Enterprise Nation

We’re just over half way through 2008 so an opportune time for a home business update. And maybe the best way to do this is to look back at a week in the life of Enterprise Nation as a reflection of how far home business has come.

Half a year in a week

It certainly feels like we've just packed half a year into a week! It's been an interesting year so far and, without doubt, an interesting week. Let's break it down into a few themes that reflect the national scene.

Interest

There’s a clear and growing interest in home business. This week BT signed-off on our 2008 Home Business Report that’s going into production now and will document the different faces and facets of home business. It’s written for an audience of policy makers and economic/social development folk and we’re expecting a big readership when it comes out in October ‘08. (click here to see the 2007 report)

Other meetings held this week were with enterprise agencies, from Lincoln to London, and they all want to know lots more about their local home business communities.

To meet this need for information and intelligence, we agreed on Friday to partner with a new research company that has a vision to become the lead research outfit for small business in the UK. We’ll be the home business arm of this new company and it’s a very exciting move. More news on this to appear on the site in the next few weeks.

There’s growing commercial interest too. As there are millions of us running successful ventures from home, we’re becoming an attractive bunch to the likes of banks, telecoms companies and insurance providers. And you may be seeing more of these corporate names appearing on Enterprise Nation as results kick-in from a new addition to our team; he’s known as our ‘Mr Commercial’ and is a most welcome new addition.  

On the ground

There’s good reason for this interest; many more people are choosing to start and grow a business from home. How do we know? Entries to the 2008 Home Business Awards are way up on this time last year, our visitor numbers to the site continue to grow and we’re hearing from more and more home business owners each day. This week alone we profiled 5 home businesses working in areas from overseas property to marketing and talent management. The profiled owners were from across the age ranges and working in parts of the house from the garden shed, a University dorm room and converted spare room.

The prospects for home business also look good. By working from home you’re keeping your cost base low, offering a professional & personal service and using technology at its best to work efficiently. Such well-run businesses are best placed to weather economic storms.

The next 6 months

We expect the second half of the year to be even more vibrant. Whereas many speak of above-mentioned ‘economic storms’, we think these are perfect conditions for home business. Why? Starting up at home adds to the value of your house and reduces your running costs. One of the other things we did this week was agree with Homefinder and The AA that we’ll issue a press release in the next 2 weeks that will highlight just what these figures are.

We also know that thousands more people are building up a second income through a part-time business. Some of these businesses will stay as such but others will grow into fully-fledged, full-time business ventures – based at home.

Orange has dropped the slogan so maybe we can adopt and adapt it…
‘The future’s bright. The future is home business.’ :-)

- Emma Jones