Most small businesses start at home, and for many there is no good reason to leave. It is the cheapest possible premises and it removes the single largest fixed cost a young business would otherwise carry.
Check you are allowed
Residential property is zoned residential, and running a business from it may require consent depending on the impact — customers arriving, staff, deliveries, noise, signage, storage.
A consultant with a laptop is treated differently from a workshop. Where consent is needed it is usually obtainable, sometimes with conditions, and the process involves notifying neighbours.
If you rent, the lease may prohibit it. In a sectional title scheme, the conduct rules may prohibit it. Check both.
Tell your insurer
Household contents cover generally does not extend to business equipment or stock, and a claim for a laptop used commercially may be declined on a domestic policy.
Liability is the bigger gap: if a customer or courier is injured at your home, domestic cover is unlikely to respond. Where anybody comes to the premises for business reasons, this needs addressing specifically.
Keep the business separate
A separate bank account, separate records, and ideally a defined space. Where you claim a portion of home costs against tax, the requirements are specific — the space generally needs to be regularly and exclusively used for the business and specifically equipped for it.
Claiming a share of the bond or rent on a corner of the dining table is the kind of claim that does not survive examination. Take advice on what you can properly claim rather than guessing.
Manage the practicalities
A business address that is not your home — a virtual office or a private bag — protects your privacy on public records and looks more established. Your registered address is a separate matter and must be somewhere you actually receive things.
A separate telephone number, and defined hours, so that customers reach a business rather than someone's family.
Know when to leave
When staff arrive, when stock takes over, when customers coming to the house becomes awkward, or when the boundary between work and home has stopped existing.
Coworking is the usual intermediate step and is considerably cheaper than a lease — it also removes the isolation, which is a genuine cost of working alone that nobody budgets for.
Do not rush out of it
Premises feel like a growing business. They are a fixed monthly cost that continues in the months when revenue does not, and taking them on before the work justifies it is a common way to acquire an obligation that outlives the optimism that produced it.
General guidance, not legal, tax or insurance advice. Zoning, tax deductibility and insurance requirements vary; confirm what applies to you.