commute: A Guide to Your 24/7 Home Office Work Life in which authors erica Orloff and Kathy Levinson suggest that today 60 million Americans work at home.

Many reasons are often given for this choice ranging from spending more time with family to other intangibles, but I really think the best reason may be bootstrapping as I explained in these two posts.

Tony D. Clark has dedicated a whole website to this subject and affiliate marketer and home business entrepreneur BJ from Ontario, Canada added in a comment to a recent post:

There are also the significant tax advantages once you do start getting income coming in. I started out in a home office more than ten years ago, and I've never looked back since!

And just in case you think a home business is somehow less saleable when the time comes than a brick and mortar establishment with loads of employees (and loads of debt), venture capitalist James L. Chen at PureVC insists:

We actually favor entrepreneurs who don't have an office, only use their cell phone, and outsource or hire sparingly...when it comes to selling your business, your acquirer will take a close look at your debts and future obligations. No lease? No full time employees? No contracts? All great things that will make the transaction occur very quickly.

Find the rest of Chen's comments here and again in his original post of those comments here.