Another day on the job. But what's a girl to wear?

Elsa Maria Lorenzo didn't have difficulty choosing yesterday.

In what was a departure from her usual dress pants and a comfortable turtleneck, she completed the workday routine for her Glen Allen business wearing a bathrobe. Lorenzo, who has been working from home since the birth of her first child in 1994, was among local, state and national entrepreneurs who celebrated the first of a planned annual observance of Doing Business in Your Bathrobe Day.

It was an adjustment for Lorenzo, who for the past two years has been selling home-decor products as an independent contractor for Southern Living at Home.

"People who know me know I would never hang around the house in a bathrobe.

"Anyone who works from home knows they're way more productive if they get dressed," Lorenzo said.

"It's difficult to speak professionally when you're in a bathrobe."

But Lorenzo said she made the sacrifice yesterday for a cause - to draw attention to the benefits of working at home, including wearing a bathrobe if a person so chooses. "It's a national day to support entrepreneurs who are taking their work and paychecks into their own hands," Kristie Rimmeleamsevivius, an organizer of the event, said in announcing the observance.

Tamsevivius and Michelle Floyd are co-founders of Illinois-based Webmomz.com, an online site that supports women who have chosen to work at home.

The site has 3,000 members nationwide, 17 of them in Virginia.

"Working from home is a popular option today because of the freedom it affords," Floyd said. "You get to schedule your work around your life. You choose your own career path, work hours and rates. You have the flexibility to create a life you love."

Lorenzo, who joined Webmomz six to eight months ago, loves her decision so much, no doubt she will work in a bathrobe every second Monday in February she can.