Small office/home office
 | This article includes a list of generalreferences,butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations.(May 2012) |
Small office/home office(orsingle office/home office;sometimes shortSOHO) refers to the category ofbusinessorcottage industrythat involves from 1 to 10 workers. InNew Zealand,theMinistry of Business, Innovation and Employment(MBIE) defines a small office as 6–19 employees and a micro office as 1–5.[1]
History[edit]
Before the 19th century, and the spread of theindustrial revolutionaround the globe, nearly all offices were small offices and/or home offices, with only a few exceptions. Most businesses were small, and the paperwork that accompanied them was limited. The industrial revolution aggregated workers in factories, to mass-produce goods. In most circumstances, thewhite collarcounterpart—office work—was aggregated as well in large buildings, usually in cities or densely populated suburban areas.
Beginning in the mid-1980s, the advent of thepersonal computerandfax machine,plus breakthroughs intelecommunications,created opportunities for office workers to decentralize. Decentralization was also perceived as benefiting employers in terms of lower overheads and potentially greater productivity.
Professions[edit]
Manyconsultantsand the members of suchprofessionslikelawyers,real estate agents, andsurveyorsin small and medium-sized towns operate from home offices.
Several ranges of products, such as thearmoire desk,all-in-one printer,virtual assistants,home serversandnetwork-attached storageare designed specifically for the SOHO market. A number of books andmagazineshave been published and marketed specifically at this type of office. These range from general advice texts to specific guidebooks on such challenges as setting up a smallPBXfor the officetelephones.
Technology has also created a demand forlarger businesses to employ individuals who work from home.Sometimes these people remain as independent businesspersons, and sometimes they become employees of a larger company.
The small office home office has undergone a transformation since its advent as theInternethas enabled anyone working from a home office to compete globally. Technology has made this possible throughemail,theWorld-Wide Web,e-commerce,videoconferencing,remote desktop software,VPN,VLAN,webinarsystems, and telephone connections byVOIP.Due to the increase in small and home offices, web services and standard business software have been created to directly assist smaller businesses in standard business practice[2][3]
In many countries, a home office can be claimed as a tax deduction only if office space and supplies are not provided by a corporate office.[4][5][6]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^"Archived copy"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2017-03-12.Retrieved2017-08-14.
{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^DeBaise, Colleen."Accounting 101: How to Keep Financial Records".Wall Street Journal.Retrieved10 December2013.
- ^Doyle, Carmel (12 July 2011)."Billfaster raises €330k to scale up online accounting globally".Ireland's Technology News Service.Retrieved2 February2014.
- ^"Steuertipp Nr. 28".bdo.ch(in German).Retrieved2021-04-14.
- ^tagesschau.de."Steuererleichterung: Bis zu 600 Euro fürs Homeoffice".tagesschau.de(in German).Retrieved2021-04-14.
- ^"Steuererklärung: Das gilt fürs Homeoffice".ey(in German).Retrieved2021-04-14.
Further reading[edit]
- Basset, Brian (1997).Bless This Home Office...With tax credits: An Adam Compilation.Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing.[a comical view]
- Johnson, Karen K., ed. (1998).Ortho's All About Home Offices.DesMoines, Iowa: Ortho Publishing Group.[mostly the home handyman's view]
- Manroe, Candace Ord (1997).The Home Office: Setting Up, Furnishing and Decorating Your Own Work Space.Michael Friedman Publishing Group Inc.[mostly a decorating view of things]
- Zimmerman, Neal (2002).Home Workspace Idea Book.Taunton Press.ISBN9781561586264.[small office and home office design of all types and sizes]
External links[edit]
