If you answered yes to this question, you are among nearly a million Australians who run a home business, according to the Department of Industry and Science (DIS). Why not conduct your business out of a custom designed workshop, garage or residential shed?
Doing so can help provide a more professional space for clients to visit your business rather than inviting them into your home, as well as offer you a healthy balance between work and family life.
Here is a range of examples of the diverse types of businesses that can run smoothly from your shed:
- Bakers and cooks who make and sell organic food, jams, muffins, cakes or cater functions
- Dress makers who sew up stunning garments and measure clients from the comfort of a home
- Artists who paint from a home studio before selling their artworks in galleries
- Psychiatrists and GP doctors who build their clinic in a re-purposed garage and treat patients in these revamped, cosy spaces
- Personal trainers who renovate a room into a gym to offer personalised services to clients
- Self-employed authors, graphic designers and bloggers running their own company
- Massage therapists who construct a small salon with spa equipment
Often these home businesses consist of only one person running the show – in fact, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that more than half of Australian businesses, 61 per cent to be exact, were run by just a single person between 2013 and 2014.
But, if you are among these, the DIS recommends asking yourself two important questions:
- Is your home the best location for your business?
- Will your home-based business allow you to balance your work and family life?
If you answered no to either of these, there are some options at your disposal so you can still stay working from your property but establish a healthier boundary between work and pleasure.
Residential shed or garage
Shed Boss offers so many homely features for our shed designs that the building can feel like an extension of your house. You can add skylights to bathe in natural sunlight and sliding glass doors much like you might have in your lounge.
If customers visit your home business, it is far more professional to have them step inside here than have to worry about how they might perceive your home and any personal items strewn about. You can easily set up a small reception with a sofa and coffee table inside, inviting clients to take a seat and using our customisable internal walls to form separate, private spaces for consultation or meetings.
You might worry that converting an empty space on your property to a residential shed or garage for your home-business might mean you have no space left to park the family's cars, but a simple solution is to add a front or rear garaport and securely park under this shelter.
There are so many ways to run a home-business from your garage or shed – personal trainers can add mirrors to the internal walls to help your clients feel in a gym environment. Domestic workshop
Rather than cluttering up your home, allocate a clear, separate space for your business by constructing a workshop in the backyard. Here at Shed Boss, we know that each workshop has different needs and functions and so it is important to have some flexibility with the design.
Because of this we offer a handy Shed Boss app so you can start designing right away, adding bespoke specifications such as the height of the roof and if you'd like any internal walls. Because our workshops are built using sturdy, galvanised steel, even heavy-duty businesses such as panel beaters and mechanics can work from home by setting up their business on site. This can save them money long-term instead of renting out a commercial lot for their business operations.
GP Doctor's often run a clinic from their own home, using a renovated garage or residential shed for consulting with patients. 