2008 Home Business Report: the shedworking bits

The current economic climate is acting as a spur for thousands of people to start up and run their own business from home, according to a new report by BT and friend of Shedworking Enterprise Nation. Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, itself a home-based business, said:

“More home business means more dynamism in the economy, less traffic on the roads and tighter social cohesion as parents stay home to run a business and the household."

John Anderson, managing director of BT Regions, said:

“The message loud and clear is that home businesses are thriving. But there is still much to do – we need the Government, public and private sectors, to come together to introduce new initiatives and remove the barriers to encourage this sector to continue to prosper.”

It's good to see plenty of mentions of garden offices and shedworking in the report too. In the section on key factors influencing rapid growth in home business over the past 12 months the first one is this:

• Reducing costs - New business owners are avoiding the cost of a second office and starting up in the spare room/attic/garden shed.

Most impressively, the report reveals that while 24% of homeworkers use their spare room as an office, 18% work from their garden office/shed or garage, just behind bedroom (19%) and ahead of the living room and kitchen table. The report also features various shedworkers including Boxy Lady and comments from Lynn Fotheringham of InsideOut Buildings on being a green shedworker.

This is today's must click link - go to a precis and the downloadable full report here.