Home businesses are booming says Home Business Report 2009

The recession is helping to kick-start a home-based business economy. A third of those questioned in the latest Home Business Survey said they started their home-based business within the last year, highlighting the entrepreneurial spirit that has emerged from the downturn.

The increase of 300,000 home-based businesses means there are now 2.8m businesses operating full time from home, contributing £284 billion each year to the UK economy.

“We are seeing more start-ups than ever before entering traditional roles and professions working from home alongside a new breed of entrepreneurs diversifying to create new types of businesses,” says John Anderson, managing director, BT Regions.

Another encouraging sign is that home businesses started before the recession have not had dramatically to change their strategy or practices. According to BT’s 2009 Business Pulse survey, of the 37% of businesses who said they had ‘noticed no changes’ in the way they operate on account of economic conditions, 47% were home based businesses, compared with 28% of non home based businesses.

There is a growing tendency, also, to form networking alliances, where small home-based businesses benefit from closer collaboration. One side effect of this is that growth comes from outsourcing rather than directly employing staff.

“Technology remains a key enabler to starting and growing a business from home,” says the report, “and home businesses are early adopters of social media, with 81% of survey respondents stating that technology is critical to the success of their business and 74% using social networking sites to keep in touch with other businesses.”

Download the Home Business Report 2009 here