Home-based businesses are a growing part of the business sector – around 67% of small businesses are home-based.

A home-based business is a business which is run either at or from a residential site or building which the owner of the business uses as their main residence. The business owner may have allocated a part of their house or garage to be used as an office, workshop or consulting room, or they might work with clients on site, but run their business from home.

Starting your own business is a challenging and exciting venture which requires a lot of thorough research and planning to ensure its success. Starting a home-based business can have a number of additional challenges. For instance research on the home-based business sector has regularly identified the key issues for home-based businesses as maintaining a suitable work/home life balance, time management, isolation, inability to network, professional image and community perceptions.

Fortunately there is a great deal of support available to home-based business operators – for instance it may be reassuring to know that if you are operating in Nillumbik you are one of 1,700 home-based businesses.