(Orange County Register, The (CA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Feb. 6--A marketing vice president for a moving company owns an online travel service.

An auto mechanic owns a tool retailer.

A secretary owns a party supply rental business.

These Orange County residents are among millions of Americans who are both employees and entrepreneurs. More than half of all businesses start at home, and Home Business magazine estimates that three-fourths of them begin as part-time endeavors.

The owners sacrifice free time, and not just for the money. They want to have a low-risk run at entrepreneurship, set up a business for retirement or have other personal goals. While keeping a day job reduces the financial risk of starting a business, those who have them may face the ethical problem of divided loyalties.

Dee Elliot is vice president of sales and marketing at Executive Moving Systems in Anaheim. Her husband, Mark, is general manager for the Summit House Restaurant in Fullerton. The desire to run a business together was part of the Irvine couple's motivation in starting YouGottaGoTravel.com, an online travel service.

The business, part of YTB Travel Network based in Chicago, can take reservations for everything from airline tickets to car rentals. A key component is managing sites that raise funds for nonprofit organizations through commissions on trips booked by their supporters.

"I have a heart for nonprofits, and they can get 60 percent of the commissions back, which is a good money maker for them," Dee Elliot says.

Jason Page started Page Auto Supply as an online store selling tools on eBay in 2004 "because I don't want to be a mechanic anymore." The site grosses $25,000 a month, enough to allow Page's wife, Joni, to quit her job as an animal control officer in Santa Ana to handle the business. When the site makes $10,000 a month in profits, Page says he will quit his job at J&S Automotive in Costa Mesa.

"I've always wanted to own a business. I just didn't know what I wanted to do," he says.

Irvine safety inspector Bill Moore also has an eBay store selling military-themed T-shirts and related products called Milstuff4U. He retires in less than four years and wants to build the business for extra income in retirement.

"I don't want to sit idle," he says. "I can work at it as hard as I want, and when I don't want to do it anymore, I can turn it over to my daughter and son-in-law."

The extra income of a side business is nice, says Norma Prado, a secretary at Refugio Para Nios in Orange, who runs Norma's Party Rentals in Santa Ana on the weekends.

"I'm a single mom with three kids; I have to make ends meet."

But she has another motivation for the part-time business she chose to start.

"I want to keep my kids busy and out of trouble. They spend several hours a week cleaning the jumpers (inflatable playgrounds for children), tables and chairs, and they help me deliver and pick up on the weekends," Prado says. "When my son gets his driver's license, he can do his own route."

Shari Young has yet another reason for starting MyDoggiesDayCare in Rancho Santa Margarita while working as many as 60 hours a week to publish Today's Woman magazine for Liberty Publications West.

She can't seem to stop.

Young used to own a magazine in the Midwest and a catering business.

"I have thrived throughout my adult life on new challenges. I'm a glutton for punishment," she says.

All those interviewed for this story said their employers know about their side businesses, but they are careful not to conduct business while on the job.

Elliot says she never talks about YouGottaGoTravel.com at work.

Joseph Spiegel says he knows all about employee Page's eBay tool business.

"How can I object? I'm a Republican; I believe in prosperity," Spiegel says. "He's the best mechanic I've ever had so I'm very concerned he will leave, but I'm not going to hold him back."

Prado says she makes sure to give 110 percent at work so there's no question that Norma's Party Rentals is detracting from her job productivity.

Doggie day care entrepreneur Young also makes sure to do quality work for her employer, Liberty Publishing.

"As long as I keep performance numbers where they need to be, they don't care," she says. "But if I didn't have job flexibility, I couldn't do it. I work out of my home so if I were needed at the (doggie) day care, I could run over there knowing I could make up the work at 8 at night."

Technology and the Internet were essential for Young to start MyDoggiesDayCare while holding a job.

"I did all the research about permits and zoning and communications with vendors on the Internet at 4 o'clock in the morning," she says.

"I communicate by e-mail with the managers and my partner. I literally don't have to go (to MyDoggiesDayCare) at all." Unlike many part-time business owners, Young needs employees because she cannot do all the work herself.

She hired two managers who are well known in the community and an outside bookkeeper.

"When I was young, I had good mentors who helped me," Young says, "so it's nice to be able to do that for my managers." The Elliots, Moore and Page also rely on technology.

"Everything can be done by computer today," Dee Elliot says.

"When we travel, every hotel has a business center. I can get into my system at home from anywhere."

As a marketing executive, Elliot appreciates the importance of marketing to her part-time venture.

"On our Web site, we market to drive traffic there, and to our (nonprofit) associations we are training them to market to their base of supporters to book travel through their sites," she says.

"Most nonprofits don't want to push, but you have to market to be successful."

YTB Travel Network and eBay handle many of the Web site details for their networks, and in eBay's case, the world's biggest online auction actually brings potential customers to the sellers.

Moore, owner of MilStuff4U, started selling on eBay in 2002. After deciding in 2004 to treat his endeavors as a business, he attended eBay conventions that offered classes in everything from marketing to tax law.

A part-time business, while financially less risky than a full-time commitment, is still hard to do.

"It takes a certain personality" to handle a job while running a business, says Dee Elliot of YouGottaGoTravel.com. "You have to remain focused and change hats extremely quickly."

Prado says party rental competition is stronger than she anticipated when she invested the proceeds from selling her house to the business startup.

"I didn't research well enough; there are hundreds of people renting out party jumpers," she says. Many people "try to get the price down, but I know my costs."

She and her children spend several hours a week distributing fliers in residential areas, and Prado has developed relationships to get referrals from party rental services that don't have jumpers.

As a part-time business grows, so do the sacrifices.

EBay tool seller Page estimates he gets four hours of sleep a night.

"Normally I ship out products in the morning before I go to work," he says.

"Every day I'm doing more and more. I'm a workaholic. That's all I do.

"You hear those infomercials that people can make $100,000 working four hours a day. They're lying," he says.

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