More than half of all U.S. businesses are based at home.  An estimated 6.6 million home-based enterprises provide at least half of their owners’ household income. Together these “homepreneurs” employ one in 10 private-sector workers, and by many measures they’re just as competitive as their counterparts in commercial spaces.

The 43% of home-based businesses that provide at least half of the owners’ household income are, on the whole, smaller than non-home-based companies. Only about 35% have revenue above $125,000, compared to 75% for non-home based businesses.

“It’s reflected in our pricing that we don’t have the same kind of infrastructure costs and fixed costs that some of our competitors do,”  Home based businesses measure up to other small businesses on key aspects of doing business, including access to capital, benefits to workers, marketing, and innovation.

Thinking for buying a business? Why not start your own? If you think it will be too expensive to “hit the ground running”, thing again. Emily Schmitt from BusinessWeek “discusses his favorites for those looking to start a business on the cheap.” From preparing business plans to invoicing Emily has you covered!

Looking to grow a specific part of your business but you can’t afford to hire an agency that specializes in that industry or bring that department in-house and staff it? Not to worry, “A new generation of online service marketplaces is giving small companies more opportunities than ever to find specialized expertise and affordable labor.” Websites such as Guru, Elance, and oDesk to name a few are “‘leveling the playing field between small and large businesses,’ said Thomas W. Malone, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In some cases, the cost savings can be substantial: the hourly rates of programmers in Russia, India or Pakistan are a fraction of those in the United States. These freelance marketplaces also allow companies to assemble teams quickly, find specialized expertise, begin new initiatives and drop everything when it’s no longer needed. Organizations can remain flat and focus on their core missions.”