By Sarah Light, staff writer

During the day her kitchen becomes her reception area and her living room becomes her workspace.

And though it may be tight quarters to have her business in her already small 750-square foot home, home-based business owner Debb Peterson of Serenity Massage, said she wouldn&8217;t have it any other way.

&8220;Things have led me to this, and this is where I was meant to be,&8221; said Peterson, who has run the massage therapy business for about four years. &8220;It allows me to pursue my passions. And I don&8217;t have to deal with the rat race of the corporate world.&8221;

Peterson is one of many Albert Lea home-based business owners who have said goodbye to a typical job to do what they love in the convenience of their own homes.

She has decorated her home in a way similar to what might be found at any other massage therapy business with candles, low lights and soft music.

She said working as a home-based business owner has given her benefits such as a flexibility in her schedule and an independence from other demands such as having to drive to work.

The business lifestyle also comes with drawbacks, such as the difficulty of getting started financially, she said. Working for herself, there&8217;s also no insurance program, and, she joked, she always has to keep the house clean.

But the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks, she said.

&8220;I had wanted to do it for a long time,&8221; Peterson said. &8220;An opportunity presented itself, and I took it.&8221;

Patty Hove, another home-based business owner, said she opened her pet grooming business out of her basement so that she could be with her family.

As a mother of a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old, she said that working at home allows her to be available to fill any needs that may come up.

&8220;I wanted to earn my keep and be able to do it and raise a family at the same time staying home,&8221; Hove said. &8220;I love working out of my home.&8221;

&8220;The main focus is I&8217;m there. I&8217;m there for whatever needs are needed,&8221; she said. &8220;I&8217;m there to answer the phone. If the kids need something at school I can run it out to them. I&8217;m a mom, and I run my business around my parenting.&8221;

Hove works five days a week from 8 a.m. usually until her children are finished with school.

Included in her benefits of running her pet grooming business from home is being able to do the things she wants to do, in the hours she wants to do them. She said the only drawback that she could think of was having people see her lived-in home.

&8220;But that&8217;s nothing,&8221; Hove said, with a laugh. &8220;It&8217;s a close community feeling with my business, and I thrive on that. It&8217;s hard to find a drawback.&8221;

She said she&8217;s known she wanted to groom dogs since high school.

&8220;There&8217;s always a way to work for your dreams, and that&8217;s what I got,&8221; she said. &8220;If you&8217;ve got a dream, no matter big or small, do it.&8221;

Another non-conventional worker, Dale Peterson of Fuller Brush Company, works out of his van going door-to-door to sell products made by the company.

He said he got started with Fuller Brush in 1970 because he wanted to do something different with his career.

And now that he&8217;s been doing it for more than 30 years, he said it&8217;d be hard for him to switch back.

&8220;I love it,&8221; he said. &8220;It&8217;d be hard for me to go to a plant where I&8217;d have to be there a certain time and punch in and punch out. I wouldn&8217;t be able to handle it after I&8217;ve experienced this. It&8217;s different than most every other job.&8221;

The Fuller Brush man works within a 50-mile radius of Albert Lea selling cleaning products, brooms and other similar items.

While he loves the flexibility involved with the job, he said the drawbacks for him are that he has to supply his own car, to find his own health insurance and to pay for his own gas.

But it&8217;s the customers that make it all worth it, he said. And now he&8217;s even calling on his second and third generations within the same family.

&8220;I have many wonderful customers,&8221; he said.