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Business Has Moved From the Boardroom to the Family Room

November 24, 2007

From the Boardroom to the Family Room

I have been self-employed since 1987 and have always worked from home. I had no need for dedicated office space out of the home then and still don’t. I have never felt embarrassed or shy about working from home because it was something that just made sense, and I am not one who has ever carried much pretense and therefore little need for a physical office to impress people.

So what got me thinking about being a home based business?

Statistics and a conversation.

The statistic that got my attention? 52% of American registered businesses are home based, according to a recent SBA report.

I have been working from home since 1987, yet I identified more with being a small business more than a “home based business” - until one of the members at the TeachingSells.com forum suggested I consider “home based” businesses as a market.

Initially I was surprised by the suggestion.

My surprise quickly turned to curiosity when I remembered the Future of Small Business Series report from Intuit:

Personal businesses are a surprisingly large part of the American economy. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, at the end of 2004 almost 20 million Americans operated businesses with no employees (see Figure 6). Businesses without a payroll make up over 70% of the nation’s businesses, and almost one million new businesses without payrolls were added in 2004 (the latest available data). Via Intuit Future of Small Business Series

I bet most of those are home based businesses! To confirm my hunch, I did some research and discovered that 58.3% of businesses without employees (fig. 1) declared they are “home based”, most tend to have just one owner, and just 1.4% are franchised.

So what does this mean? Business has moved from the boardroom to the family room. Here are a few highlights:

  • The number of firms without employees grew 21% between 1998-2004
  • 58.3% of firms without employees are home based.
  • 13.6% increase in the number of women starting a business.
  • 55-64 year olds are the fastest growing segment of business owners, an increase of 40.4% between 1995-2004.

From the Boardroom to the Family Room
Business Has Moved From the Boardroom to the Family Room

Yes indeed, business has moved from the boardroom to the family room. For years I have had a sense that there was a dramatic shift taking place.

I seldom spoke of it because I could not out it into words, until now.

Written by Greg Balanko-Dickson · Filed Under Articles, Manifesto 

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