Home business contributes around $10 billion to NZ’s economy

Nearly a quarter of a million home-based businesses in New Zealand contribute an estimated $10-billion dollars to the economy. What’s more, Home Business New Zealand believes there is potential for this contribution to be significantly increased.

October 8th – 14th sees the 6th annual National Home Business Week, which aims to raise the profile and credibility of home based businesses throughout New Zealand.

Encouraged by ever-advancing and affordable technology, coupled with a desire for lifestyle, New Zealanders are part of an international trend towards more businesses operating from the owner’s home environment. In fact, two out of every three small businesses in this country operate from home. According to statistics published last year by the Ministry of Economic Development, SMEs with 1 – 5 employees (of which home businesses are a significant proportion) have the highest average real profits when ranked against businesses of other sizes.


Significant Challenges
But business owners sharing their homes with their enterprises also face significant challenges, including social and professional isolation, invisibility, lack of business skills, and sometimes burnout. Moreover, until recently it has been hard for them individually to hold any sway, and it is only since the turn of the millennium that there has been sufficient cohesion in the sector for home business as a whole to have a substantial voice.

In addition to their financial input, home businesses contribute significantly to New Zealand in a number of ways:
Home business is the spawning ground from which larger businesses arise – including iconic Kiwi brands like TradeMe, Pumpkin Patch, Navman, Resene, 42 Below and many more.

Starting their own home business is often the only option available to people who may otherwise face unemployment, so its role here is both in alleviating dependence on benefits and preserving the self-esteem of the individual. People with disabilities are also often able to run home businesses even when other employment options are not suitable.

Home businesses also provide employment for others, though this is often not evident from employment surveys as home business operators, especially in the earlier stages of growth, tend to favour using part-time contractors, often operating their own home businesses, over actual employees.

Having people working from home ensures suburbs are populated during the daytime which increases security and enhances the fabric of the community.

The celebrated Kiwi lifestyle is, in part, attributable to the number of self-employed people many of whom work from home (who else can take a sunny afternoon off to go sailing or spend athletics day with the children?)

Because it would not be too hard for a significant number of individual home business operators to lift their game substantially, home business is a sector which has enormous growth potential.

Home Business New Zealand was set up in 2000 to provide information, support, tools and resources to home businesses throughout New Zealand, to provide easy access to an online community of home business operators, and to create cohesion in the sector and provide a voice for it – all through its HomebizBuzz web site.


Joining forcers with researcher
While home business is an important part of the Small and Medium Enterprise sector, there is still much that is not known about the demographic and psychographic makeup of this group in relation to other small businesses. Home Business New Zealand has joined forces with an internationally renowned research organisation to launch a first-of-its-kind research project aimed at gaining detailed, credible and internationally acceptable data about small and home businesses in New Zealand. The first findings of this research will be available before the end of this year.


Contact:
Heather Douglas
Managing Director
Home Business New Zealand Ltd
Ph 09 445 2899
Fax 09 445 9679
Email: heather@homebizbuzz.co.nz
URL: www.homebizbuzz.co.nz