1. The division of labor that allows individuals to specialize in areas of their strength and
2. Economies of scale that allow overhead costs to be minimized

For that reason, except in very small “niche markets” home production is overwhelmed by large businesses.

I’m not trying to make home businesses compete with big corporations, but it would be good if home businesses could network together in certain ways to boost their profits.

That’s why I wanted to point you to this free download: Case Studies in Worker Owned Businesses from MIT

Here’s what I’m talking about:

Let’s say that in the same vicinity a  number of people make home made craft items to sell on Etsy.com or sell products even via Ebay.com.

What do they all eventually need to do if they are making money?

1. Upload descriptions and photos

2. Package and ship products. 

3. Order supplies

What if somehow a cooperative between this cluster of businesses that could help them become more efficient and save money in these aspects of the work that were the least fun and profitable?

Could they buy supplies as a group? Could they buy packaging material as a group? Could they own a cooperative business that would do these tasks for them and allow them to save money on this aspect of their work?

It could be worth exploring.

It interests me greatly because it makes me wonder if the ability to work at home will recreate small, walkable towns or districts like this one. This is double the national rate for working at home. Could entrepreneurship like this offer the possibility for revitalizing communities?

What do you think?

McGinnis works from home for The Printing Fulfillment and Mailing Group, a printing, advertising and mailing company owned by her friends Kathleen and Chip Schindler, who live nearby. She is part of the borough’s growing culture of people who telecommute.

Borough officials say that culture has grown since the 2000 Census showed approximately 6 percent of the borough’s 2,276 working population do so from home. That’s about twice what the Census shows for other municipalities that don’t require mercantile licensing, including Cherry Hill and Evesham. It’s also greater than the state’s mark of 2.7 percent and the national estimate of 3.3 percent.

Layoffs are always painful. CIGNA had an insurance claims processing center that had to consolidate. Some workers did lose their employment. Others had the opportunity to keep their job and actually work at home for the insurance giant.

I’d add resume writer too!

Here they are:

1. Tutor
2. Babysitter
3. Wedding/Party Planner
4. Answering Service
5. Scheduler
6. Medical Biller
7. Freelance Writer
8. Caterer
9. Desktop Publisher
10. Fundraiser
Read it all

Related Link: Simple Reports can help you make money from home part time.

From Dane’s Blog
TechCrunch:

Want to know how to get your Website high up in natural search results, but don’t want to pay a search engine optimization (SEO) firm just to find out what you are doing wrong?

Now you can get a free, automated evaluation of your site on Website Grader. Just type in your Website address, and it will spit out a report detailing what you can do to boost your site’s SEO juice. It even gives you a grade.

Website Grader is operated by HubSpot, a search engine and Web-marketing optimization company hoping to get leads from the site.

Photo by HubSpot.

From TMCnet

National Work from Home Day is organised by Work Wise UK, a national not-for-profit initiative to promote “smarter” working practices – such as flexible, remote and mobile working, and working from home. It aims
to give half the working population, some 14 million, the opportunity to work smarter by 2011.

“This is not a day off to those participating,” said Phil Flaxton, Chief Executive of Work Wise UK,. “It’s the chance for hard-working, open-minded people to demonstrate that without the stress induced by the workplace environment, with the often long commute many have to endure, people can be even more productive by occasionally working from
home.

“We say, you lose nothing by trying it out, and you may be surprised by the positive impact of the experiment.”

* brand new “LD.net” web site
* brand new Agent Back Office
* revamped international best rates calculator (with PHP-include, Cold-Fusion-inclue, and XML scripts)
* randomized content management software (with PHP-include, Cold-Fusion-inclue, and XML scripts) This will allow you to keep your site up-to-date without having to worry that it is the exact same as another agent.
* brand new GeoQuote commercial telecom calculator
* brand new ShopforVoIP.com – for residential and commercial VoIP sales/leads

In addition, a full time sales trainer who is a company employee is assigned for every representative to help. Also compensation to the sales force is increased to benefit the people who actually sell, not just recruit.

A cool new line of products to market will be available too:

• Residual Credit Card – we are working with a few banks on developing a credit card that offers the customer the best rates available while paying you a residual commission on ALL of the profit the bank makes on the customer.
• VoIP Providers – we plan to enhance our VoIP offerings with new carriers that will offer more flexibility and price plans. These providers include Zingotel, Lingo, Via:talk, VoIP Your Life, and others!
• Wireless Phones that Connect to WiFi – somewhat like the iPhone, we are working on a product that connects to a wireless data network to save money on cellular minutes, not to mention a wealth of video and Internet applications that will run on the phone.
• Mortgage and Refinance Leads – we are putting together a deal with companies who want to pay us to generate mortgage and refinance leads for them, with variable commission plans that could even pay bonuses when our leads close.

Interested? Join here… it’s free.

In this case the neighborhood association thought their property covenants superseded state and local law in the matter.  The homeowner didn’t agree in the matter.  Another issue is if this is a “business” or “occupation”.
Here’s what the business owner said:

“I have the law on my side,” said Brian Downs. He said the illegality of home businesses rests on one interpretation of a line of the neighborhood covenants: “No lot shall be used for any business, commercial, manufacturing, mercantile, storage, vending or other nonresidential purpose.” He said the sentence was now being read to mean that a home could not be used for any business purpose, commercial purpose and so on, which, he noted would outlaw storage rooms.

If the sentence were interpreted to mean that any business of a nonresidential nature is prohibited, home day care would be legal because, under Loudoun County zoning laws, it is an accepted residential use. “This whole argument is pinned on a comma in a sentence,” said Brian Downs. 

Read Home Day-Cares Ordered to Close

We are very proud to announce that our business social network is now home to over 20,000 business owners & affiliates. Not many websites have accomplished what we have in such a short period of time. We would like to think that our success has a lot to do with our dedication to servicing our users and our continuous efforts to improving our community with our user’s help and support. So on behalf of everyone here from our APSense Team, we’ll like to say “Congrats and Thank You!” to all that have been a part of our community.

Please remember that when you join  Apsense you’re joining a community of business people. They don’t all want to buy from you right now. They’re trying to make money.  So use your connections there to share ideas and sometime in the future you might get your top MLM distributor or a great business partner there. But unless you’re selling services businesses can use to sell more, they may not be hot CUSTOMERS right away.

The expo has become the premier online event of its kind for the online community due to our focus on education and incorporating that with the new technology,” says Tammy Munson, co-owner of businessandlearning.com, who founded the event in the fall of 2006. Admission to the expo is free to the public as well as Exhibitor and Sponsorship opportunities are still available. For attendance and exhibit information, call 703-348-7993. For all event details, please visit www.thewahexpo.com.