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Support Group Connects Home-Based Businesses

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Susan Hawfield had worked in a variety of office settings for years, so when she decided last March to start her own home-based business, she had some serious reservations.

“I didn’t want to just stick my face in front of a computer and be isolated from the world,” said the Ventura resident, a graphic artist who is currently a representative for American Communications Network, which recruits customers for LCI International Inc., a long-distance company. “I was very accustomed to being in one big room at my desk, working with people to come up with ideas.”

Dealing with isolation is one of the issues facing the growing number of home-based businesses owners, said Joseph Huggins, director of the Gold Coast Small Business Development Center in Ventura.

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To help these business owners deal with isolation and a host of other issues affecting them, Huggins has started a Home Based Business Support Group. The monthly group will hold its second meeting on Friday.

“It gives them an opportunity to get out of the house, meet with other home-based business owners and barter services,” Huggins said. “Each meeting we will have a small presentation on some aspect of working from home--the isolation associated with it, how to market, how to network, how to set up a computer system.”

Through his work with the Small Business Development Center, Huggins said, he has encountered many home-based business owners looking for advice.

“People have questions about how to get new customers, what kind of marketing materials to use, what kind of stationery or brochures they should have, tax deductions, dealing with family matters,” Huggins said. “We can deal with a lot of those issues.”

Huggins said the support group will likely include owners of a variety of businesses and should prove to be an effective networking forum.

Already, Hawfield said, she is exchanging graphic design work for the bookkeeping services of fellow member Diana Meisler, who runs DJM Business Services out of her Thousand Oaks home.

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Meisler said the collection of professionals at the support group should keep members up-to-date with the business world.

“In the area of technology and all the advances being made, it’s almost impossible for every person to be up-to-date on everything,” Meisler said. “Having different people from different sectors, someone will know one thing, someone will know another.”

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