Starting a Business From Home

Your Guide to Planning Your Home Start-up, Reaching a Market and Creating a Profit

Colin Barrow

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780749480851
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Entrepreneurship
• Index: Business

For aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners, the possibilities are limitless. The flexibility, freedom and cost-effectiveness that starting-up in the home offers means that more and more entrepreneurs are choosing this as the best location to agilely launch their business. Starting a Business from Home gives you the valuable advice you need on how to run a successful business from your own desk and, crucially, how to rise to the challenge of business expansion. Packed with practical advice, Starting a Business From Home covers how to research your market, business ownership and titles issues, raising money and managing your finances, building and operating a website, writing a business plan, preparing your accounts, taking your product to market and expanding overseas - all from your home. Exercises, end of chapter actions and technical resources in the appendices mean that this is the ultimate practical guide for home-based entrepreneurs. Case studies from around the world showcase best practice and provide inspirational stories from successful businesses that began in the home.

APPENDIX ONE

Home business help and advice

These are the principal sources of help and advice for anyone starting a business from home. Other important sources have been provided directly in each chapter throughout the book.

United Kingdom

ACCA (www.accaglobal.com/uk/en/research-insights). The accountancy body has information on planning, budgeting and forecasting, performance reporting and, profitability and cost analysis.

AfroCar (www.afrocar.co.uk) is an online directory for African-Caribbean businesses in the UK. They find and list small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of African-Caribbean businesses in the UK aiming to promote African-Caribbean businesses at no cost to listed business owners. Their stated goal ‘is to elevate black businesses as a deprived community, one step at a time’.

British Association of Women Entrepreneurs (www.bawe-uk.org). For the past fifty years this association has acted as a peer group for ‘women entrepreneurs who want to be challenged’. Associated Membership is open to those in business for less than three years at £80 per annum.

BSI (www.bsigroup.com/en-GB) provides information and resources to help small businesses introduce quality standards such as ISO 9000.

Business in the Community (tel: [phone]; website: www.bitc.org.uk) is The Prince’s Responsible Business Network. They have a range of initiatives including Accredited Training, Arts and Business, Business Class, Business Connectors and The Access Programme that aims to create a level playing field for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) so they can grow, win business and create new jobs.

Department for International Trade (www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-international-trade) is the government agency charged with helping UK-based businesses succeed in ‘an increasingly global world’. They provide information on doing business with every country and every business sector from aero-space to water.

eBusiness Clubs (www.ebusinessclub.biz) is a free service delivered through British chambers of commerce aimed at small businesses, offering access to a range of activities including events, ICT support and information from business experts. The strapline ‘How technology can improve business performance’ explains the central purpose of the clubs.

Every Woman (tel: [phone]; website: www.everywoman.com). They offer individual membership at £5 a month. That includes learning tools and content delivered through a variety of media, including webinars, workbooks, video and articles, and access to senior female role models, including advice, experience and thought leadership.

Federation of Small Businesses (tel: [phone]; website: www.fsb.org.uk) offers legal, environmental, fire and premises tips, as well as many other issues that small business owners may have to address as they grow. The Federation has the resources to take major test cases of importance to small business through the expensive legal process and has been particularly effective in dealing with taxation and employment matters. Amongst the benefits on offer are access to in-house solicitors, barristers and tax experts and provision of legal and taxation advice lines, including litigation and representation services. Membership is on a sliding scale dependent on number of employees, starting at circa £175.

First Tuesday (http://firsttuesday.org.uk) has 38,000 members with 10 branches across Europe and hosts networking meetings on the first Tuesday of every month. The idea is to bring entrepreneurs, investors and service providers such as accountants, lawyers and bankers together to create a ‘circle of friends’ who can help technology entrepreneurs get started or grow. Some events are free whilst most are modestly priced. Deloitte and Salesforce.com are sponsors of the initiative.

Forum of Private Business (tel: [phone]; website: www.fpb.org) is a membership organisation costing circa £175 to join, giving you information when you need and management tools to help your business stay within the law. By completing them you see how to comply with the regulations on employment, health and safety, bank finance and credit control.

Homeworking.com (www.homeworking.com), started in 1999, is a resource rather than a job directory and is full of useful tips and helpful warnings about the thousands of scam businesses on offer to would-be homeworkers.

Institute of Directors (tel: [phone]; website: www.iod.com) is the club for directors, membership of which costs £99 for IoD 99 membership which is open to anyone aged 18–40 who is a director or a founder of a business so long as your business has an annual turnover of less than £5m and has been established for 10 years or less. Expect to pay about double if you don’t meet those criteria. For that you get access to a prestigious central London office and other offices around the UK and on the Continent, business information and research provided for you by the IoD’s expert researchers and bespoke business advice on tax and law. It is also considered one of the best networking associations for entrepreneurs.

National Asian Business Association (tel: [phone]; website: www.nabauk.org/) sis a national voice for the Asian business community providing information and advice on anything from starting a business through to selling goods or services. Membership of NABA is free and comes with benefits such as free training on issues of interest such as exporting, financial planning and of course, a number of networking opportunities.

National Enterprise Network (tel: [phone]; www.nationalenterprisenetwork.org/). There are some 250 Enterprise Agencies in the UK that deliver business support services and directly or indirectly provide advice and information, counselling and training on a comprehensive range of business issues, to all types of owner-managed businesses, including pre-starts, start-ups, sole traders, partnerships, cooperatives and limited companies. The NFEA maintains a directory of English agencies on its website and links to Enterprise Agency networks in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Prince’s Trust (tel: [phone]; website: www.princes-trust.org.uk) runs business programmes and provides low-interest loans for people aged 18–30 who want to start a business. Their Support for starting a business programme has helped over 80,000 young people to start their own business since it was started in 1983.

Telework Association (tel: [phone]; website: www.tca.org.uk) costs from £34.50 ($50/€41) a year to join the 7,000 other members who either work or are running a business from home. You get a bi-monthly magazine, a teleworking handbook with ideas for telebusinesses, and access to their help line covering all aspects of working from home.

Overseas agencies

Australia: Invest Australia (www.investaustralia.gov.au) is the central information source for foreign investors; business.gov.au (https://www.business.gov.au/Info/Plan-and-Start) provides information, advice and contact points for all aspects of thinking about starting or a business.

Canada: Canadian Federation of Independent Business (www.cfib.ca) represents the interests of over 109,000 owner-managers across the whole of Canada. Industry Canada (www.ic.gc.ca) is the Canadian government’s support agency responsible for all aspects of business and local support.

China: Invest in China (www.fdi.gov.cn > English>Investment environment) provides information and resources for investing in projects and joint ventures region by region.

Cyprus: Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (www.mcit.gov.cy > English > Industrial Development Service > One Stop Shop for Setting up a Business) has all the i...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• 01 Finding the right business opportunity
• 02 Picking the right business for you
• 03 Researching the market
• 04 Business ownership and title issues
• 05 Operating from home
• 06 Keeping the communication lines open
• 07 Bringing your product and service to market
• 08 Building and using your website
• 09 Doing the numbers
• 10 Raising the money
• 11 Preparing a business plan
• 12 Taking on employees
• 13 Growing profitably
• 14 Starting up overseas
• Appendix 1: Home business help and advice
• Appendix 2: Directory of proven home businesses
• Appendix 3: Home business information resource
• Index
• Backcover