CHICAGO -- Kick off your shoes and shrug off your suit, career women around the world are working in their bathrobes today, the 4th annual “Doing Business in Your Bathrobe Day.”

The event started in February 2003, the brainchild of work-at-home mother Kristie Rimmele, who’s operated a web-design business from her home in a Chicago suburb the past eight years.

At the time Tamsevicius conceived the idea for Doing Business in Your Bathrobe Day, she was marketing her book, I Love My Life: A Mom’s Guide to Working from Home. Hosting a Doing Business in Your Bathrobe Day, she thought, would be a fun way to generate publicity.

Working in your bathrobe, she explains, is just one of the many freedoms working from home allows entrepreneurs.

Not only did the event generate overwhelmingly positive response from the media, but also from entrepreneurs working from home all across the country, Tamsevicius says. Last year, entrepreneurs from as far as Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Australia joined in the festivities and participation continues to grow.

This year, WAHM.com, an online resource for work-at-home-mums and wannabes in Ireland and the UK, is awarding prizes in honor of the holiday.

In Australia, Business Mums Network is partnering with WebMomz.com, an online resource for home-based entrepreneurs that Tamsevicius co-founded with entrepreneur Michelle Floyd, in a month-long celebration -- Doing Business in Your Bathrobe Month -- in April.

Among festivities in the United States is a contest sponsored by WebMomz.com and InternationalRobes.com, also founded by a work-from-home entrepreneur, that will award bathrobes -- the international symbol of work-at-home entrepreneurs -- to winners.

Working from home is not new, Tamsevicius says, but it has become increasingly popular with both women and men. “Since 9/11 there has been a huge shift in people looking at their lives and deciding to take charge of their careers without sacrificing their families,” she observes.

Today, 4.5 million Americans work in home-based businesses that generate $427 billion in annual revenues, she reports.

It’s easier to start a home-based business today than it used to be, Tamsevicius continues. The Internet has slashed start-up and marketing costs, and given entrepreneurs access to potential customers all over the world.

However, she warns, there are some drawbacks. “Entrepreneurs need discipline,” she says. “They need to know that they are going to work. And, they need to be able to prioritize and focus. It takes some tricks to balance your time -- it’s not for everyone.”

There’s also a risk that the entrepreneur will begin to feel isolated. “There is no water cooler talk when you work in your living room,” she says, “so you need to find other ways to connect with people.”

WebMomz.com helps potential entrepreneurs identify their passions and potential businesses that match those aspirations, Tamsevicius says, and guides them through the start-up. WebMomz.com also provides emotional support for work-at-home entrepreneurs, especially work-at-home moms.

Working at home in your own business “is no longer a lifestyle just for women,” she adds, “and anyone who undertakes it needs a support system.”

Making the adjustment from the corporate world to a home-based business isn’t easy, she says, “but once you take charge, it’s hard to go back.”