October 9 – 15: New Zealand’s Fifth Annual National Home Business Week.
New Zealand is a nation of small businesses – and of those, more than two thirds are home-based. These 230,000 Davids face unique issues and challenges, but take on their Goliaths with tenacity, ingenuity and courage.
They often work in isolation, invisible behind their ordinary suburban fences, having to prove their credibility in the corridors of corporate clients, and balance the concurrent demands of home and business life. And while home business operators are generally highly skilled at what they do, many struggle with the complexity of running a business based on their expertise, and in common with other New Zealand entrepreneurs, are better at starting a business than making money out of it[1]. However, they also have an enormous strategic advantage – they are far more nimble than a bigger business.
National Home Business Week (October 9 – 15) recognises and honours these unsung heroes of our economy.
Home businesses contribute substantially to the economy and society in a number of ways.
- The home business sector is a spawning ground for bigger business. Well-known Kiwi icons such as Resene, Navman, Pumpkin Patch and many others all started from home.
- For a significant number of home business operators, self-employment has been the only employment option open to them. Running their own business is their chosen alternative to living off a benefit.
- A home business allows parents the flexibility to tailor their work and lifestyle to accommodate more family-centric activities.
- With most families choosing a double income lifestyle, and older people staying in the work force longer, having people working from home prevents the “empty suburb� syndrome, keeping communities alive and deterring crime.
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