230,000 kiwi businesses set to celebrate National Home Business Week 2005
MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release
October 9 – 15: New Zealand’s Fifth Annual National Home Business Week.
New Zealand is a nation of small businesses – and of those, more than two thirds are home-based. These 230,000 Davids
face unique issues and challenges, but take on their Goliaths with tenacity, ingenuity and courage.
They often work in isolation, invisible behind their ordinary suburban fences, having to prove their credibility in the
corridors of corporate clients, and balance the concurrent demands of home and business life. And while home business
operators are generally highly skilled at what they do, many struggle with the complexity of running a business based on
their expertise, and in common with other New Zealand entrepreneurs, are better at starting a business than making money
out of it[1]. However, they also have an enormous strategic advantage – they are far more nimble than a bigger business.
National Home Business Week (October 9 – 15) recognises and honours these unsung heroes of our economy.
Home businesses contribute substantially to the economy and society in a number of ways.
- The home business sector is a spawning ground for bigger business. Well-known Kiwi icons such as Resene, Navman,
Pumpkin Patch and many others all started from home.
- For a significant number of home business operators, self-employment has been the only employment option open to them.
Running their own business is their chosen alternative to living off a benefit.
- A home business allows parents the flexibility to tailor their work and lifestyle to accommodate more family-centric
activities.
- With most families choosing a double income lifestyle, and older people staying in the work force longer, having
people working from home prevents the “empty suburb” syndrome, keeping communities alive and deterring crime.
“Home business is a growing trend throughout the world, fuelled primarily by easy access to cost-effective technology,
especially the Internet and a desire for work-life balance. While many home business operators find sharing their homes
with their work challenging, few would have it any other way,” says Heather Douglas, Managing Director of Home Business
New Zealand Ltd., which operates the HomebizBuzz web site (www.homebizbuzz.co.nz) to provide information, resources,
tools, a voice and access to an online community for home business operators throughout New Zealand. Heather was
recently awarded a Vero Excellence in Business Support Award for the Most Significant Contribution by an Individual for
her work with the home business community.
National Home Business Week aims to raise the profile and credibility of home businesses throughout New Zealand.
ENDS