Week celebrates special life of home operators

By ELLEN READ

Home business owners will be overcoming their isolation, shedding their anonymity and celebrating their businesses during the second National Home Business Week (October 6-12).

Co-ordinated by Home Business New Zealand, the annual week is aimed at raising the profile and credibility of 200,000 home business operators and awareness of the spcial challenges they face.

Home businesses are important to the economy for two reasons, according to Home Business New Zealand's managing director, Heather Douglas.

"First, many larger businesses start life as entrepreneurial home businesses and, second, running a home business gives many people the option of self-employment as opposed to unemployment," she says.

Starting a home business in New Zealand is easy, but it can be a lonely and difficult road.

But most operators would not change their lot.

Despite nearly one-third of respondents to a survey admitting that they were unhappy with their incomes, fewer than one per cent said they would want to work for anyone else again.

"Working for themselves, from home, is about more than just making money," Douglas says.

"It's a total lifestyle thing. Many count success in terms of what they are achieving with regard to their families or other lifestyle goals, as well as how well they are earning."

The growing home business population is very much in line with an international trend towards home-based self-employment.

It is mainly fuelled by factors such as the development of cost-effective and efficient technology, a desire for lifestyle and the belief that self-employment is more secure than the "job-for-life" sought by previous generations.

But those who share their homes with their work, however, face a variety of challenges, as well as the usual business difficulties.

Many feel socially and professionally isolated, and they may find it harder to win credibility in the marketplace.

Few self-employed people have any formal training in business skills.

They usually have a limited budget and no support staff, and need to share their work space with other members of their family - not to mention learning to cope with fluctuations in their income.

On the other hand, their clients often benefit from using home businesses, as they tend to respond rapidly to customer needs, value customer relationships, go the extra mile, offer direct communication with the person doing the work, and run up lower overheads.

"We established National Home Business Week to applaud and recognise all those courageous enough to take that step into the unknown - and to help others appreciate the size of the home business sector and the challenges it faces," says Douglas.

As part of the celebrations, the HomebizBuzz will be giving away spot prizes every day between October 6 and 12, and profiling a number of home businesses from around New Zealand.

Home businesses (and others wishing to support the week) are invited to display a banner on their sites.

* Banners, and guidelines and instructions for displaying them, can be obtained by emailing banner@homebizbuzz.co.nz


* For more information contact: heather@homebizbuzz.co.nz