Under One Roof Living with your parents can be tough enough, but running a business at the same time? Scary, but not impossible.

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.

"Guidelines should be set upfront," advises Remedios. "I didn't sit down with my parents [at first] and tell them what my goals were or ask them if they were OK with me living at home for two years, basically not paying any rent. Had I done that, it would have gone a lot smoother."