''This was before people were using the Internet,'' Gore noted, making distance learning a somewhat more complicated process. Still she persevered in the program, which examined the effects of technological change on society. Immediately, Gore honed in on the issue of telecommuting, a phenomenon that had first taken off in California in the mid-1980s.

''The more I started studying it, the more I thought, 'This could work anywhere,' '' she said. So in 1994, Gore started a Nashville-based firm called Office at Home Outsourcing. The firm's name was changed in 2000 to OffSite Works after research found a certain stigma attached to the original name. '''Home' just makes it sound like it's a little tiny business,'' Gore explained.

Indeed, the business is no longer tiny. OffSite Works had revenue of $260,000 in 2001, and Gore, 59, is projecting $400,000 for 2002. The company serves as a broker of home-based contract workers for about 120 Middle Tennessee businesses representing many industries.

About 60% of the jobs involve some type of data entry, such as word and claims processing, mail merging and database development. That type of work is usually paid on a piece rate. The firm also has more technically oriented workers such as computer programmers and desktop publishers, Gore said, who often charge by the hour or by the job.

''We do a cost-benefit analysis for the client before we start the work, and then quarterly,'' so the company can see it's saving money by outsourcing its tasks, Gore said.

Phil Fratesi, coordinator of the Susan G. Komen Foundation's Race for the Cure event, used OffSite Works to build a database from entry forms of more than 7,000 participants. ''Denise did a fabulous job and had it turned around in no time,'' Fratesi said.

Since the firm's inception, the focus has moved from project work toward ongoing contracts, Gore said.

She has had little trouble finding home-based workers, who come to OffSite Works primarily through word-of-mouth. Of the roughly 100 workers she has on her roster, 80% are female, ''but we do have some stay-at-home dads, too,'' she added.

All of the teleworkers are independent contractors, meaning they pay their own employment taxes and receive no health insurance or other benefits. Gore has two full-time employees who help run the company — an operations manager and a marketing manager.

Gore is well-versed as a manager herself, having served as regional vice president of Home Interiors & Gifts, a Dallas-based direct sales company. From her Nashville home, she oversaw a five-state region with 100 managers and 3,000 salespeople. ''I loved training and recruiting,'' Gore noted, ''but three or four years before my 20th year (with the company), I was at loose ends because I had accomplished my goals.''

At that point, the idea of owning her own business began to take shape.

Throughout her long management career, ''I always expected people to do a good job,'' Gore said. ''And I've learned through the years that you tend to get what you expect.''

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