Under One Roof

If you're running a business out of your parents' home, learning to balance a commitment to excellence in your business and your family relationships can be tricky, to say the least. In some cases, it can be downright disastrous-if you and your parents aren't prepared for the logistics of operating from home when Mom and Dad are around. So we talked to some experienced entrepreneurs to get the good, the bad and the ugly.

Twenty-five-year-old Tamara Remedios began Xplore Communications, a Matawan, New Jersey, college marketing agency, out of her parents' home in 1999 as a way to help her start-up get its feet wet. Remedios, whose company publishes a guide to local businesses and services called Get Out Today, recalls a time when her printer sent over some samples of a publication she was working on and her dad answered the door in his boxers. The damage? A blushing delivery boy and a phone call praising her "nice doorman." She's since established agreed-upon codes and rules to prevent future awkward incidents.