Home-Based Businesses Find Place in Village

There is more to the business community in Lake in the Hills than meets the eye.

When driving along Algonquin and Randall roads, you see many businesses filling the commercial centers.

But beyond those on the main thoroughfares are hundreds more businesses in the village, tucked into homes, garages and even backyards.

Lake in the Hills Assistant Village Administrator Shannon Andrews said there are approximately 238 home-based businesses in LITH.

The village requires all businesses to register each year, and pay a $10 registration fee, which helps the community keep track of who is doing business and what kind of businesses they have, Andrews said.

This year, the village has 605 total businesses registered.

The number of home-based businesses has been pretty consistent for the past several years, Andrews said, and usually hovers around 30 to 40 percent of the total number of businesses in the community.

Wide Variety of Home Businesses

The type of home-based businesses is pretty much everything you could imagine, from astrologers, to daycare owners to quilters.

The highest percentage, she said, are in the general business category, with 28 registered in that area.

Second, she said, are people offering retail sales on the Internet, with 21 of those, and then 20 who offer computer services.

Some start small in their homes, and then eventually move to storefronts. And some are just geared more toward always being a home-based business.

Whatever they do, they offer much to the community, Andrews said, from sales tax to a stronger sense of community.

“Ideally, some may have storefront locations in the future, and we work to have a relationship with home-based businesses to help advance them and move them on to bigger and better things,” she said.

“What we like to do is encourage or support these businesses to ensure they continue to be successful whatever they’re doing,” she said. “Their success is what helps make the village of Lake in the Hills more successful.

The Benefits of Being Own Boss

Theresa Sakas is one of the community’s home-based business owners.

For the past six years, she has been selling Shaklee products out of her home.

She was in the corporate world for 20 years, and decided she needed a change.

She had been using Shaklee products for many years, and decided to start selling the products, which promote health and wellness through natural products.

Sakas’ home office, in the older part of Lake in the Hills, is her home base.

She often has clients into her home. But she also meets them in their homes and at places such as Panera, and does sales on the Internet.  

“This is what I love to do and I just really help people be able to live healthier,” she said. “Corporate American was no longer fulfilling and I wanted to be my own boss and manage my own time."

Others Cite Economy as Reason for Home Business

Tom Ruzinok also runs a business out of his Lake in the Hills home.

In addition to working elsewhere, he has two home businesses -– Toms Rain Barrels and Mia Bella’s Gourmet candles.

Toms Rain Barrels sells water conservation products, including rain barrels and diverters. Ruzinok also does installations of his products through the business, which he runs with his son.

For the past two years, Ruzinok has also been selling gourmet candles through Mia Bella Gourmet Candle products. The candles are 90 percent soot free, and come in scents from a high-end fragrance company in Europe, he said.

He said he started the candle selling business thinking it would give him some work during the off-season in the winter from his rain barrel business.

However, he said, he’s found that people are looking for rain barrels all year-long, even as Christmas presents.

So, he said, he continues to work at both home-based businesses throughout the year.

For his business, people come to his home, and he also goes to trade shows to offer his conservation products. 

For now, he said, he’s happy doing business from his Lake in the Hills home.

“Right now I’m happy doing this. It gives me some advantages. Right now in today’s economy, I choose to stay in the home-based business,” he said. “It adds another business to the community and also a closeness, as you meet your neighbors and other people through the community,” he said.