Michelle Rodger: Help for firms ought to begin at home

Published on Saturday 28 November 2009 12:22

DID you know there are 2.8 million businesses operating full-time from home, contributing £284 billion annually to the UK economy? During the past 12 months alone – despite or maybe as a direct result of the recession – 300,000 new home businesses were launched. And of those enterprises surveyed for the Home Business Report 2009, 89 per cent expect to increase turnover in the next 12 months.

Yet these businesses are largely ignored by politicians and by the public sector bodies who are supposed to support them.

Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, which released the Home Business Report last week, is calling for the government, enterprise agencies and business support providers to recognise this growth and to tailor support so they reward an increase in turnover, as opposed to headcount.

Ronnie Smith, executive director of Business Enterprise Scotland, agrees. "There's no question that some very successful businesses started off in the spare room. Home working continues to make a very healthy contribution to the economy and we need to do what we can to support more businesses starting up in Scotland."

But what exactly do we need to do? Apart from making an immediate concerted effort to fix the broadband problem and ensure quality coverage countrywide, we need to demand that councils and town planners embrace a more entrepreneurial approach.

It's not difficult, it just needs creative thinking, imagination and an open mind uncluttered with rules, regulations and objections to come up with workable solutions.

What about utilising corner sites in housing estates to create a hub with meeting rooms or shared workspaces? Why not consider relaxing council tax and being more flexible with planning rules? Encourage or incentivise developers to build more business facilities, or hubs, as part of housing developments? At the very least we should be designing and building more houses to suit work lifestyles (speaking from experience, a pokey wee boxroom sold as "an office" is simply not good enough).

George Derbyshire of NFEA, the national enterprise network, is concerned that the growth of home-based businesses will be held back because of the inadequacy of homes which are generally not designed to house a business.

Derbyshire agrees that this presents a new challenge that councils and town planners need to address.

"Councils often insist on community facilities like playing fields and nurseries being built by developers. Why not support home businesses as well?" he asks.

It would be simple to have a bookkeeper working in a hub looking after a number of companies, a boardroom that could be hired out for important meetings, even storage facilities that could be rented out on a subsidised basis.

And what about making commercial use of under-utilised public facilities such as school kitchens?

Gillian Crawford, co-founder of jeweller Tartan Twist, says it would be fantastic to see local authorities and landlords renting out empty shops to companies.

More than 60 per cent of all business start-ups begin at home, and with one in ten making sales of more than 250,000 and employing at least 10 people, small businesses are turning passion into profits and making a crucial contribution to the Scottish economy. Surely they deserve more from our councils, town planners and enterprise agencies in return?