Tech takes home offices to extremes

Forrester Research principal analyst Ted Schadler says three factors are fueling the rise in home-based businesses: 1) Growing broadband adoption. 2) Increased use of social media. Social-networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn help those who don't work in a bustling office to interact with others. 3) More business services that support entrepreneurs. Bookkeeping software such a Intuit QuickBooks and the increase of "cloud-computing" services that allow folks to store their data on easily accessible remote servers has made life easier for the home-based business owner.