There’s no place like home

May 09, 2008

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Dunc Malcolm/News staff

Working from home means making money in your pajamas

Tigger is one of those contented guests. It doesn’t take much for hotel manager Jill Moores to keep him happy – the odd cuddle and a tasty treat every so often.

Moores usually has about 16 guests at her cottage, a small workshop in her backyard she’s converted into a calm hotel for cats, and each will stay for around two months, or up to six.

Moores opened A Spoiled Cat in 2005, but it isn’t the first home-based business she’s run. In fact, even when she used to work in automotive financing, she continued to run a home business on the side. It was just so much easier.

“With this type of business, if I have to take off for a couple hours, I can. It’s very flexible,” she says as a black cat rubbed against her leg.

She says her income has tripled since A Spoiled Cat opened. She’s hoping to franchise it soon.

There are countless benefits to running a home-based business, says Lesley Machan, owner of Redesigning Women and account manager for Send Out Cards, two jobs she manages from home.

Benefits such as being able to claim up to one-third of her taxes, the utilitiy bills, gas for her car and phone bills, all add to the draw of working from home. Especially in a city as expensive to live in as Victoria, she added.

And being able to start and end her day when she wants is a plus, Machan says.

“But all those advantages can be disadvantages to the wrong person,” she pointed out. “You have to be very self-motivated to go down the hallway and work in your PJs. That convenience can be a detriment.”

Machan has operated several businesses from her house since her daughter was born more than 20 years ago. She and Moores agree that for women, working from home is a great way to manage the family while bringing in much-needed income.

Of course, it’s not just women working at home. Perry Fainstein left his office job with the government to open a real estate law office from his house in Oak Bay. While he agrees the flexibility in his work is a major bonus, he adds that having his office next to the living room can make for very long work days.

“Sometimes I’m still working at 11 p.m.,” he says. Fainstein’s wife Judy works from their house as well, running a non-profit environmental organization.

Perry Fainstein points out that technology has made it easier than ever to work from home.

“The size of things has decreased now, so you can fit it into your house,” he says, remembering the days of monstrous computers and filing cabinets full of paper records. “Now, you don’t have to have the space. What I’m doing now, I couldn’t have done 20 years ago.”

The Home Office Support Team, or HOST, maintains a membership of around 35, most of whom are home-based entrepreneurs. Twenty of those provide a stable core membership, but the number fluctuates, president Emery Baldry says, because 80 per cent of small businesses fail in the first couple years.

Baldry, owner of Guidance Bookkeeping, says his “one-minute commute” to his living room tops his list of benefits of working from home.

The Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce doesn’t keep records of how many businesses in the city are home-based. However, most home entrepreneurs agree the number of people working from home continues to increase.

ecardone@saanichnews.com

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There’s no place like home

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