Entrepreneurs who make it work -- at home

By Rich Sloan, StartupNation

Entrepreneurs are known for turning dreams into reality, and we're proud to recognize their accomplishments by publishing the first-ever StartupNation Home-Based 100.

The survey, which ranks and categorizes the nation's top-performing home-based entrepreneurs, is the first of its kind. While larger companies have been tracked by Fortune and other publications for years, no one, until now, has focused the spotlight on the millions of Americans who call home "the office."

At StartupNation, we decided to change that. We set about creating an annual ranking competition that focuses strictly on the first frontier -- and, for many, the preferred frontier -- for entrepreneurs.

According to a recent study by research firm Access Markets International Partners, some 16.5 million home-based businesses exist in the United States today -- an all-time high. According to the Small Business Administration, home-based companies contribute more than $530 billion to the U.S. economy and represent 50% of all businesses registered in the United States. No matter how you slice the stats, it's a huge chunk of the American economy, and growing fast.

• Talk back: Would you chuck your job to create your own business at home?

And it's no surprise. After all, recent FedEx and Yahoo studies reveal that more than two-thirds of Americans have considered starting their own businesses, and nearly half have taken initial steps in that direction.

Themes and variations

StartupNation organized the Home-Based 100 as a series of 10 Top Ten categories, each with a unique theme. To reflect the true nature of home-based businesses and the entrepreneurs behind them, we ranked companies on qualities that go beyond financial data. Playing to emerging trends, we created categories to highlight the "greenest" and worldliest businesses, as well as those run by baby boomers. For fun, we also share the wackiest and most slacker-friendly.

Above and beyond our categories, one theme dominated the submissions: passion.

We're talking bleeding passion. The work of these entrepreneurs is literally and figuratively close to home. We learned that home-based entrepreneurs don't separate who they are from what they do. Instead, they see their enterprise as part of their identity. They live for the triumphs and plug away at the challenges with incredible tenacity. At stake? Their name, their vision, their lifestyle.

Imagination, technology, outsourcing

The 2007 field of entrants had other, more tangible things in common.

Many were baby boomers who had worked for years, successfully, at large corporations and decided for whatever reason that it was time for a change. Some people had great ideas or goals that they were never able to implement because of their demanding work schedules. Others were interested in choosing a career that allows them to spend more time with their families. Some found they could make a lucrative, fulfilling living without leaving their homes.

Gone fishin'

Larry Murphy, operator of Murphy Outdoors of Gladstone, Mo., and the winner in our Boomers Back in Business category, took it one step further. He incorporated his love for fishing into a tour business after retiring from a software company at age 47.

In fact, some of the most financially successful home-based businesses in this year's ranking actually made a conscious, strategic decision to transition from a traditional office environment to a home-based operation. They did this for efficiency. They traded in commutes and corporate cubicles for home-brewed coffee, bluejeans and high-bandwidth Internet connections.

Across the board, technology fueled the exodus from the office to the home. The Internet, where you can hang a shingle almost instantly, has combined with communications advances such as Internet-enabled cell phones featuring "Star Trek"-like capabilities to enable "home-preneurs" to operate more viably than ever before.

Observations from the Home-Based 100 Best Financial Performers include the rise of "virtualization," whereby entire teams of people are home-based, banded together by communications and data-sharing technologies. The winner of the Best Financial Performers category, nurse-staffing company Medical Solutions International of Tempe, Ariz., and the runner-up, Surefire Marketing of Potomac, Md., are both virtual operations that rely heavily, if not completely, on technology.

This trend redefines home-based businesses, really, by adding employees to what was once a largely go-it-alone business sector. And these companies are generating millions of dollars in revenue.

Continued: Outsourcing common

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