Kate Lister

I’ve been working from home for over 20 years and wouldn’t have it any other way. Fortunately, I learned at an early age that pantyhose, water cooler chit-chat, and interminable meetings weren’t for me. Over the years I’ve run three businesses from the comfort of my home. As I sit here now, in my underwear, with one cat massaging my hip and the other one snuggling with my Mac G5, I pity the poor souls who are battling I-5 on the way to their nine-to-fives (hah, more like seven-to-sevens).

I started my career in banking and spent six years as a commercial lender with two of the nation’s largest banks. The daily commute on the Sure-Kill Expressway (Philadelphian’s nickname for I-76, the Schuylkill Expressway), convinced me to start my own home-based consulting business. I think the final straw, make that straws, was the mattress that flew off the truck I was following and blanketed my windshield. On the other hand, it really may have been the pantyhose. It’s hard to say which was more traumatic.

Problem was, even running my own business I was still wearing pantyhose most of the time. Then I met an entrepreneur, whose business, like many of my clients, was on the bleeding edge of technology. After desperately trying to help him raise money for his venture, I reluctantly recommended he quit while he was behind. It was Tom who introduced me to flying with a ride in his 1920’s open cockpit biplane. And it was love at first flight. One thing led to another and the two of us decided to ditch the rat race, trade our business suits for flightsuits, and try make a living flying biplane rides.

One little problem with the concept—Philadelphia’s weather. We either had to move somewhere we could fly year-round or go back to real jobs—and pantyhose. Be afraid, be very afraid. So, with the aid of modern technology, we did an analysis of national weather statistics. Our search specified sunny skies a minimum of 300 days a year, annual precipitation of less than 15″, and average temperatures of at least 60 degrees. Sound like anyplace you know? Yup, Phoenix. Hmm, how many people do you figure would want to climb in an un-air conditioned airplane when it’s 110 outside even if it is, as everyone who lives there will tell you, just dry heat. The plane does have a great big fan up front, but somethin’ told us to keep looking. One small change to our weather model was all we needed to bring San Diego to the radar. Finally we had the intellectual justification for the emotional decision already made.

About a month later we packed our bags (a very small one) and headed west in a 1929 biplane in the middle of winter? In fact, it was the worst winter Philadelphia had seen in decades. Open cockpit, 16 degrees. Can you spell ‘windchill’? We left tracks in the snow on takeoff, and somehow endured six days of flight in sub-freezing temperatures before finally landed in the warm Sunny Diego. Over the next 16 years we expanded the fleet to 7 airplanes, and turned Barnstorming Adventures into the largest vintage airplane ride business in the country. But even a fun business like Barnstorming can get old after a while so in 2006 we sold the business to a nice couple who continue to share the dream.

What does all this have to do with undressing for success? It may be hard to imagine, but for the most part, we ran the flying business from home in our underwear. We had 25 pilots who did the flying (not in their underwear), and a virtual answering service fielded the phone calls. The woman who ran the pilot shop at the airport maintained the flight schedule and greeted guests. Our time was spent rounding up folks to fill the planes. Fortunately, making spectacles of ourselves was something that came naturally, and that knack served us well in attracting media attention. Seldom a week went by without an article or TV spot about us somewhere in the world. Our quirky web site was our primary method of chumming for customers, and that’s where most of our marketing effort went. And boy did it pay off. All accomplished while working at home.

Along the way we wrote two books: Finding Money: A Small Business Guide To Financing and The Directory of Venture Capital—both published by John Wiley & Sons. We’re working on a third book now: Undress For Success: The Naked Truth About Making Money From Home. It’s all about how to find a job or start a business you can run from home. Coming soon to a bestseller shelf near you! In the meantime, stay tuned here for lots of free advice about making the road less traveled your way to work.

Tom Harnish

After college and a stint as a Navy flyer, I “went to school” at Booz, Allen & Hamilton as a Consulting Scientist, and then became a Senior Scientist at OCLC, an amazing international computer services company. While I loved both jobs, I knew deep down I really wasn’t cut out for the world of suits.

For the past 25 years, the entrepreneurial call of the wild defined my path. Some ventures worked. Some were, um, learning experiences. But after spending the last two decades working from home, I can’t imagine ever going back to a ‘real job.’ Well, actually I did recently consider applying for what would be my dream job—running cameras on a spacecraft—but my game plan was to convince them to let me telecommute. What’s another few miles compared to 142 million miles to Mars?

Now don’t get me wrong, we may work in a comfortable setting (it’s Southern California and we really do have an office with a hot tub in it—and an ocean view), but we work our butts off to earn a home-based living. The nice thing, they say, about running your own business is you only have to work half a day—the issue is which 12 hours. But we don’t mind because both Kate and I love what we do, and we love working 6 feet from each other.

But here’s the big difference—we choose when, where, and how hard we work. No one watches us (except the cats). No one second guesses what we’re doing. There are few meetings, and when there are it’s usually on the back patio or in the hot tub. And best of all, Kate doesn’t have to wear pantyhose (Tom neither, for that matter). In the end, all that matters is what we accomplish. If we’re not productive, we don’t eat. It’s that simple.

For more about us visit EncoreAdventures.com, Home-Based Business Expert at EvanCarmichael, Tailspin’s Tales, Wow! Really? and our Flickr sites here and here.

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