You can look across the prairie and miss it. In 1987 a water bottling company was founded on farmland near a small Nebraska town. Legend and folklore surround the Blue Creek Spring where the water runs pure, clean and cold, but for one family it has led to a home-based business that is keeping them very busy.

The family employs several other people who live in the region and they bottle more than 20 gallons a minute. Pumps pull water from more than 2,000 feet below the surface to the company's purification department.

The owner, Myron Peterson, admits he built a lot of the equipment himself, and the water continues to be requested in a multi-state region. Peterson said, ?It's a little more labor-intensive than the modern plants, but it's paid for. I'd rather give these people jobs than buy equipment.?

Experts tell me that the water being pulled by this company is some of the oldest water in the United States. They also tell me that means it is exceptionally good water.

A website that is about as modest as the business itself tells a simple story about a simple life that is being carved out in the vast prairies of the heartland. For more than 20 years one family has found continued success selling a natural resource.

This company also sells the bottles with any company logo you might want on it, so you can use their product as a means of promoting your own business.

It is that type of ingenuity, even in the most difficult of circumstances, that has allowed individuals to overcome the difficulties associated with business ownership. No longer do you have to rely only on local contacts to make sales. A home-based business can provide a niche product that may have a much greater financial impact online.

If this water company had only considered their market the region directly around their small town they would not likely have the ten employees or success they have experienced since moving their business into an online environment.

We have all seen movies where families are forced to leave physical environments they are have always known because there are no jobs available. These are generally heart-wrenching stories and make for timeless classics. The Internet does not discriminate based on where an individual lives.

A water bottler can live in a rural setting providing for his family in a way he may have never expected. A cookie maker can operate a small business in a small town and have a global customer base. A writer can develop work in virtually any location on the globe and still derive an income.

The Internet is making it possible for individuals to discover non-traditional revenue sources that supplement a family income that was meager. In some cases the businesses have grown to such a degree the home-based business is the sole income for the family.

Interestingly this can also impact the local economy through job creation and the overall dollars coming into a community.