Green Acres: Homebased Entrepreneurs Are Heading To The Country

Joan Schweighardt didn't need to rediscover the joys of running a rural homebased business. She's worked for years as a freelance copywriter and a novelist from her house in Pine Bush, New York, a town 90 miles north of the Big Apple and known as the UFO capital of the Northeast. GreyCore Press was launched when Schweighardt met author Julie Mars at a party. Before Schweighardt knew it, she offered to publish Mars' novel, The Secret Keepers, with $10,000 in savings and the help of a team of friends who donated their talent to the project. The book has done better than anyone, including the publisher, expected, eliciting excellent reviews in Publishers Weekly and numerous other publications. Schweighardt is about to publish a second book, and she's beginning to wade through a stack of manuscript submissions.

The publishing company is a way for Schweighardt to keep her hand in fiction writing, while at the same time continuing to write copy, her main source of income. "Twenty years ago, before the technology was available to make homebased business a reality, if I had wanted to live in the country, I would've been working as a grocery clerk," she says. "I have neighbors who think I eat Bon-Bons all day, but I wouldn't give this up to work anywhere else.

"I can look out my office and see trees and hummingbirds hovering over flowers. No one knocks on my door, other than the UPS man. Working here is very centering. I can stare out the window, and it's almost like meditating. I'm not lonely. I'm on the phone or the Internet all day, so I'm always communicating with people." Working from Pine Bush also allows Schweighardt to walk three miles at dawn and be in her office by 8:30 a.m., when many commuters are still stuck in traffic.

Despite the many benefits, running a business from the country isn't always idyllic. Early morning deliveries don't make it to Porter's or Rose's house; they have to wait until later in the day to get the packages they need. Because the outdoor environment is so beautiful, both Rose and Schweighardt admit that it's difficult to focus on work at times. The Belenkys have to fight "mud season" in Vermont. In the early spring, the roads become mud fields, and they've had to rent jeeps to carpool their staff to work. Michael Belenky and Porter agree that finding staff can also be difficult when you're working from a remote area. That challenge has forced Porter to run a very efficient operation. Belenky says he's hired other ex-urbanites who are attracted to Vermont because of the lifestyle advantages.

Despite the challenges, all the entrepreneurs agree with Dorothy's famous assessment: "There's no place like home." "When I leave here and come back, I think what a stressful world we've made for ourselves," Michael Belenky reflects. "How could anyone have any creative energy after sitting in a traffic jam for two hours in a tunnel listening to talk radio? It's mind-boggling how anything can get done in the city."