Homebased Business Association of Rhode Island

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Watchdog "Home-Business Friendly?" By Paul Franson

Mention chamber of commerce and you might imagine your mayor in a photo opportunity with members of the local chamber and store owners from Main Street. But the chamber of commerce isn't just for storefront business anymore. Now, some local chamber chiefs want to include home-based business owners in that photo.

For years, local chambers identified potential members as the storefront and large office-based businesses in their communities. Politicians cruised the infamous chicken dinner circuit extolling the virtues of local business while owners pressed them for adjustments to real estate taxes and exemptions to regulations. As a home-based business owner, you could be forgiven for finding little reason to spend some of your valuable time a these schmooze-fests - even if basic annual chamber dues average from only $125 to $300.

But now, chambers like those in Warwick, Rhode Island, and Mountain View, California, recognize that home-based businesses represent fundamental changes in the American economy and are thus responding creatively. The chambers have tailored programs to meet home-based businesses special needs for education, networking, and advocacy.

"A few years ago, we noticed that many of our new members were small, home-based businesses," says Liesa M. Fulton, executive director of the Mountain View Chamber. "Some were victims of corporate downsizing, but others chose the home workstyle because they recognized the freedom it offered in addition to other advantages. We vowed to serve these new members, who often have concerns that are very different from those of larger businesses."

To do so, the Mountain View Chamber started its Home Run Program in 1992, which includes a monthly brown bag lunch series that provides attendees with networking information and education opportunities. The sessions feature guest experts who discuss different aspects of running a home business. Subjects covered range from how to manage computer and telephone equipment costs to the psychological aspects of working at home. Other topics have included how your insurance liability changes when you bring employees into your home, balancing work and personal lives, and designing your home office.

The sessions also address legal and regulatory issues that affect home businesses. The chamber regularly invites local government officials to meet with its members and explain laws and regulations important to them. Putting that information to use, the chamber also invited legal experts to explain how to deal with these same officials.

The Home Run Program has been so successful that the nearby Los Altos Chamber has joined in, providing more homeworker members to attract speakers and influence officials.

A Model Chamber. For serving small and home-based businesses, few chambers of commerce can match the Central Rhode Island Chamber headquartered in Warwick, near Providence. It has even helped establish a sister organization, the Homebased Business Association of Rhode Island.

The Central Rhode Island Chamber first became aware of the growth of home-based businesses when it conducted a membership drive last year. "We noticed that we were getting a lot of answering machines when we called newly registered businesses," notes Renee Fullerton, now executive director of the Homebased Business Association of Rhode Island.

Recognizing that these companies had different needs from its traditional members, the chamber's executive director, David E. Nash, helped organize the home affiliate. One of its first activities was a high-visibility conference for home businesses, featuring columnists Paul and Sarah Edwards as keynote speakers and seminar leaders.

The 300 people who attended the event, which was cosponsored and supported by Nynex, heard seminars on subjects as diverse as financing a business and choosing the right computer equipment.

Since then, the Homebased Business Association has held seminars on using the Internet's World Wide Web, a roundtable discussion with Rhode Island Congressman Jack Reed about discriminatory taxes on home businesses, and a meeting with the local zoning commission about issues affecting home offices.

One member who attended the conference is Erma Gardner, who runs EW Gardner, a company in North Kingstown that refurbishes golf carts for use by less-mobile senior citizens. She benefited from a session sponsored by the Small Business Administration on loans as well as one on partnering.

Her company's biggest problem is finding insurance for the converted carts, which are as rare in New England as they are common in the Sun Belt. "We've had problems because these carts are almost unknown to insurance companies in New England," she says. The chamber and the association put her in touch with the Independent Business Alliance, which helped her identify sources of potential coverage.

Help the Chamber Help You. These forward-thinking chambers are still the exceptions at this point. Calls to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to a number of state chambers including California, and to some city chambers such as those in San Diego, Boulder, and Salt Lake City, got responses ranging from "No, we don't do that" to "What?" As one large chamber responded, "If we had a dedicated program for them, all sorts of other groups would want special treatment too."

You can help change that widespread attitude. Your local chamber might be one that has or is considering a home-based business program. It's worth inquiring to learn if they have any programs that serve your special needs, and if so, possibly joining the action.

It's possible that your chamber has never even considered starting a home program. It might want you to help start one. Both Mountain View and Central Rhode Island report receiving numerous inquiries from other chambers about their programs.

Don't Get Mad, Start A Group. Of course, if your chamber isn't responsive, there are alternatives that will provide you with similar services. In most locales, unresponsive chambers face competition from independent local home-based business associations. Since they focus on home businesses, these groups' loyalties are clear. The director of one regional organization says candidly, "The big chambers see the dollars of all those potential members, but they don’t know what to do with these home businesses if they do get them to join and pay dues."

Some of these organizations are quite active in trying to advance home offices. California's Home Office & Business Opportunities Association, for example, focuses on legislation, including taxation, zoning, and insurance. It's director, Debra Schacher, was a delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business, but the group is also active at the state level as well as locally in Orange County, where it's based.

So if your chamber has clay feet, consider joining a local home-based business group or organizing one in your community. The national or regional office of the organizations, which were listed in Home Office Computing in March, can help.

Whichever route you take, there's no need for any home-based business to work completely on its own.