Home Office Revolution

True, not every job can be done from home, and not every worker has the discipline to work there. But imagine how much more could be accomplished during the time it takes the average employee to commute to work every day. And imagine how much more comfortable it would be to sit in front of the computer in shorts and a T-shirt rather than a suit, shirt and tie -- or heels.

The point has not been lost on many major companies, who are allowing more and more employees to work from home. CEOs and managers are even developing offices at home to compliment their at-work presence. In addition, an 18 million American entrepreneurs are chucking out the concept of a commercial office altogether, making a spare bedroom or den into company headquarters.

Computer Is King

The work-at-home revolution is directly related to the personal computer boom of the last 15 years. Home computers have become increasingly powerful, and work computers have become increasingly mobile. The result is greater adaptability: employees can complete computer-based assignments at home and bring their information to work via disk or laptop. With the addition of a telephone line, they can avoid going to the workplace altogether by calling into the employer's network server or by emailing fellow co-workers, bosses or clients. They can make their telephone calls. They can even conduct business meetings through video cameras or speakerphones.

And then there's the Internet, which has brought a whole new level of communication into the home, both from a work and entertainment angle. More users than ever plug into the World Wide Web on a daily basis. "Right now computers are outselling VCRs," says furniture retailer John Munzenrieder. "When you buy one, you have to have somewhere to put it."

From the viewpoint of retailers, the situation presents an obvious business opportunity.

Home Furniture Retailers Expand

Both traditional home furniture stores and department stores have dug into the sizzling home office market, attracting customers from all backgrounds and with all pocketbooks.

Perhaps the biggest piece of the local pie, however, has gone to Spectrum Office@ Home. The company is the brainchild of John Munzenrieder and Mike Dunnam, who also own Fort Myers-based Spectrum Home Furnishings.

Munzenrieder says the home office business has exceeded his highest expectations since it opened in December of 1997. The Office @ Home showrooms, located in Fort Myers and Naples, feature nothing but home office furniture. The selection ranges from lower-end groupings priced just above ready-to-assemble (RTA) pieces to an upper-end line that can be arranged almost like custom-made furniture. About 20 different manufacturers are presently represented at the stores, and more are likely to follow as Spectrum hunts out new talent at manufacturer trade shows.

Customer demand was the driving force behind the idea. "After seeing customer after customer come in and ask for this," Munzenrieder says, "we said we either need more room or another store."

Now the Spectrum @ Home stores draw clients of all backgrounds, from part-time residents looking for stow-away pieces to self-employed business owners who operate a full office at home. "Because we're such a unique store," Munzenrieder says, "people are just so happy to be here."

The business has also allowed the 15-year-old Spectrum chain to secure exclusive regional contracts with suppliers before the competition. "We're ahead of the game," Munzenrieder says, although he is quick to add that he expects much more competition in the years ahead.

Commercial Designers get Into the Act

Conventional office interior firms, once thought to handle only large-scale commercial accounts, have also expanded into the market. Most are quick to draw the distinction, however, between the world of retail and the world of commercial contract interiors.

Naples-based Sunbelt Office Furniture, for example, has dipped into the home office market by opening a branch location on U.S. 41 that is more geared toward the retail-type sales. The company is still very much an office interior firm, however, handling its larger-scale commercial accounts through its Horseshoe Drive location.

Owner Ben Conti has noticed an especially large surge in the ready-to-assemble pieces that can be bought in boxes and taken home tom assemble. These pieces can either be made of particle board, which can be found rather inexpensively, or from wood, which gets somewhat more expensive, usually in the $300 range.

Companies like the family-owned Sauder, for example, have experiences explosive growth. Sauder pioneered the RTA method by boxing pieces for easy delivery to retailers in the 1950s. Today the Ohio-based company does a $500 million-a-year business, seeling to stores such as Sears and Wal-Mart.

Although Conti agrees that home office furniture is very much in demand,however, he also points out that it is a very different market than that of commercial office interiors. Consumers looking for one or two pieces for the home, he says, are less informed than the commercial client, who usually buys dozens of pieces and works on a long-term basis for several projects. "It is a different world," he says.

Hal Atzingen, president of Naples-based Design Purchasing Network, has also seen an increase in clients looking for home offices, although DPN's focus remains on larger-scale commercial interiors. "There's no doubt that there's more and more offices working from the home," Atzingen says.

DPN will often design home groupings after completing commercial jobs -- a CEO will like the job the firm has done at headquarters, so he or she will ask for a similar arrangement at home.

Howard Grabow of Office Furniture and Design in Fort Myers, has seen customers from all ends, both walk-in traffic and projects generated from commercial contracts. His customers look for all types of products, from foldaway armoire pieces to complete groupings that closely mirror a traditional, durable office arrangement.

Grabow says many of his home office clients have jobs where they do not need to have constant contact with their bosses. They are usually regional sales representatives or consultants who do most of their work on the road or on the telephone. He also sees quite a few home-based entrepreneurs or working executives who need a complete, full-time office setting resembling commercial space. "The problem is that in most homes there's not a lot of space to spread out," he says.

The office furniture industry has responded with modular pieces that can be broken apart, folded up or rolled around to the most efficient location. The pieces can also be built