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When Millie Szerman appeared on the front cover of Money magazine wearing nothing but a bubble bath, a red telephone and a smile, the business world sat up and took notice. Szerman runs her public relations and marketing consulting firm New Directions from her home office and has been doing this for more than two decades. In April '96 Millie hosted two online forums on home based businesses for America Onlines's "Your Business Lunch" chatroom. In October of that year, Home Office Computing magazine profiled her on paying oneself a salary. The next month CNBC featured Millie in an interview about successful home-based businesses.

The daughter of Czechoslovakian immigrants who fled the Holocaust and landed in New York, Millie learned how to survive at an early age on little to nothing. She is a self-starter and an overachiever.

Out of the estimated 30 million Americans who work some kind of business at home, I was one of four featured in Money magazine's March '96 issue. When the issue was published and became the best-selling newsstand issue in the magazine's history, it was obvious that this was and still is, a hot topic. Of course, the picture of me in a bubble bath on the cover didn't hurt sales, either. But the lifestyle that that bubble bath represented-someone who has the luxury of taking a business call in the tub-drew in thousands of readers who yearned for this kind of lifestyle.

Little did I know that more than three years later, I would still be fielding readers' questions about working and/or starting a business from home-questions like: "How did you know that you could be successful at home? How did you get started? How did you decide what you wanted to do? How do I ...? How should I handle ...?" I've spent hours and hours answering these questions, received piles of letters and megabytes of online requests. And it still hasn't died.

There are a number of very helpful books on the market today, and this one is not meant to replace them. There are how-to books that describe what to do and what not to do. There are books on which ideas make for good home-based businesses. There are books on how to set up a home-based office. There are books on how to start a home-based family business. But based on our research, there is no book that covers your self-awareness and how it relates to your success as a home-based entrepreneur.

If you're reading this and saying to yourself, "This woman is from California! Of course she's talking about awareness," you're right. No apologies for geographical reputation. But that doesn't mean that self-awareness in home-based businesses is any less important in other parts of the country. We West Coast folks just tend to admit it more readily!

A View From the Tub is not a typical "how-to" book. It will give you practical suggestions, ideas, recommendations and guidelines for your work-from-home lifestyle and for starting a successful home-based business. But it is not a paint-by-numbers kit. After all, you're unique, and so are your lifestyle, your experience and your abilities. I may not discuss your exact case, but I will offer you information that you can apply directly to your individual situation. This book will bring to light the myriad aspects of running a home-based operation, because being home-based requires an entirely different set of rules and considerations than other work environments.

This book is meant to be an inspiring and practical guide to working from home.

She's also placed an ad in the "Yearbook of Experts, Authorities and Spokespersons," which is distributed to the media nationwide.