Lori
05-15-2004, 01:04 PM
ST. CLOUD, Minn. - Paula Sok quit her job at a beauty salon after she got tired of juggling a 40-hour work week while raising two children with her husband.
But Sok didn't want to leave her work entirely, so she moved her career to her home. She opened a salon in her basement and joined thousands of other at-home workers in the St. Cloud area.
The St. Cloud region ranks fourth in the nation in the percentage of people who work at home, according to Census 2000, which generally studied areas with at least 10,000 people.
The fact can be explained, in part, because of the area's numerous farms, said Cameron Macht, regional analyst for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. Statistics show that Stearns County had the highest number of farms statewide.
But farmers tell only one part of the story. Experts say it's people like Sok who are altering traditional notions of work. She and other area residents are chucking the notion of going to work in offices and factories in favor of staying at home, they say.
"The thing that makes it more possible is technology," said Jim Blasingame, creator and host of a nationally syndicated radio and Internet talk show for small businesses. "Workers aren't in 20-story high-rises like they were 10 years ago. This fits the lifestyle of 21st-century families."
Launching a business from her Sartell home became easier for Robin Ludwig once digital cameras became more common, she said. Ludwig and her husband, James, opened an advertising design and photo specialty operation last year after Robin quit her job in a camera store.
"I considered doing it myself before, but (for photos) I needed a machine to produce negatives, and that could have cost $50,000," Ludwig said. "Now we can print digitally on a CD for about $2."
Ron Klinker said the contract work he does from his Little Falls home for a Bloomington-based consulting firm wouldn't have been possible without the Internet. He decided to start working again after he'd stopped for a few years, but he still wanted to spend time at home with his kids.
"(This) worked for me, and it also worked for Landmark (Environmental)," Klinker said. "There's lots of work in outstate Minnesota, and this is cheaper than putting someone up in a motel and paying for mileage ... or opening a branch office and staffing it."
Having greater control of time and being able to spend more of it with family are two main advantages of working from home, Sok said.
"My main reason was I have two kids, and I didn't really have a reliable day-care person to take care of them," Sok said. "My older son is a special-needs child, and so I wanted to spend more time with him."
Read More on this woman's work at home success (http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/8672411.htm)
But Sok didn't want to leave her work entirely, so she moved her career to her home. She opened a salon in her basement and joined thousands of other at-home workers in the St. Cloud area.
The St. Cloud region ranks fourth in the nation in the percentage of people who work at home, according to Census 2000, which generally studied areas with at least 10,000 people.
The fact can be explained, in part, because of the area's numerous farms, said Cameron Macht, regional analyst for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. Statistics show that Stearns County had the highest number of farms statewide.
But farmers tell only one part of the story. Experts say it's people like Sok who are altering traditional notions of work. She and other area residents are chucking the notion of going to work in offices and factories in favor of staying at home, they say.
"The thing that makes it more possible is technology," said Jim Blasingame, creator and host of a nationally syndicated radio and Internet talk show for small businesses. "Workers aren't in 20-story high-rises like they were 10 years ago. This fits the lifestyle of 21st-century families."
Launching a business from her Sartell home became easier for Robin Ludwig once digital cameras became more common, she said. Ludwig and her husband, James, opened an advertising design and photo specialty operation last year after Robin quit her job in a camera store.
"I considered doing it myself before, but (for photos) I needed a machine to produce negatives, and that could have cost $50,000," Ludwig said. "Now we can print digitally on a CD for about $2."
Ron Klinker said the contract work he does from his Little Falls home for a Bloomington-based consulting firm wouldn't have been possible without the Internet. He decided to start working again after he'd stopped for a few years, but he still wanted to spend time at home with his kids.
"(This) worked for me, and it also worked for Landmark (Environmental)," Klinker said. "There's lots of work in outstate Minnesota, and this is cheaper than putting someone up in a motel and paying for mileage ... or opening a branch office and staffing it."
Having greater control of time and being able to spend more of it with family are two main advantages of working from home, Sok said.
"My main reason was I have two kids, and I didn't really have a reliable day-care person to take care of them," Sok said. "My older son is a special-needs child, and so I wanted to spend more time with him."
Read More on this woman's work at home success (http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/8672411.htm)