Yes, it's an interesting subject and not only for those contemplating a new career and faced with the decision of which way to go. I would love to see some more input from home workers giving an insight into how they manage to make a living out of it, i.e how the figure stack up. I'm very open minded about all these things because lets face it, unless you've been there and done it, it's very hard to pass judgement. Things that spring to mind..you don't have all the overheads like rent, rates, insurance, maintenance etc, so that amounts to a lot of work you don't have to do just to stay in business. If you have a slack week, you're not actually losing money, just not making it. You don't have to be standing around 'just in case someone comes in'.
On the other hand, you need to do a lot of work establishing your credibility. With a shop front, most of this is automatically achieved. You haven't got the economies of scale when it comes to time spent buying etc. If i'm doing a wedding say, i'm buying the flowers along with everything else, so i'm not really factoring any buying time into the budget. If wholesale quantities are more than i really need for that job, i can work everything else into other jobs in hand. I can get far better prices buying in volume (although i still need to sell it all!)
I suppose the list would go on and on, for both side of the argument. However, they are all valid considerations for anyone trying to reach a decision.