A myriad of self-employed professionals are taking care of business – from home. The Minister for Small Business, Theo Theophanous MLC, will ackowledge this rise in businesses from home at the next Victorian Small Business Expo.
In fact, more than two-thirds of Australian small business owners are home-based.
It’s strikingly evident home is where the heart – and the workplace – is in the new millennium.
Home-based business in Australia is a thriving growth industry, spawn by intuitive stay-at-home entrepreneurs taking a direct route along the information superhighway.
In acknowledgment of this boom sector, the Minister for Small Business, the Hon. Theo Theophanous MLC, will present the Australian Home-Based Business Awards (AHBBA) during the Victorian Small Business Expo at 3.00pm on Saturday August 11, 2007 at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, Southbank, Melbourne.
Mr Theophanous will also officially open the Expo (August 11-13), a three-day extravaganza encompassing the entire gamut of small business – from products and services to innovation and education. It will be held during the Victorian Government’s Small Business Festival.
Last year’s AHBBA national winner was "Sasy n Savy", an aromatherapy and lifestyle company, home-based in Kogarah Bay (NSW), with the intention to enhance the physical, mental, emotional and the spiritual wellbeing of the individual.
Sasy n Savy manufactures Australian-made aromatherapy, day spa products and fruit and herbal teas throughout the world. In addition it also distributes relaxation and meditation music.
SNS managing director Samea Maakrun says "the branding and profile-raising that our online marketing has achieved is the flagship of our company’s success to date".
"Visits by top international clients who have a large company mentality and set ideas about the package that business success should be wrapped in, can at times be a difficult game to play," Samea said.
"Their initial puzzlement about this successful business and its output from such a small home-based office space has them in wonderment. But we use this to our advantage and in the marketplace it has become part of our uniqueness.
"As every marketing expert knows, you will learn more about a client, their needs, wants and aspirations in a relaxed environment than you will any day in a boardroom."
Home-based business operators are eligible to enter one of five categories for the AHBBA: business services; personal services; trade; merchandising; food, hospitality, farming.
AHBBA entries close on August 3rd, 2007 and entry forms are available from www.homebasedbusinessawards.com.au.
