"I did the whole 'climb the corporate ladder' thing and realized that at the end of the day, I was pretty much just a W-2 earner," Colosimo said. "My life was being dictated to me."

Two years ago, she had no experience in furniture sales or upholstering. She didn't immediately find support in the community, mentors she could look to. But she was determined. She believed she'd identified a market niche she could fill and the skills to fill it.

"But make no mistake, a start-up business is definitely no picnic," she said. "It's a tremendous amount of work. I wouldn't say there's a lot of infrastructure or support for women business owners that I've found. But it has been very rewarding.

"It's been great that I'm at home at night, and that I can pick my kids up from school or attend a sporting event they're in, without answering to anyone but me. It's been a blast to conceive a new concept and see it come to fruition, to have a viable business that people talk about, come to and a product they're pleased with."

Soon, Wasatch Home will expand to a newer, larger building at the Draper Peaks shopping complex.

"I'll say this: A lot of people talk about wanting to be their own boss," Colosimo said. "Fewer actually do it. But if you've got a good concept and a good business plan, and you're willing to put the time and work into it, there's no reason you won't succeed. And then, at the end of the day, you're controlling your own future instead of the Ivory Tower. And that's pretty amazing."

AllBusiness.com also looked at metropolitan areas of varying sizes, and Utah cities fared equally well.

Among cities or metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more, AllBusiness.com's top 10 locales are: Raleigh-Cary; Washington-Arlington-Alexandria; Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick; Denver-Aurora, Colo.; Salt Lake City; Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, Calif.; Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minn./Wis.; Boise City-Nampa, Idaho; Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga.; and San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif.

Among medium-sized metropolitan areas (those with populations of 175,000 to 500,000) AllBusiness.com's top areas for women entrepreneurs are: Provo-Orem; Ogden-Clearfield; Fort Collins-Loveland, Colo.; Boulder, Colo.; Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin, Fla.; Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Ark./Mo.; Naples-Marco Island, Fla.; Huntsville, Ala.; Charlottesville, Va.; Durham, N.C.

And the top among small metros (50,000 to 175,000) are: St. George; Logan; Morgantown, W.Va.; Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford, Va.; Winchester, Va./W.Va.; Iowa City, Iowa; Columbia, Mo.; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Dubuque, Iowa; Jacksonville, N.C.; and Santa Fe, N.M.

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E-mail: jnii@desnews.com