Costs and pricing
Part of Home-based franchise opportunities UK: run a business from your spare room
Home-based franchise opportunities UK: run a business from your spare room
Specific UK home-based franchises for a spare room, including Rosemary Bookkeeping, Pink Spaghetti and Travel Counsellors, plus planning, VAT and monthly costs.
What to take away
- A home-based franchise can start without commercial premises, but check the lease or mortgage, the council's planning position and your insurance.
- Planning permission is often unnecessary in England when the work stays ancillary to the home. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run separate systems.
- VAT registration follows turnover, not location. The threshold has been £90,000 since 1 April 2024.
- A spare room carries real monthly costs, and royalties are usually charged on turnover rather than profit.
Do you need planning permission to run a franchise from home?
In England, a home business usually falls outside planning control when the work stays incidental to the home and the house remains a dwelling. Change the character of the property, or bring customers and deliveries in volume, and councils take an interest.
Planning permission decision
Does work stay incidental to the home?
Usually outside planning control
Council interest likely
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own planning systems, so check with the relevant council before you assume a spare-room operation is permitted.
Business rates can arise if part of the home is used exclusively for business, which is separate from planning consent. A typical trigger, not a reported case, is a converted garage run as a treatment room with paying clients arriving six days a week.
Setting up as a sole trader or a limited company is a matter of registration, not permission. GOV.UK's set up a business guidance covers structure, name rules and what to tell HMRC.
VAT registration and the numbers that matter
VAT registration is compulsory once taxable turnover over any rolling 12-month period passes the threshold set by HMRC. The threshold has been £90,000 since 1 April 2024. Check the current figure on the VAT registration page rather than trusting last year's number.
VAT threshold check
Rolling 12-month taxable turnover
Check current HMRC figure
Do not trust last year's number
Royalties and management fees are usually charged on turnover, so a VAT-registered franchisee can reclaim the VAT the franchisor adds.
Many home-based franchisees serve business customers who can reclaim the charge. Consumer-facing operators cannot pass it on so easily.
Specific UK franchises that suit a spare room
These named franchises publicly advertise home-based models. Check the current franchise pack for fees and territory rules.
Home-based franchise fit
Franchise
- Rosemary Bookkeeping
- Bookkeeping and payroll
- Pink Spaghetti
- Virtual PA and errands
- SmartPA
- Virtual PA support
- Travel Counsellors
- Home travel agency
- Tutor Doctor
- In-home tutoring
- InXpress
- Freight brokerage
Model
- Rosemary Bookkeeping
- Experienced bookkeepers
- Pink Spaghetti
- Organised administrators
- SmartPA
- PAs and office managers
- Travel Counsellors
- Travel professionals
- Tutor Doctor
- Educators and managers
- InXpress
- Sales-led logistics people
Suits
- Rosemary Bookkeeping
- Pink Spaghetti
- SmartPA
- Travel Counsellors
- Tutor Doctor
- InXpress
- Rosemary Bookkeeping: a bookkeeping and payroll franchise. It suits experienced bookkeepers who want a managed client base.
- Pink Spaghetti PA Servicesa virtual PA and errand-running franchise. It suits organised administrators who enjoy varied tasks.
- SmartPAa virtual PA and business support franchise. It suits PAs or office managers moving to self-employment.
- Travel Counsellorsa home-based travel agency franchise. It suits travel professionals or strong salespeople.
- Tutor Doctoran in-home tutoring coordination franchise. It suits educators or managers who can recruit tutors.
- InXpressa freight and parcel brokerage franchise. It suits sales-led people with logistics interest.
Franchisors set the fee, the total investment and the royalty, and publish indicative ranges in the current pack. Territory size drives the price for Rosemary Bookkeeping, Pink Spaghetti and SmartPA. Travel Counsellors charges for training and licence rather than premises.
Tutor Doctor and InXpress build in recruitment or working capital. Royalties are a percentage of turnover, not a fixed monthly sum. Territories are usually a defined postcode, radius or town, and open areas change monthly.
What a spare room really costs to run: two scenarios
A low headline fee is not the same as a low total cost, and the low-cost franchise options that survive scrutiny are those where kit, territory and royalty still add up.
The room is not free just because you already pay the mortgage. Set out the extra costs the household carries once a franchise uses the space, then judge whether the return justifies it.
Illustrative monthly costs for one spare room (not a quote):
Spare room costs: scenario one
| Item | Monthly figure |
|---|---|
| Extra heating and lighting | £28 |
| Broadband uplift for a business-grade line | £12 |
| Insurance addition for stock and visitors | £15 |
| Storage for stock or kit | £45 |
| Royalty at 8 per cent on £2,400 turnover | £192 |
| Total | £292 |
The £292 total assumes low turnover and no stock. A stock-holding or higher-turnover operator faces a different shape of cost, as the second scenario shows.
Illustrative monthly costs for a stock-holding, higher-turnover spare-room franchise (not a quote):
Spare room costs: scenario two
| Item | Monthly figure |
|---|---|
| Extra heating and lighting | £45 |
| Broadband uplift for a business-grade line | £18 |
| Insurance addition for stock and visitors | £35 |
| Storage for stock or kit | £120 |
| Packaging and courier charges | £60 |
| Royalty at 8 per cent on £7,500 turnover | £600 |
| Total | £878 |
Energy and connectivity prices move, so date your assumptions and refresh them. The ONS inflation and price indices give you a published series to compare them against.
Insurance, lease and mortgage consent
A standard assured shorthold tenancy usually bans business use without the landlord's written consent, so read the tenancy first. Leaseholders need the freeholder's consent where the lease restricts trade, and a residential mortgage lender may require consent if part of the home becomes a business.
Tell your insurer before you trade. Home contents policies commonly exclude stock, visiting clients and work equipment, so business contents, public liability and professional indemnity cover often come separately. Employers' liability insurance is a legal requirement once you employ staff.
Testing a home-based franchise before you sign
Work through these five checks in order, and stop if any answer is vague.
- Check the lease, mortgage or tenancy for a clause that bans business use.
- Confirm with the council whether your activity needs consent, and ask what would change that answer.
- Ask the franchisor how many UK operators work from home, and what support differs for them.
- Price the royalty against your realistic month-one turnover, not your best case.
- Insist on a written answer on stock, insurance and who pays for replacement kit.
The franchise agreement clauses that matter most at home are the territory boundary, the trading-hours expectation and any duty to hold stock on site.
Home-based work also changes supervision. A franchisor that runs field visits and mystery shops will treat a spare-room unit differently from a high-street one. Ask for the standards in writing.
Common questions
Do I need planning permission to run a franchise from my home?
Often not, if the use stays ancillary to the home and the property remains a dwelling. Ask the council for a written view before you commit.
Do I have to register for VAT if I work from home?
The test is turnover, not location. Once taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling 12 months you must register, whatever the size of the room.
What can I claim for using a room at home?
Usually a proportion of heating, lighting and broadband, calculated on a defensible basis such as floor area or hours worked. Write the method down and apply it consistently.
Which franchises suit a spare-room base?
Named examples above include Rosemary Bookkeeping, Pink Spaghetti, SmartPA, Travel Counsellors and Tutor Doctor. InXpress is another. They avoid stock, visitors and fixed opening hours. Anything needing a van, stock or a shopfront needs more space and more money.
