Raise builders, not employees.
An online community and a yearly conference where home educating families learn to build home businesses together. Started at a kitchen table in 1999.
What we believe
- 01
What worked in the Industrial Revolution no longer works.
- 02
Education should be entrepreneurial and built on service.
- 03
Seek God first, then find your gifts as early as you can.
Three ways in, whatever your family is ready for.
Free
Read the book
10 Things Mama Rhea Taught Her Children About Home Business. Sent to your inbox.
Every year since 2001
The Home Business Conference
Four days at a state park lodge where teens and parents learn business from people who run one. English country dancing every night.
See the conference
Join the community
Monthly Zoom, video library, course, and private groups for families building businesses.
The best field trip of the year.
Most professional events will not let a teenager in the door. This one was built for them. Teens who came years ago now own businesses, and some came back as speakers.
- When
- Every year since 2001. Four days.
- Where
- Most recently Lakepoint State Park, Eufaula, Alabama.
- Price
- One price per family. Members pay less.
- Who
- Whole families. Attendees as young as 8; over a third are teens and young adults.
From the Backside of Nowhere.
The Perrys named their Tennessee farm the Backside of Nowhere. What happened there became a community of families across the country.
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1987
School starts at home
Rhea and Wendell Perry begin home educating. Wendell, a former public school teacher, wants the children to be more than educated. He wants them financially free.
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1997
The Backside of Nowhere
The family leaves town for a farm in southern Tennessee. Drew, 14, decides the family needs to bring Dad home from corporate America.
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2001
One hundred people on the farm
Members ask to see what the Perrys do for school. One hundred people from 18 states come to a one-day event at the farm. Four fly in.
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2004
Drew brings Dad home
At 21, Drew has built a system for selling houses on eBay, over 70 of them, 12 in one auction. He replaces his father's income and Wendell comes home.
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2010
Loss, and a business that held
Wendell dies of cancer one day after their 33rd anniversary, with four children still at home. The same year Rhea wins Armand Morin's Better Your Best award for the most improved online business.
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2026
Still gathering families
The Home Business Conference met at Lakepoint State Park in Eufaula, Alabama. Some of this year's speakers first came to it as teenagers.
Families who came to the table.
Scroll sideways to read more.
Rhea, I love the way you paint the picture of your work day, revealing what is possible. I appreciate your vision to make that happen.
You are a true inspiration, example, and mentor to others. Grateful for you.
Christina Brown Community member Went from unemployed to editing major publications. Named Protégé of the Year in 2006, she cut up her WIC card on stage at Entrepreneur Days.
Left a job to sell books on eBay. Using what the group shared, the family met its goal of living debt free in one year, with Michael home coordinating the business.
Dave left engineering to start a conference recording business from home. When he died in 2007, the business kept providing for Kay and the boys.
Displaced from Louisiana by Katrina and Rita, she took a few classes with the community and built a career as a webmaster.
Inside the membership.
Entrepreneurs of all ages, from all over the world, educating themselves to succeed in home business. Here is what you get.
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Monthly Zoom meeting
Second Monday of every month. Members share what is working and what is stuck. Recordings stay in the library.
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Home Education for Home Business video library
Sessions from the 2015 to 2018 conferences: real business owners teaching families how they did it.
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Foundations of Entrepreneurial Education course
Rhea's own course on educating teens toward home business instead of a job.
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Business book summaries
Recommended reading with summaries so a busy parent can get the idea before committing to the book.
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Private Facebook and Discord groups
Ask anything, any time, from a community that has been at this since 1999.
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Member pricing at the conference
Members get a lower family price for the yearly Home Business Conference.
A word for widows.
In 2010 Rhea lost her husband Wendell one day after their 33rd anniversary. She was 55 and four of their seven children were still at home. The small Internet business she had built is what carried the family.
She now runs a program for widows who need to work through grief and build an income from home so the family can stay together. If that is you, start with an hour.
Start with the free book.
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