Working out of a home office

I was talking with someone last week who has a great product idea for the mass market. He asked me if it would be necessary for him to invest in setting up an office/warehouse before approaching the big retailers. I told him that no, it wasn't necessary given all of the technologies available today. In fact, it's down-right easy for someone working out of his or her home to appear to outsiders as a much larger business--particularly if you're able to outsource parts of your operation. This has worked really well for one of our companies for almost five years now and we sell our products to Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Kroger and lots of other giant retailers. We're able to do this by outsourcing as much as we can (call center, EDI, manufacturing, warehousing, etc). It's not so much the outside appearance of your company that matters but whether or not you're able to do what you say and fulfill your obligations. Here's a website that's got some great resources for home-based entrepreneurs: HomeOfficeLife.com.