Bathrobe business

Live Anywhere Be At Work Tomorrow LABAWT (la'bat) provides a win-win for employers and employees, says Ray Moore, chief executive officer of the new Reno-based company.

Hiring workers under contract to handle computer work is an old idea, but Moore aims to eliminate the expense of keeping contractors physically on the job site. It's common, even on a year-long assignment, for companies to fly computer contractors in Monday and out Friday.

"So much money is wasted on transporting contractors to the job," he says. "And human creativity is squandered in the daily commute."

LABAWT addresses the problem by keeping contractors in their home offices or homes, for that matter where they work virtually.

Moore knows the drill first hand, having worked as a remote contractor for five years. He's logged 25 years work in information technology, including corporate turn-arounds and understands employers' reluctance to go the virtual route.

For instance, says Moore, some managers are not comfortable supervising contract workers even on-site.

LABAWT clients fill out a weekly evaluation form and if there's a problem, Moore will troubleshoot directly with the contractor.

LABAWT Inc. patented its business methods on how to manage contractors, and its business plan incorporates advice gleaned from The Rich Dad Co. and the Nevada Small Business Development Center at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Moore's first goal is to place 100 contractors in 100 days. Finding the contractors is easy, he says. Each ad posted on Web sites such as Craigslist draws up to 100 contractors a day who want to become members.

Finding clients is harder.

"There's a lot of competition," says Moore. In Atlanta, his former home base, as many as 200 companies placed contract workers.

"But most were mom-and-pop operations, who took in several jobs a year and just wanted to make a living," he says.

On the other end of the spectrum, he says, are the big placement companies that fly as many as 3,000 contractors to job sites each year.

Moore chose to locate LABAWT in Reno because The Rich Dad Co. books recommended Wyoming and Nevada as fertile grounds for start-up companies. Nevada's favorable climate and great outdoors clinched the deal.

Equally important, says Moore: Reno is home to a host of potential clients with whom to start placing workers. He points to Micro-soft, Cisco, Oracle, GameTech, and a host of banks and slot machine manufacturers.

"The company will be profitable in year one," he predicts.

Meanwhile, Moore is staffing up. True to the LABAWT promise, he can live anywhere and be at work currently a home office at Somersett.

But he plans to hire 10 by year-end, starting with a personal assistant and including a director of operations and director of marketing. Later, he plans to open a satellite office to facilitate communications among the staff.

Even as he launches the company, Moore is looking toward the end game. He's structured LABAWT either to undertake a public stock offering or to be acquired.