Thousands of miles and a world away from those twin meccas for
designers--New York City and Los Angeles--Tracy Porter runs a
multimillion dollar business from her farm in Princeton, Wisconsin.
A kind of Midwest Martha Stewart, 32-year-old Porter is an industry
unto herself. Her eponymous line of home furnishings has grown
faster than you can say "dinner party," with her
creations--including fabrics, wallpapers, hooked rugs, dinnerware
and books--being sold in more than 15,000 stores.
Porter and her husband, John, new parents of twin boys, have
found it unnecessary to leave their 26-acre paradise, often
referred to as the "Fantasy Factory," in order to grow
the business, which employs 13 others. "We talk every day
about the wonderfully unique options we have to run this company in
any way that suits our lifestyle," Porter says. "Believe
it or not, because I was bed-bound for so much of my pregnancy, the
girls [her staff] and I would have meetings right in my bedroom, as
often as we felt like it."
Although her financial success is exceptional for a rural
homebased business, Porter is just one of thousands of people
running their ventures from beyond suburbia, according to Lisa
Rogak, author of The Complete Country Business Guide: Everything
You Need to Know to Become a Rural Entrepreneur (Williams Hill
Publishing, $24.95) and the owner of a publishing company in
Grafton, New Hampshire.
Content Continues Below
Tethered to the "real world" by an array of affordable
technology--everything from cell phones to sophisticated Internet
hook-ups--these entrepreneurs are free to float above the maddening
crowds while pursuing their dream of financial independence.
Statistics aren't available on exactly how many people are
operating businesses at the end of a country lane, but recent
improvements in technology--as well as the millennial trend toward
"cocooning," or focusing on home and simplifying your
life--have sparked a thriving economy amid the trees and cows.
"Moving to the country and starting your own business have
combined to create the one kind of lifestyle that, to many people,
represents the most perfect kind of life possible," says
Rogak, who has been running her business from tiny Grafton since
1988. People with rural businesses generally fall into three
categories: those who grew up in a rural setting and left,
returning later for personal or lifestyle reasons; those who never
lived in a rural area but fell victim to urban burnout; and those
who've always lived in a rural area and wouldn't dream of
moving their business anywhere else.
Some entrepreneurs run businesses that are oriented around the
rural lifestyle--a bed-and-breakfast or a business selling homemade
jams, for example. But many more are professionals whose businesses
could be run equally well from an office in Manhattan or a home
office on the outskirts of Lone Tree, Iowa.
Pamela Rohland writes from a home office in tiny Bernville,
Pennsylvania, where sometimes the birds chirp a little too
loudly.
Page 1 |
2 |
3 