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Homegrown businesses take flight
Home-based businesses are on the rise, but they are not new. Reminder Publications (publishers of Business-to-Business Magazine and five other locally-produced news products) is just one of the many examples of a successful home-based businesses from our region. The Reminder, our free weekly newspaper, started in 1962 at Carlo and Anne Buendo's kitchen table. Carlo had been selling for a radio station and after the 100th person told him they "didn't need an ad on the big radio station, they simply needed to reach a five-to-10 mile radius around their business". the idea for The Reminder was born.
With a $5,000 loan from the then-Shawmut Bank and the dream and drive of two entrepreneurs, the first Reminder was launched eight pages on a typewriter with limited graphics and much promise. The paper took off and soon the Buendos needed to move out of the kitchen and into a small rented office.
Today, Reminder Publications occupies 7,000 square feet on North Main Street in East Longmeadow.
The path from your kitchen table to running a profitable, growing business is easily explained, but difficult to enact. Make sure that you enjoy the journey. If we can offer just one bit of advice it would be this. Remember that the journey from start-up to success will most likely not be a straight line upward. Instead, it will most likely be a series of ups and downs, successes and failures, gains and losses. Here is the good news. Did you know that every plane that has ever taken flight spends 99.9 percent of its journey off-course? That's right from the second the wheels leave the ground the pilot is constantly making minor adjustments due to wind speed, weather, etc.
So, think of yourself as a pilot steering your home-based business. You know your destination, but be prepared to make constant adjustments along your journey.
We wish you much success and happiness along the way.
Sincerely,
Chris & Dan Buendo
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