| OCR Text |
Show Small business could be answer to solving state's economic woes success, too." They also encourage people thinking about starting a business to talk to someone who is in that business. One woman who wanted to make chocolate suckers called the Hershey company and received re-ceived some good advice. She now employs 1 1 people and is shipping the suckers to several states. The second workshop looks at management skills needed to keep a business going, marketing, managing man-aging assets and setting prices. "Small, home-based businesses often price their product too low," says Rowe. "We tell them they can't determine prices by what the neighbors are willing to pay. You have to go where the customers are and find out what the product is worth to them." . . .The third workshop focuses' on taxes, employees, patents, trademarks trade-marks and coping with success. Bentley only half-jokingly says the worst thing is to fail but the second worst thing is to succeed. "You get to the point where you have to moe out of the basement or garage and the stakes go up," he says. "It takes money to make that move. A man in Monticello began making hardwood briefcases on which he laser-carves names or company logos. The Sharper Image, Im-age, which has stores in major cities and catalog sales throughout the country, contracted with him. That meant going into mass production pro-duction and growing. It took a lot of money and effort." Barbara Rowe says there are advantages to starting out small. "A person learns quickly if he or she is cut out for it," she says. "Many find the problems of running run-ning a business are not to their liking. lik-ing. And starting small and slowly evolving into a larger business is an easier process than starting as a full-scale business." The success of the workshops in helping many in Utah establish home-based businesses has resulted re-sulted in a demand for the services' outside the state. Thirty-eight states have contacted Bentley and Rowe and an organization has now been formed to take the workshops to most western states. The pair is also applying for a grant to do a nationwide study to look at the costs to a person going into business, the impact on families fami-lies and the stresses involved. Across the country community leaders attempt to entice big businesses into locating facilities in their area. Many of these communities com-munities would have more success if they encouraged home-based businesses owned and operated by local citizens, according to Marion Bentley, Utah State University Extension specialist in business and economic development. "Around Utah some businesses that started in homes and provided only part-time employment for one person are now employing several," sever-al," Bentley says. "Such a business busi-ness can be helpful in small rural communities where factories have closed and the farm economy is slow." Bentley and Barbara Rowe, USU Extension home management manage-ment specialists, have been traveling travel-ing throughout Utah presenting workshops on home-based businesses. The demand has been high. They have presented 60 workshops in nearly all of Utah's 29 counties. -There are three workshops in the home-based business series. The first explores getting started. "We discuss the kinds of skills needed and what opportunities there might be," says Bentley. "We ask people to do an analysis of the proposed business. Many decide not to pursue an idea after they look at it carefully . If someone decides not to start a business after looking at it, we consider that a |
