Home is Where the Work is?

It's great to see 3 out of the 5 businesses featured in The Times Small Business Insights article on homeworking today are North East companies Vicki Stone Marketing, Newcastle Business Hub and Space on Tap.

In our quest to get 'home' to be  recognised as a great place to do (and grow) business this is a real coup for the North East, demonstrating (again) that we're not shy of leading the field in new ways of working through adopting innovation and enterprise.

Running great businesses is far more about the people than it is about the place - we just need to make sure the right place is there when we need it - that's why Space on Tap was established 12 months ago (it's all in the name!) and why Newcastle Business Hub, recently launched by Helen and Mark Reed of Newcastle Business Village, is destined for huge success.

Home is increasingly becoming where the Work is, and don't they say that "success breeds success"?  So the better the resources for home businesses become (making it feasible for people to grow businesses effectively from home if that's what they choose to do), the more likely it will be that successful home-based businesses will become recognised as the norm.

Working from home opens up so many opportunities - it makes sense for both social and economic reasons - yet it's still deemed by many (including those running home businesses) as being somehow second best.  Do we really need the cost and hassle associated with having a physical presence these days? As Carol Lewis reports in her article in The Times Small Business Insights, "The growth of social media and the power of email mean many can work from home".  If you add to that work and meeting space when you need it, together with guidelines and frameworks that enable companies to employ staff without needing to put them up in the front room, then it starts to get exciting.  That's the journey Space on Tap's on so watch this space :)
READ THE ARTICLE
What resources are lacking for businesses that want to grow from home?  What information, guidelines, resources and support do you need?  Please tell us what you think.