First Step Marketing

Your home is going to be your business base, so it is important that it should provide the facilities you need for the business you intend to start. For example, if you intend running a furniture- making business you might find difficulty operating from a twentieth-floor studio flat, although a writer could happily work in such an environment. You must analyse all the features of your home which could be an advantage and those which could hamper your work. Start by answering the following questionnaire so that you have the basic facts about your home in front of you.

1. What type of home is it (House, Flat, Bungalow, Caravan, etc)?
2. How many rooms does it have?
3. How old is it?
4. What material is it built with?
5. Is your home self-contained, or part of a block?
6. How many outbuildings (shed, garage, etc) are there?
7. How many spare rooms are there?
8. What facilities are there (eg hot water, gas, electricity, central heating, etc)?

This information will enable you to check that your home will provide the basic requirements for your work. For example, working at home will almost certainly require central heating. You will not be able to work effectively in winter if your home is cold all day. Ideally you should be able to use a spare room for your business activities so that work does not intrude on home life. Also, a self-contained environment is better if your work is likely to be noisy. Of course, you do not necessarily have to move house in order to have the perfect workplace, but bear in mind that if your home is not ideal for your kind of business there may be problems in the future. The best arrangement would be:

• a solidly constructed building that is warm in winter
• a spare room
• a home which is self-contained and not part of a block.

But if you cannot achieve this ideal, do not give up. You may still be able to work from home in a tower block, providing it does not upset the neighbours, and assuming that you will not have to haul tons of equipment up and down the stairs! Just think carefully about your circumstances.

If you do not have a spare room, think of the ways around the problem. Could you convert the garage, for example, or could the garden shed be used? Is the loft large enough to be converted into a spare room? Think of all these alternatives and work out the costs of making any conversions. Discuss other possibilities with your family, such as using half of the dining room for your office. If your only problem is a lack of storage space for raw materials, why not all have a spring clean one weekend, throwing out as much rubbish as possible, and selling off any unwanted items? Perhaps you can release extra cupboard space which could solve your problem.

Space required

To determine the amount of space you need list the equipment and furniture required in your work. The following questionnaire will help.

1. What basic equipment do you require (eg desk, filing cabinet, chair, table, etc)?
2. Do you need any specialist equipment?
3. What services do you need (eg electricity, gas, water, etc)?

This questionnaire will highlight the amount of space needed. Two desks, a sink with running water and four filing cabinets will obviously need more space than just a table and a chair. However, a good rule of thumb is to look at your initial requirements for space and then double it. You will be amazed how quickly you accumulate material, so it’s better to have space available at the outset than to become cramped and find it difficult to work.

Whatever type of business you intend to start, you will almost certainly need to allow space for the following items:

• desk
• chair
• four-drawer filing cabinet
• bookcase
• large cupboard

Legal considerations

Contrary to popular belief, an Englishman’s home is not his castle! There is a long list of laws and regulations which control what we can and canot do in our own homes. The main legal area to be investigated before starting up is whether or not you are legaly entitled to use your home for business purposes. There are many laws which prevent people running profit-making enterprises in their homes. It is wise to check your own position before you begin, otherwise you may end up in trouble once you have started your business!

to be continued

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Analyzing Your Home Business Base

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 2:39 am and is filed under Corporation Law, Intellectual Property, Legal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.