One woman whirlwind

Law graduate, Japanese speaker, investment manager, entrepreneur. Add author and television show creator to the list - Amy Bould meets a successful Shropshire businesswoman.

No, it's not the line-up for the next series of The Apprentice. It's a one-woman whirlwind of drive and determination called Emma Jones.

Only 27 years old when she left a high-flying corporate career to set up in business from her spare room, the Shrewsbury-based businesswoman is proof that working from home is not only a gamble worth taking but that it's a life-changing experience.

After graduating with a degree in law and Japanese, she went to work for accountancy giant Arthur Andersen, becoming the company's youngest ever investment manager.

She said: "I travelled the world, it was a wonderful, wonderful job. Great training, met some great people, but five and half years in I wanted to do something for myself.

"I left a secure salary and set up in my spare room."

With only a desk, chair, laptop and phone, Emma launched Techlocate, a business helping companies from across the globe relocate to Europe.

"I sat back and waited for the phone to ring which, of course, it didn't. After a day or two I thought I was going to have to start making calls. Around 15 months later, the Tenon Group approached me and said they wanted to acquire the business.

"Over the space of two years I started, grew and sold a business.

"I smiled on the day we signed the deal as I thought that during the whole process they never once questioned the fact that I was home-based. If anything it worked for me because we kept our overheads low, our costs low and so our profit margin looked good."

An 18 month lock-in clause gave Emma time to think about her next venture.

"I started to research the home business market. There are millions of people who are starting a business from home yet there is nothing out there for people who are doing it - so I launched enterprisenation.com in 2006.

Appropriately set up from her home in Shrewsbury, enterprisenation.com is now the largest website in the UK for people working from home.

"We have profiles of businesses, advice, a shop section and it's growing all the time.

"A year into the website, I interviewed lots of home business users and I was getting lots of calls and emails asking for a simple guide to starting a business from home."

And again the lightbulb in Emma's entrepreneurial brain switched on.

The result is Spare Room Start-Up, a lifestyle guide to working from home named Waterstone's Business Book of the Month.

"I was lucky, I only went to one publishers, which is unheard of. Even JK Rowling went to more than 50 before finding a publisher. I went to Harriman House, sat with the chairman and said I wanted to write a business book that looks like a lifestyle book.

"I was fed up of going to the bookshop and looking at these fat dry books full of charts and graphs which make it look like starting a business from home is a hard thing to do.

"I thought it was about time someone put a book out where you can look at it, follow some basic points, and see how to do it. I wanted it to be a simple, friendly, stylish guide to having a business from home."

Emma said the response to the book had been fantastic and the guide could be the basis for a new television show.

"We are currently in talks with the BBC about turning it into a daytime show. There are lots of people at home during the day who know they have great ideas which they want to turn into a business."

Emma's advice and tools to creating a successful home business have all been poured into her book.

"The first thing I say is: 'what's the big idea?' There are three things to consider. Is there a gap in the market? What is your passion, your skill, your hobby - could you turn that into a business? And thirdly, is to see what someone else is doing and think if you could do it better.

"Step two is to write it down. A business plan is a bit like going to the gym. You'll have to push yourself to do it, you won't really like doing it, but once it's done you feel great about it. Then step three is making the first sale.

"Make a list of people who are interested in your product, use a personal approach and then follow up. The book is full of tips, like when you make a call to make a pitch, make it when you are standing up and smiling, and you sound much more confident, assertive and passionate.

"Then when you've made that first sale, shout about it."

Spare Room Start-Up also looks at lifestyle aspects to working from home.

"You don't have to have a spare room, you need an area that you create as your space, whether its the garden shed or the kitchen table."

Emma says the range of businesses being operated from homes is "immense."

"We cover them every week in the website but my favourite is a woman who runs a haulage business from home.

"Can you imagine the scene, she has three children and is feeding the baby with one hand and having a meeting with three lorry drivers at the same time.

"The website challenges the idea of the type of business which can be run from home, and of all the hundreds of home business owners I have spoken to, not one has said they regret the decision they took.

But living the dream is one thing...what about the reality of packing in a well-paid job to start-up on your own in the middle of a credit crunch?

"Credit crunch equals the time to start a business from home. People don't want the insecurity of being employed by someone else. The great thing about running your own business is that you are in control of how much you earn.

"Home business owners are not reporting any reductions in how much they are able to charge, how much business they are doing, business is very healthy. It's the best time to start a business on your own.

"I think it's a gamble to stay in a paid position at the moment because you don't know if that paid position is going to be there in six months time, the gamble is actually staying where you are."

In fact, perhaps Sir Alan Sugar should give her a call and tell other applicants they need not apply. Although I suspect this is one tenacious brunette who would only be interested if she was the boss and working from her spare room.

By Amy Bould