FOR ELLEN PARLAPIANO, DEVISING daily strategies to keep her two toddlers quiet while she worked from home during the early 1990s became nothing short of a battle to keep her career as a magazine editor intact.

On days when the Scarsdale, N.Y., mom didn't hire a sitter, she put a thick rug down in her office to dampen the noise of tears and shrieks. For important phone calls she brought out toys like glitter stickers. And for really important calls she pulled out the "emergency toys" — instant attention-grabbers like wind-up marching feet and cans of play-dough — items she knew would quiet the kids down in a pinch.

It wasn't long, though, before Parlapiano saw that all this chaos spelled opportunity. Today, the now 47-year-old mom has marshaled her survival tips into two successful books — "Mompreneurs" and "Mompreneurs Online," the sales of which helped her launch her own Web-based advice and consulting business, which she now runs almost entirely from home.

Running a home-based business is tough under any circumstances. But it's even tougher when you're trying to impress your clients with reports covered with crayon scribbles. Think it's hard to concentrate while your chatty co-worker spills the details of the previous night's date? Wait until you're trying to devise a clever marketing scheme with a 3-year-old wailing in the background.

Of course, many moms would have it no other way. "The freedom and flexibility to work around my kids and my life — that's definitely the biggest draw for me," says 39-year-old Lesley Spencer, who quit her job as a tour guide at a golf school in Austin, Texas, to start the Home-Based Working Moms Association.

Thinking about becoming a Mompreneur yourself? Here are some tips.

1. Ease Into the Water

If you're currently at a company that allows you to work from home part-time, find out if you can try doing so for a few months before making any big decisions, advises Spencer. See if you can tolerate being in your house for hours on end and work happily with little interaction from those whose age is above a single digit. Find yourself flipping on the tube, doing chores, or constantly tending to your children? Then starting a home-based business might not be right for you.

Instead, look to work for a company that has mom-friendly policies. Each year Working Mother Magazine compiles a list of the top 100. If you're devoted to a smaller company or one that didn't make the list, you might ask your employer to consider implementing some of these corporations' family-friendly perks, like flexible scheduling, job shares, and on-site daycare facilities.

2. Consider the Type of Business You'd Like to Start

The label "Mompreneur" can refer to many different types of home-based businesses — some of which may require a lot more work than others.

Many moms go the direct-sales route, peddling everything from body butter to bread mix. Part of the appeal of these jobs is that you can set your own hours, combine socializing with work and potentially make good money. A stalwart in this industry is, of course, Avon which generated close to $8 billion in revenue and, to date, has signed up almost five million independent representatives. Home-party sales businesses, in which sellers stage Tupperware-style parties in their own or their friends' homes, have also been rediscovered in the last few years. Some of the hottest new products: hand-crafted jewelry and, believe it or not, sex toys.

Of course, if you've never had any experience making cold calls, knocking on doors, or speaking in public, you might want to think hard about hawking liquid lawn fertilizer from your living room. Starting your own business may hold more appeal, but it most likely requires significantly more work and capital. Be prepared to live lean for at least a few months — or quite possibly a few years.

3. Don't Get Ripped Off

According to the Federal Trade Commission, there are at least three classic work-at-home scams: medical billing, assembly or craft work, and envelope stuffing.

In a medical-billing scheme, a company or promoter may ask you to use your computer to process paper medical records for doctors or dentists. Sounds perfect for a tech-savvy mom who wants to set her own hours, right? The FTC reports that many consumers shell out an initial investment between $2,000 and $8,000 for the promised support of an experienced sales staff with contacts in the medical community. Only later do they realize that they themselves are responsible for selling their services to the doctors' offices, which means they rarely, if ever, manage to land clients or recoup their initial investment costs.

The latter is also true for assembly and craft scams, in which you agree to construct products like baby shoes, potpourri sachets or silk flower arrangements at home and then have the company buy back the finished product from you. The company may ask you to buy expensive equipment upfront — sewing machines or assembling guns — and in the end may refuse to pay you because the finished products do not meet their "quality standards."

Envelope-stuffing scammers may make a pitch that requires you to recruit others, and instead of paying you for stuffing envelopes, they may only pay up when you bring other people into the scheme.

4. Create Clear Boundaries

Parlapiano, author of the "Mompreneur" series, recommends an office space with a lockable door, a separate phone line, and ways to clearly mark your office space as a place for business. If the kids will be around, childproof it the way you would any other room, and put your most important materials in locked drawers and cabinets.

You also need to set up personal boundaries. When your work is at home, there's always the temptation to keep on working. Spencer's association is currently working on launching a new Web site, HireMyMom.com, where member moms can display portfolios of their work. Because she's so excited about the idea, the temptation is to work on it at all hours. "At 10:00 last night I was debating whether I should come down and work on the new site," she says.

So, remember, the idea here is about spending more time with your family, not less.