Work from home - seriously?

People who work from home often bemoan not being taken seriously but how can they be with the attitude that laws governing business don't apply to them.

Let me explain.......

I followed a couple of discussions recently started by someone complaining their landlord had basically told them they couldn't run their admittedly successful business out of their apartment. Since this took place on a website comprising mainly of people working from home they obviously expected nothing but unqualified support and sympathy at their plight.

What they got instead was mostly a dressing down for not abiding by local laws and expecting a free pass which didn't sit very well. Several replies, as far as I could see independant of each other, pointed out you technically need a zoning variance to run a commercial business in what is considered a residential area, leaving themselves and the landlord open to legal action - that you can't just decide to start a business and have at it. Then there's the pesky little matter of business insurance and in their case, since they run a garment business, the potential of increased fire risk by storing a lot of clothes in a small confined area (i.e providing a lot of flammable material that would feed and fuel a fire). The attitude seemed to be one of 'I pay my rent, I can do what I want'...um, wrong!!!!! The landlord has every right to tell the tenant they cannot do something in the 'privacy' of their apartment when it's illegal.

It got even more entertaining and absurd when the tenant basically accused everyone of ganging up on them and personally attacking them. Wrong again...it was nothing more than individuals who had educated themselves as to the ins and outs of starting your own business and each pointing out the tenant was wrong to complain.

No wonder people don't take home based business seriously when the business owner doesn't conduct themselves professionally and adhere to laws applying to all commercial enterprises. It becomes a little easier to skirt the issues here if you own your home but when you're living in someone else's property it's important to know what you're doing. The landlord has their investment to protect as well as their other tenants and are quite entitled to tell someone they have to cease and desist operating their business.

As I say, no wonder people don't take work from home businesses very seriously.