Can the economic recovery start at home?
Podcast Episode
Starting a home business in Janesville requires some consideration by the city. Kyle Geissler reports.
Photo 
Home-based businesses
Provided all other conditions are satisfied, permitted home occupancies include but are not limited to:
-- Artists and sculptors
-- Authors and composers
-- Direct sale product distribution
-- Dressmaking, sewing and tailoring
-- Home crafts for off-site sale
-- Individual tutoring
-- Sales office provided that no transactions are made in person on the premises
-- Preserving and home cooking for off-site sales
-- Telephone answering and solicitation
Prohibited as home occupations:
-- Ambulance service
-- Beauty salons and barbershops
-- Carpentry, cabinetmakers
-- Lawn and landscaping services
-- Limousine and taxi services
-- Medical or dental office
-- Photographic studios
-- Retail sales
-- Tow truck services
-- Tree services
-- Vehicle and motor repair
-- Vehicle parts sales, upholstery or detailing
Source: City of Janesville
JANESVILLE — With thousands of local workers losing their jobs in the last 16 months, economic development officials say the time has never been better for some of those workers to start their own businesses.
Janesville's history, they say, is rife with successful companies that started in someone's basement or garage.
But before you affix that shingle to your siding, there are rules and regulations that govern home-based business.
Don't, for example, affix that shingle to your siding. The exterior of the home or yard cannot display or indicate any evidence of the business.
Janesville enacted specific rules for home-based businesses in 1981, said Gale Price, the city's manager of building and development services. The ordinance is designed to keep residential areas free of excessive noise and traffic, nuisances and fire hazards.
It's also intended to recognize opportunities for residents to run businesses from their homes.
"I've worked with some home occupancy ordinances that are wildly liberal, allowing up to 16 visits a day and hair cutting out of the home," Price said. "But most zoning ordinances are ultimately reflective of the community's values, and I think that's the case here."
It doesn't cost anything to get a permit for a home-based business, and some owners get one because it provides favorable tax implications to their business.
Janesville's ordinance is fairly general. It permits home businesses as long as they don't exceed 25 percent of the floor area and inventory and equipment are kept inside the home. It prohibits noises and odors and asks that no business create traffic or parking problems.
Only immediate family members living in the house can be employed by the business.
"It basically comes down to common sense," Price said. "You have to have common sense that what you're doing is not impacting the neighborhood, and if you go into that way, you'll be fine."
The ordinance lists some allowed occupations as well as some Price refers to as "absolutely no way, no how."
A home-based taxidermy studio is one that used to be in the latter category but is now approved. Three taxidermists got together in 2002 and successfully appealed their permit denials. Since that reversal by the zoning board of appeals, five more taxidermists have started home-based businesses in Janesville.
But still not allowed are businesses such as car repair and hair cutting. Some businesses, such as home-based photography studios, are generally prohibited, although a few have been grandfathered in because they started before the city enacted its ordinance.
Applications for home business permits have declined in the last four years. Between 1994 and 2004, the city averaged more than 30 applications each year.
Between 2005 and 2008, the city received an average of 12 to 13 applications per year.
While conventional wisdom might suggest more people would turn to home-based businesses in a down economy, Price has a different theory.
"I think it was much more appealing for people to go off and start their own business when the economy was a little better and maybe they had a spouse that carried the insurance," he said. "Without spousal insurance, it becomes much more expensive to add that into the expense of a home-based business."
Price admits his theory is based on the assumption that everyone who wants to start a home-based business follows the rules and applies for a city permit.
"We certainly have people who don't go through the process, try to run under the radar and play all sorts of games," he said. "But eventually they tick off the neighbors, and we catch up with them."
Home-based car repair businesses often top that list.
"Motor vehicle repair is the most obnoxious violation," Price said. "That creates a big problem for neighbors, and it also violates state codes."
Failure to have a home business permit is a city ordinance violation that can be referred for citations. Nut nine times out of 10, the city will work with the business owner to resolve the problems, Price said.
"We really try to make it as easy as possible," he said.
Apr 21, 2009 at 8:40 a.m.
Suggest removal
Kiomohican.--correction on last post, *darius was stating, not I! I just happen to agree wholeheartedly! Great post!
Apr 21, 2009 at 8:38 a.m.
Suggest removal
kiowamohican.. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and several others have pretty much said that same thing through the years. You're correct. I was just stating that I had seen that quote from someone from my generation, that being, Gerald Ford and I had never forgotten it. I agree with you all the way. If we look at our history, our failure to learn from it has put us in the predicament we're in today. Government has become a "business" and somehow the role of the American people has been turned upside down. We don't work for the government, they work for us! Which is what all of these great leaders have said all along. As Harry Truman once said; "A country that forgets it's history is doomed to repeat it" Without free enterprise and the ability for the citizens of a country to be rewarded for their ambition and creativeness, a country becomes simply average. America has always been great...until now.
