A Northumberland-based single mother has described how she set out to connect businesses with individuals who want to work from home – and ended up netting herself a handful of celebrity fans.
In addition to starting the HowNewcastle homeworking venture, former soldier Louise Northwood owns a share in a matchmaking service and runs a dating company.
After turning to social networking to spread the word about her services, she found herself receiving mentions from Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans and entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne, among others, while TV presenter Esther Rantzen and former England rugby captain Will Carling are among her followers on microblogging site Twitter.
"This is an excellent way to get yourself and your products and services very well known, very quickly," she tells Newcastle's Journal newspaper. "I've even been known to matchmaker businesses together on Twitter, such as when I put in touch with each other a company looking to sell bags and a bag-making company."
Such networking opportunities are one of the homeworking benefits recently singled out by home-based entrepreneur Jacqueline Thompson. She pointed out that many homeworkers use the time they previously lost to hours of daily commuting to make contacts. 
