Recession forcing many small businesses to move their offices home
By Jason Buckland, Sympatico / MSN Finance
If you’re like my parents, getting the last kid graduated and out of the house was a genuine landmark achievement.
The lesson: success is found in the real world, not while sitting at home watching Fresh Prince re-runs in your boxers.
Yet in what’s come as a (perhaps) sombre twist in the stalwart economy, many entrepreneurs have now found themselves unable to stay afloat with pricey commercial space costs and are moving their headquarters to a familiar setting. The home office has become the new downtown office.
The Wall Street Journal reports the first cost that many small businesses, some healthy companies for as many as 12 years, are likely to ditch when sales struggle is the $X,000-a-month rent charge that can no longer be justified.
And while it sounds great to just roll over in the morning and stumble into work without changing your jammies, the transition hasn’t been easy for many.
For starters, as the WSJ says, many entrepreneurs have been troubled to find that Old Man Government will stick out his hand when you decide to operate a business from home.
Costly home business zoning fees have hit many owners by surprise and the amount of red tape it appears you need to jump through to apply for Canadian regulations, licenses and permits looks positively headache-inducing.
Add to the pain is the reaction from the neighbourhood to your running business from home. While a small web design company, for example, won’t raise any red flags, a barber or masseuse having a constant flow of customers in and out of your subdivision home could concern onlookers. According to the WSJ, complaints again home-operated businesses aren’t all that infrequent.
If you are considering operating a small business from home, make sure you check out this article suggesting how important geography is when dealing with customers. Where you live, after all, can be just as important as the product or service you may provide.
Posted by: nottobrite | Jun 2, 2021 1:24:36 PM
I wonder why their is so much red tape for small businesses that down the line creat jobs . The goverment could surely use the extra tax bucks they would get if they continue to p-ss the tax payers money away on dead investments . now as a tax payer i own shares in GM . I wonder who you talk to if you want to sell your shares .
Posted by: Johnston | Jun 2, 2021 2:13:13 PM
Small business's moving home now, Wait until next year and see how many will move home or close up when their monthly rental space is clobbered by an additional 8% on every monthly rent cheque. 2 grand rent a month adds $160 per month, 5 grand rent adds $400. per month. They are huge numbers. But, perhaps, the Government and the Chamber of Commerce are right - that will be GOOD for business.