Tamika Dukes is a free spirit. Don't box her into one of those life-sucking cubicles of corporate America. She was there for seven years and never going back.

Fortunately, Dukes found the perfect startup business -- electronic medical claims from ClaimTek. If she wants to spend the day out and about, Dukes performs billing at night. If Dukes wants the day off, well, there's nothing better than being your own boss for that. Her average work week might top out at 30 hours.

So take your company ID badges, mind-numbing commutes, time-wasting meetings and corporate game-playing and leave her out of it. Tamika Dukes is a free woman.

In the final word of the immortal William Wallace -- "FREEDOM!"

"I'd much rather do it for myself," she said. "Maybe I want to get out today and do something and work tonight. I like being independent and not having a cap on funds. I get a percentage for whatever I bill.

"When I go on vacation, I can go on my laptop and handle billing. If I want to move, I can relocate my business with me."

Medical Claim Solutions in Joliet, Ill. has become a life-saver for Dukes. She has four clients ranging from a podiatrist to cardiologist to general practitioner and growing. Although living about one hour outside of Chicago, she finds clients the old-fashioned ways -- marketing and referrals.

"Get out there, get to know people. Spread the word," Dukes said. "Build trust, build relationships. With my first client, I went several times before signing him up. I didn't give up until he said, 'We'll give your company a try.' "

A second client soon followed after Dukes simply picked several doctors from a list and visited them. The next two came on referrals as word of Dukes' good work spread. Dukes says anyone wanting to start an electronic medical claims business should just follow her example of confidence.

"Persistence will get them someplace," she said. "This is a stable field. It should be growing. Pass out your information. Somebody will find you."

Dukes is a certified coder after handling medical billing for a doctor until starting her own company in 2005. Ironically, she wasn't satisfied with the software used by her old company and searched for something better now that her own business depends upon it.

A Google search sent Dukes to ClaimTek Systems, a leader in the electronic medical claims industry. Dukes checked out four other companies before choosing ClaimTek largely for its superior software and customer service.

"Compared to four others, ClaimTek was very prompt returning calls. A lot of other companies did not return calls," Duke said. "[ClaimTek president Kyle Farhat] was always on top of things, always calling back with things."

The software was much better than Dukes' old one. She liked MedOffice for its remote access capability that lets her look at the client's computer.

"I like the flexibility to have multiple screens at one time -- patient info, provider info," Dukes said. "It is very, very user friendly. It's one reason why I went with it. It would be hard to miss anything. If you need billing, you just go there on tab."

And if she needed help, Dukes found ClaimTek's response was swift.

"The old company where I worked wouldn't even call back," she said. "Kyle called back that day. I'm sure he would do that for everyone."