The solution was a technology barely affordable to small-business owners five years ago: real-time video surveillance.

Cameras in both of the Tannehills' Lexington stores transmit live video to her laptop via high-speed Internet.

"I can literally be sitting in my pajamas at home, drinking my coffee and watching what's going on in the store," Tannehill said.

As Internet access and video-surveillance technology get better and cheaper, businesses are trying out the benefits.

Rick Brinker, owner of RCI, a Louisville company that sells the systems, said businesses use them to monitor employees, protect themselves from lawsuits, catch thieves or even let clients look in on their work.

Jacqueline Unseld, owner of Unseld Child Care & Development Centers, recently bought a surveillance system for her newest childcare center, to let parents log on and see their child.

Tannehill uses her system to keep an eye on employees. Sitting at a Coffee Beanery table in her Louisville location, Tannehill used a laptop computer to call up the Web site that shows the Lexington stores.

The screen popped up four square, coaster-size images showing the registers, stock room and waiting area in her store near Rupp Arena. An employee stood at the counter, making a drink.

Tannehill, who paid $8,000 last year to outfit the two Lexington stores with four cameras each, said the devices will pay for themselves because they've made the stores more efficient and profitable.

Brinker said a basic system, with about four cameras that zoom, can go for under $5,000. More complex systems with a dozen or more cameras run $17,000 to $25,000.

The technology of today's systems wasn't widely available five years ago, he said. With a dial-up Internet connection, images are choppy and slow, making real-time viewing almost impossible. Broadband has alleviated that problem.

Tannehill looked into video surveillance back then, when she had to prosecute an employee for theft, but the price tag of $10,000 per store was too high.

Besides monitoring for theft, Tannehill said she also wants to use the system to make sure shops are stocked, cleaned and properly staffed. She has up to 65 employees during her peak season, many of them just out of high school or in college, and she deals with high turnover.

She logged on once and saw a line to the door of her location near Rupp Arena. Her employee was making drinks slowly. She called the employee. "I said, 'Why don't you try to move that line a little faster, I've seen a person or two walk away.' "

Tannehill said she rarely catches serious offenses, though she did bust an employee closing 10 minutes early. She makes no apologies for her surveillance system or management style. She said she's up-front with employees about the cameras and hasn't had complaints.

Travis Swinford, 20, an employee at The Coffee Beanery in Lexington's Fayette Mall, said he thinks the cameras are a good idea because Tannehill can't be in the store daily. Though she has never reprimanded him for anything she saw on screen, he knows she sees a lot.

"I do know she's watching me when she does call, because of what she says," he said.

Lewis Maltby, president of the nonprofit National Workrights Institute in Princeton, N.J., suggests that employers find other ways to monitor employee performance but says it's legal to put cameras pretty much anywhere except for bathrooms or locker rooms.