Why the big guys like to kick home based entrepreneurs in the face
A few weeks ago I went to a daily newspaper to insert a classified advertisement to promote my "100 Home based Businesses For Malaysians" manual. I was shocked when they refused to allow me to insert my ad! They had a policy against businesses operating from home (read: fly-by-night operations) advertising in their classifieds and any ad cannot invite others to work from home. I have not come across a more idiotic policy. Have these guys got their heads in the sand throughout the home based business revolution?
    When I think of it and after discussing about the incident with other home based comrades, we should expect any large organization to be hostile to home based entrepreneurs. I have come up with 8 reasons why it is in their interest to keep home based enterprise suppressed. Tell me if you can think of more.

Losing the carrot and the stick
Corporate culture has always dictated that their employees should be thankful that he has a job. Any silliness on the part of the corporation should be tolerated by the employee because without the corporation the employee ceases to exist. Not!
    With a knowledge of how easy it is to start a home based business, the employee will feel more secure in knowing that if the corporation continues in its oppression of employees, he can always quit (if Karl Marx knew how to start a home based business, communism needn't have reared its ugly head). To the corporation, it would be like having their reproductive glands ripped off. No longer can they motivate employees with (empty) promises of salary increment and no longer can they threaten their employees with threats of demotion and dismissal. To all the oppressed employees out there: stop sniggering at the latest Dilbert dig at managerial stupidity and do something about being independent!

Exposing the weaknesses of the corporation
The productivity of many solo entrepreneurs can equal that of the large corporations easily. With many equalizers like multi-tasking software, the Internet, home fax machines and courier services, a solo entrepreneur can do the work of 50 people combined. What does that say about corporations? In one word: inefficient! When shareholders begin to realise that week-long conferences, corporate limousines and chauffeurs, high rise offices and unlimited expense accounts are unnecessary for productivity, these perks will be pulled out from under the fat cats' feet and their raison d'être becomes questionable.

Declining Demand For Real Estate
Let's face it – if everybody starts to work from home, who is going to use the high rise offices and commercial centres? We all know that out of every ten tycoons that Malaysia has, nine probably built his fortunes from real estate. The creation of wealth through real estate is very high on the corporations' agenda and the emergence of a threat which will half the demand for real estate should be suppressed as far as possible.

Stiff competition from home based businesses
Once I was asked to provide consultation for a company which wants to put up its business on the internet. The guy in charge was shocked to find out that my team charges only a fraction of what mainstream web designers charge. We were not intentionally trying to undercut our competitors but we saw no point in charging the same as our corporate competitors. They have to pay their staff, landlords, interior designers and advertising agencies but we only have to pay ourselves. Our customers are our reason for being, so is there any reason not to pass on our savings to them?
    It is not only lower prices which will win the day. Service counts for a lot too. Every now and then, we see news of CEOs going into the field. It becomes news because it is not something which CEOs do everyday, or for that matter, once a year. In contrast, the home based entrepreneur is out on the field every time. Work gets done faster because we get down to doing work as soon as we get off the phone. Decisions are made faster. We don't have to worry about staff being rude.
    With competition like this, how can corporations breathe easily?

Declining popularity of the stock market
Have you ever been to a securities firm and observed the punters? Try having an in depth conversation about business issues and you will probably get blank stares. The truth is, most stock market players are out to make a quick buck. Trading is based on rumours, superstition and sentiments not unlike what happens in a casino. If they realise that having a home based business is a less risky investment which provides a more stable future, they will be running away from the stock market in droves. How are all the remisiers going to earn a living? What will be the future of securities firms and their employees? But I do have to take pity on a particular home based business comrade: the fortune teller / numbers predictor / astrologer whose services may be soon redundant.

Declining demand for multi-level marketing opportunities
Don't get me wrong. I happen to love MLM. I appreciate the efforts of companies like Amway which have provided wonderful opportunities for home based entrepreneurs without capital and risk. To this day I can't think of an easier home based business to start than MLM. What is not so right in the industry is that many corporations, realising the potential of MLM in pushing products into the market, jump on the bandwagon. We see many corporations who have no experience whatsoever in MLM, setting up an MLM subsidiary to cash in on the MLM wave while at the same time exploiting naïve entrepreneur wannabes who will blindly purchase the company's products to maintain their volume.
    Who wins in the end? The corporations of course! By the time the poor distributor has lost his savings in stockpiling useless products, the MLM subsidiary will probably have been amalgamated into their retailing arm under the guise of restructuring. The products now mysteriously appear on supermarket shelves after gaining acceptability from the market.
    To these exploiters, non-MLM home based business opportunities provides competition to the idea that an MLM opportunity is the only business which one can start with an investment of less than RM100 and personal effort. Once their prospects realise that one can run a conventional business from home with very little financial heartache and risk, MLM opportunities becomes more difficult to sell.
    My advice to would-be MLMers is look out for signs of corporate exploitation: a CEO who has not heard of the word 'upline', obscure and inferior products which are sold at exorbitant prices and an office which does not open in the evening.

Declining demand for overpriced services
The home based business owner is a guerilla. Unlike corporations who have expensive budgets for expenses, home based entrepreneurs cannot afford such things like expensive training, television or quarter page advertising and advertising agency fees. They make do with what they have and adopt a do-it-yourself attitude. To develop your home based business, nothing will be cheaper than writing your own advertising copy, teaching yourself business skills by reading books, using classified advertising, networking online and offline, spreading goodwill by providing good customer service, writing your own press releases and drafting your own agreements. When it is absolutely necessary to engage outside services, you have to economize and will naturally look at services provided by fellow home based entrepreneurs. The services that are provided by corporate professionals will not seem so sacred anymore (which is why some of their employees are freelancing in their own time to provide the same services to home based businesses at a much cheaper rate).

Envy
The typical manager is mostly overworked, overstressed and values every sen of his now fat salary which has been secured through years of political maneuvering, sweat and tears. Coupled with the prospect of having to fight traffic jams and feeling insecure about on whose head will the corporate retrenchment axe fall on next will only make him more envious of the home based entrepreneur who is his own boss and has managed to start-up his business with relative ease. A typical conversation between an office-bound manager and his home based entrepreneur friend goes like this:

"Hi Mat, what are you up to?"

In conclusion, I'm not advocating for the demise of the corporation. But I'd like to see us home based entrepreneurs being treated with a lot more respect. We need each other in the business world and the big guys should realise this. In America, major corporations like Canon, Apple and Microsoft already realise that the home based business market is worth billions and are trying hard to woo home based customers by directing their promotional campaigns at them. I'll know that we have arrived when I see NST publishing the Home based Business Times!