Starting

Thinking of setting up a business at home? There are a lot of people who have done so, and for many different reasons.

Some have seen it as an economic way of getting started. This often makes good sense, as you may be able to reduce your overhead costs by not renting premises.

Some people don't need special premises anyway; their business takes them out each day, providing a service to their customers. But they do need a small office where they can keep their business records.

Other people, such as vets and doctors, set aside quite large sections of their home for their business. They choose to work from home partly so that they can be as near as possible to their customers in the surrounding community.

Running a business from home sometimes has particular appeal to parents of young children. Some run the business to provide the family with a second income. Others simply want a stimulating pastime in addition to their home duties.

The availability of reasonably cheap personal computers is another factor influencing people to work from home. By using a telephone link between their home computer and the computers in distant offices, these home-based workers are able to do much of their work in their home environment, and at the same time avoiding the hassle and expense of commuting to the city.

Home-based Business - some facts

In NSW, there were 249,400 home-based businesses in June 2003, representing almost two-thirds (66.2 per cent) of all NSW small businesses (as reported by the ABS in their Characteristics of Small Business survey).

This survey also reported that in June 2003 there were 313,800 home-based operators in NSW, representing an increase of around 70,000 operators in the previous six years.

Over two-thirds of home-based businesses in the State now use a computer (68.5 per cent in June 2003, up from 62.8 per cent in June 2001), while three in every five businesses are connected to the Internet (60.2 per cent in June 2003, up from 51.4 per cent in June 2001).

The most common uses of the Internet by home-based businesses are for email and research.  However, there has been a large increase in the proportion of businesses making or receiving payments online.