Home Offices.(the small office/home office market)

They've got unique needs and tremendous spending power. Tap into this growing-- yet often elusive--market

THEY MAKE UP 89 PERCENT of all business owners, earn more than the average U.S. worker and make all the purchasing decisions for their companies. They're also well-educated and notoriously hard to categorize. What makes the home office market tick?

"The small office/home office (SoHo) market is hot right now because most of the new mailers are small businesses themselves," says Missy Root, list manager at American List Counsel. Yet some of these efforts may have been missing the mark.

"These are not simply small businesses but micro-enterprises, some of which are working with very small budgets," says Beverley Williams, president of the American Association of Home-Based Businesses. At the SoHo Summit in San Diego last April, all Williams heard was, "'We have the perfect product or service for the home-based market.'" She continues, "What these marketers are forgetting is that the only thing this group has in common is the location of the office."

So many entrepreneurs have been inundated with poorly aimed direct marketing approaches over the last several years that most have become "disdainful and wary" of these kind of efforts, warns Williams.

Disheartened? Don't be.

"This has traditionally been a wonderfully responsive group because they have more time to look at and respond to direct advertising," says Richard Baumer, president of Venture Direct Worldwide. And with an average income of around $57,000, these workers also have more money to spend. Early adopters of high-tech products and services, home-based workers are often as dependent upon their computers as they are on their telephones as a connection to the outside world.