History and Trends of Cottage Industry

History of Cottage Industry

Small businesses have always aided business minded people. Small businesses are easier to form and operate, does not require unmanageable amount of capital, which is why most people choose to form small businesses as a mean of income. There are over 30.2 million small businesses in the USA alone. One of the small business industries with rich history is cottage industry. This report is going to portray the history of cottage industry and the recent trends and practices related to it.

Before jumping into the history of cottage industry, it is necessary to understand what cottage industry is. Cottage industry includes the manufacturing businesses which are operated in home environment and includes small scale capital. In any economy, cottage industry plays significant roles. There are many examples of entrepreneurs from rural sides being successful in their small handmade product businesses. However, the industry has its own rich history.

Small business was found mentioned in written form for the first time more than 4000 years ago (Bansal, 2007). It was about taking loan from bank for a small business. It indicates that small businesses have been contributing in economies for thousands of years. The existence of small businesses have been found in almost every ancient cultures including Romans, Jews, and Arabs etc. It was not always easy for small businesses to nourish because of poor quality products and services. In order to ensure consumer rights and protect customers from getting cheated on or getting poor quality product compared to what they pay for, the first business laws were introduced by the king of Babylon, Hammurabi. However, even though it took a long time for small businesses to be accepted by society as a proper form of business and income source, small businesses managed to exist in all cultures in different forms.

Small businesses in cottage industry now a days is the first choice of most creative people. There are more than 38 million home based businesses operated in the USA (Gran, 2017). The opportunities people are getting now a days in nourishing their small businesses are highly prosperous and beneficial for the economy. Both men and women are into small and home based businesses and plenty people are being successful in having their own small home based businesses.

The trends in home based small businesses have changed from time to time. Ever since the social networking sites have given opportunities to small business entrepreneurs to sell their products and reach much more number of customers they could reach in real life, the number of entrepreneurs have increased. Social networking sites are allowing online retailing businesses to grow. Therefore, it has become a hotspot for small business owners in this era. In addition to that, online sites like Amazon allows small business owners to sell their products in their sites. Such opportunities have been contributing to the prosperity of small businesses massively. Some trends in small businesses now a days include event planning, virtual assistance, catering services etc.

Due to the extensive opportunities online, small business owners have massive opportunities to grow their businesses in different sectors. Even without the help of the internet, small businesses can prosper. The only requirement is that the product has to be of good quality. For example, two sisters named Caroline and Isabel Bercaw started their own small business in their basement and their product was bath bombs. They turned their passion into a business and now making $20 million in a year (Schomwe, 2019). This way, there are diversified opportunities in small business industry. Anything can be turned into a business if the quality of the products are promising and worth the money the customers spends for the products.

About sustainability of such businesses, with proper business strategies implemented, such small businesses can be carried out for very long time. There are many restaurants in USA which has been passed down to people from their family members. It indicates that such businesses require proper maintenance, skills and business strategies when it comes to sustainability.

Conclusion 

There are many opportunities in small businesses regardless of ones geographic position. Proper market analysis and product development is key to success of such small businesses. In addition to that, small businesses are full of opportunities to preserve cultures. Therefore, people should find out the opportunities they have to serve society with their home made products.

References 

Ben Gren, (2017). Shocking US Home Based Business Statistics. Available at: < https://www.incfile.com/blog/post/shocking-us-home-based-business-statistics/#:~:text=Home%20based%20business%20opportunities%20are,common%20than%20you%20might%20expect! >

C.L. Bansal, (2007). Entrepreneurship and Small Business. Har Anand Publications, India.

Pie Insurance, (2021). How many small businesses are in the United States? Available at: < https://pieinsurance.com/blog/small-business-resources/how-many-small-businesses-are-there-in-the-us/#:~:text=There%20are%2030.2%20million%20small,percent%20of%20all%20U.S.%20businesses. >

Will Kenton & Thomas Brock, (2020). Cottage Industry. Available at: < https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cottage-industry.asp#:~:text=A%20cottage%20industry%20is%20a,the%20number%20of%20people%20employed >

Stephanie Schomer, (2019). How These Teen Sisters Make $20 Million a Year. Available at: < https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/337846 .