Apr 21, 2009 at 1:29 a.m.
Suggest removal
darius:
I believe that quote was actually said by Thomas Jefferson, if my history serves me correct.
.
In regards to the free enterprise. The system has worked quite fine. The US did not become the most prosperous nation in the world by sheer luck. It was because of the free enterprise system. The recent problems are a direct result of government interfering in the free enterprise system. Namely the reckless policies of the FOMC during the late 90's and early 2000's that lead to bubbles in all areas of the economy.
Apr 21, 2009 at 12:12 a.m.
Suggest removal
truth1 - the sidebar first lists allowed occupations and then prohibited occupations. The Gazette should have bolded the lines:
.
Provided all other conditions are satisfied, permitted home occupancies include but are not limited to:
.
Prohibited as home occupations:
.
Sometimes they don't do a very good job with that combination advertising/information left column.
Apr 20, 2009 at 11:17 p.m.
Suggest removal
Small businesses are where alot of our jobs come from! Let's all give them support and a hand. I believe in giving all businesses a tax cut so they have more money to grow and create MORE JOBS. That's how this counrty grew in the first place. Do away with unions that raises the costs of products we buy and might I add, ruins businesses and corporations.
Apr 20, 2009 at 11:10 p.m.
Suggest removal
janesvillian... homebased businesses are. They're responsible for half of the small businesses in America today! On the rise. Very much a part of the free enterprise system. You just won't hear about it on CNN!
Apr 20, 2009 at 8:20 p.m.
Suggest removal
How come the article says vehicle repair is not allowed, but the sidebar lists it as being allowed???
Apr 20, 2009 at 8:11 p.m.
Suggest removal
Free enterprise, in case anyone hasn't been reading the papers, isn't doing too well these days. I wouldn't brag.
Apr 20, 2009 at 6:47 p.m.
Suggest removal
KIOWAMOHICAN-- very true. You make a great point that totally ties the big govt. to this article too. Free enterprise. The less we have of it in this country, the more govt. control there is too. Seeds of socialism.
Home based businesses might be America's last stand to get this thing right. They're definitely on the uphill climb and the trend of the future in regards to business and entreprenuerialship. I made the choice as well to change and get with the times.
Apr 20, 2009 at 6:40 p.m.
Suggest removal
kiowamohican..No argument there! You know what that means for us. Gerald Ford said something many moons ago that stuck in my head that apply to today's world: "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."....
Apr 20, 2009 at 4:33 p.m.
Suggest removal
The biggest growth industry today, without any question is government.
Apr 20, 2009 at 4:13 p.m.
Suggest removal
etownmilton..why look to the schools for this help? I didn't. Infact, most schools don't have the right information to help people succeed in this new age. They're still teaching industrial aged principles. They don't apply to now.
Apr 20, 2009 at 3:03 p.m.
Suggest removal
Home based businesses are great! But the help to accomplish this is not there - you will get denied assistance for your schooling at the Job Center in many of the programs this article listed.
The schooling will come out of your pocket, so I wish this article didn't push this. It's not reasonable for many.
Apr 20, 2009 at 2:55 p.m.
Suggest removal
Whenever there is a down turn in the economy, it means there's an upturn in another sector. The money to be made doesn't just disappear. It's now in many more countries than the U.S. as most have been accustomed. There's a job shift to the information age. The internet. Many people will choose to ignore the new economy and fall into some very hard times. People need to have a means to tap into the globally directed economy and the internet is the key. I hope people take advantage of it!
Apr 20, 2009 at 12:19 p.m.
Suggest removal
I'm not quite sure I would call 2005 through 2008 a "down economy". Unemployment was higher than in the 1990s, but it still represented a trough between the 2001 and 2008 recessions, and along with the 1990s the lowest levels since the 1960s.
.
As unemployment is a lagging economic indicator, and the last two recessions have exhibited very slow employment recovery measured in years rather than months (probably a feature of the loss of industrial jobs generally), I would expect that to be the case in Janesville even without our local conditions. This can be a spur to innovation and job creation by small businesses that get started at a kitchen table, the way that Lab Safety Supply was.
Apr 20, 2009 at 10:36 a.m.
Suggest removal
The answer to the headline question in this article is ABSOLUTELY! 100%, thumbs up yes it can! It has in my household. The govt. isn't coming to the rescue like so many think! We have to come to our own rescue. Home based businesses are the future and the future is here. We're in a global economy and the internet has leveled the playing field for everyone to get their piece of the pie. They just have to act!
Apr 20, 2009 at 10:14 a.m.
Suggest removal
Wouldn't Bud Gayhart at the Small Business Development Center have been a good person to interview for this story?
Before you post a comment, consider this:
Note: GazetteXtra.com does not condone or review every comment. Read more in our User Policy AgreementPost Comment
Commenting requires registration.