The Concept & Idea of Home Based Business - Edt. 2

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An entrepreneur's story of setting up a food business from home

We don't need to hold stock, as we work with a manufacturer, so technically I only need to find space for my laptop, plus a little extra cooking equipment for new product development purposes. But this does mean there is little separation between my work and home environment. With young children and the accompanying constant noise in the house, that can create its own problems.

It's possible to offset some domestic costs against the business, such as a proportion of the mortgage and utility bills. I also avoid supplementary costs that come with 'normal' work - I have no commuting expenses, avoid daily visits to the coffee shop and pre-packaged lunches.

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It's cheaper to raid the fridge - but the ability to do so, all day long, can be a disadvantage! Aside from cost, gaining extra spare time is the other major plus. I don't waste it commuting and I can use office dead time, such as being on hold, to multitask and get chores done or put the dinner on.

Flexibility is part of this too: I can get things done in the middle of the night if I have to, and my working day is less disrupted by the school run or having to get home for things like deliveries. My business partner is also a mum and working as we do gives us some control to fit things around family life. We often have complicated discussions in the evening.

You have to be disciplined about this though, as it can run the other way. It's hard to switch off if the notebook beside the bed seeps work thoughts into your mind, just as you're trying to sleep. And callers might not understand why you can't talk right now, in a critical child-tantrum moment.

I don't spend my whole week at home though, since I'm frequently on the road visiting retailers, suppliers and distributors.

How did you come up with your small business idea?

But I can see how in a different business it could be boring or even lonely. That makes it easy to find distractions, or sometimes they find you: If you're worried about giving the right impression, sometimes doing business at home can feel too personal. Keeping true to our early principles of providing the latest trends at great prices — supported by friendly, efficient and speedy service — has enabled the business to grow steadily in spite of the recession.

Inspirational ideas came from across the pond: I've been inspired for as long as I can remember by Charlie Merrill of Merrill Lynch fame, who was pivotal in bringing the huge benefits of individual share ownership to the masses in the USA. I could see the same revolutionary difference being possible if we could unlock the excitement available from investing in startups for a much wider audience than just the very rich to whom it has been limited for so long.

I met my co-founder Carlos Silva on an MBA course we were both doing, and we quickly realised that his technological genius could deliver against my ambition. The rest is history. A number of years and a lot of hard work later, we had built a very successful startup to help other startups get the funding they needed. Anthony Lau is the founder of Cyclehoop Ltd , a company that designs cycle parking products.

Every cloud has a silver lining: I founded Cyclehoop Ltd in I was inspired to design the Cyclehoop after discovering my bike had been stolen by a thief who had lifted it over the top of a signpost it was chained to. The Cyclehoop can be retrofitted onto signposts, lamp posts, bollards and railings within minutes creating secure cycle parking spaces without the need for digging and concreting.

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The design has since gone on to win the Reinventing the Bike Shed competition and has been adopted by more than 30 local authorities within the UK and overseas. Five years on, Cyclehoop Ltd have designed more than 15 cycle parking products which are made in Britain and sold worldwide. This article was originally published in May This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional.

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To receive more like this you can become a member of the Small Business Network here. Simon Hill is the managing director at Wazoku , an idea management company I had an idea of what I wanted and then I put in a lot of planning: Jonathan Warren is the director at Time 4 Sleep , an online beds supplier I took inspiration from other online retail sites: Jeff Lynn is the cofounder and CEO of Seedrs , a crowdfunding platform for startups Inspirational ideas came from across the pond: Anthony Lau is the founder of Cyclehoop Ltd , a company that designs cycle parking products Every cloud has a silver lining: This article was originally published in May This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional.

Topics Starting a new business Breakthrough moments. Entrepreneurs Business idea Small business blogposts. Order by newest oldest recommendations.

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