Urban home-based businesses: how distinct are they and their owners?

Little attention has been paid to the geography of home-based businesses and how potential differences in characteristics and business operations are manifested across space. This chapter seeks to shed light on the characteristics of urban home-based businesses (HBBs) and their owners. It has three aims: first, to identify peculiarities of HBBs in urban areas; second, to test whether there exist ‘typical’ urban HBB entrepreneurs; and third, to make recommendations how cities and national government can support home-based businesses. The empirical findings drawn from a survey of the members of the Federation of Small Businesses Scotland clearly show that urban HBBs possess distinct characteristics and motivations. Key findings are: urban HBBs are concentrated in business services and creative services, urban economies benefit from the local supplier network of HBBs and HBBs that are operated around disability/care are more likely to be found in urban areas. It concludes that HBBs are diverse with distinct sub-groups having distinct needs. For city policy-makers it is therefore important not to adopt a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Different business needs shall be identified not only on the business of characteristics of the businesses (industry, number of employees) but also on characteristics of the owner (gender, disability/health).