Thousands of entrepreneurs working from their bedrooms, sheds and kitchen tables will have red tape cut and expenses cut under a new government initiative.
Business Minister Matthew Hancock reckons nearly 3 million small businesses generating £300 million are home-based – and he is clearing the way to help more start.
Official statistics show around 70% of small businesses start on the kitchen table to cut costs and test the water with new ideas before committing to growing larger.
Hancock wants to help them grow by taking away some of the barriers stopping entrepreneurs from developing their ideas.
Package to aid start-ups
Stuart Smith, writing on specialist investment web site SEIS.co.uk, gives a run down on some of the measures, which include:
- New model tenancy agreements that allow tenants to start a home business in a buy to let home without the permission of their landlords
- Scrapping planning regulations for home-based workers
- Exempting most small businesses from business rates
The minister is keen to encourage more entrepreneurs to take a chance, he told the first home business summit run by small business network Enterprise Nation.
Home enterprises are big business, the summit heard, as around one in 10 homes are the base for at least one firm.
“Setting up at home is a common first step for entrepreneurs,” said Enterprise Nation’s Emma Jones. “Using spare time and space at home is a sensible way of managing costs and testing ideas.
“Improving technology is also making working from home easier and cheaper.”
The summit also heard a network of kitchen table businesses is boosting rural economies as entrepreneurs build networks of specialists by outsourcing to other home-based workers.
Boosting the economy
SEIS.co.uk’s Stuart Smith also wrote that government statistics show only 30% of small businesses start away from home.
At the summit, Hancock said: “The government wants more entrepreneurs to take their ideas to market and part of that policy is making sure that we remove as many barriers to starting a business as we can.
“Entrepreneur success is crucial to driving the economy and creating jobs, but they also give the country other benefits.”
Helping workers in rural areas with outsourcing is just one added benefit, he explained, others include helping the environment by keeping cars of the road for stay-at-home workers and bringing life back to dormitory suburbs.
“We know starting a business can be stressful and that’s why we want to remove as many obstacles as we can, and one way of doing that is by cutting red tape and unnecessary costs,” he said.
