Don't Sweat the Small StuffThere's bound to be a simple solution.

Working from home has its perks, but what about the drawbacks?From barking dogs to faulty phone lines, homebased business ownerscan have mini- crises on their hands at any given moment. As thefollowing entrepreneurs demonstrate, however, it's all in howyou handle the situation.

ChristineJohansen-Hewitt
Second Chance Marketing
Middlesex, Vermont
I live in a rural area in Vermont, where I'm doing a veryhigh-tech job in a very low-tech area. One morning I woke up, gotmy cup of coffee, came down to my home office and realized none ofmy phone lines was working. I had a major conference call scheduledwith a client for the next morning at 11 o'clock. The nextmorning, the problem still wasn't fixed. I didn't want tohave to reschedule the call, so I took my cell phone downtown whereI could get a signal. I ended up camping out in the tanning room atmy gym, holding a conference call on my cell phone with Israel andBoston. Since then, I've made arrangements with several friendsof mine who have office space in downtown to borrow a spare desk incase something like that ever happens again.