There’s No Place Like Home… For a Small Business

Home-based business owners in many cities face needless and arbitrary regulatory hurdles—like those in Nashville—that make their lives more difficult, force them underground or shut them down completely.

In December, IJ’s strategic research team released Finding the American Dream at Home: How Home-Based Businesses Benefit Entrepreneurs and Their Communities, which outlines the many benefits of home-based businesses and suggests that restrictions on them are short-sighted. The report details how home-based businesses make meaningful contributions to the economy and society at large.

Key findings from the report include:

• Home-based businesses make important contributions to the economy. Over half of the nation’s businesses and nearly two-thirds of artistic businesses—just like Lij’s—are based in the home.
• Home-based businesses offer an accessible avenue to entrepreneurship to people who do not have the considerable resources often required to start a brick-and-mortar business.
• Home-based businesses offer needed flexibility for retired people, people caring for children and those who are unable to work outside the home.
• Home-based businesses offer entrepreneurship opportunities for women, minorities and veterans.

These findings illustrate that using one’s home to earn a living is a common practice that makes economic sense. We will continue to use these facts to make our case against laws that restrict home-based businesses across the country.