cottage industry

plural cottage industries

1. A job or occupation carried out at home or on a part-time basis, historically often manufacturing work such as sewing, lacemaking, or spinning.

   Near-synonym: proto-industry

   3 more examples

   A craft such as quilting may be pursued as a hobby or as a cottage industry.

   Scotland and Ireland are famous for their tweeds and homespuns and what are known as the "cottage industries" have been recently revived in those countries as the products of their hand looms have become deservedly popular abroad.

   [1907, Kate Heintz Watson, Textiles and Clothing

   Oak bark is still used to some extent. Shoe-making used to be an important cottage industry, but the introduction of machinery has carried the work to large factories elsewhere.

   1911, Horace Woollaston Monckton, Berkshire, Cambridge University Press

   Synonyms: proto-industry

2. broadlyA small-scale industry, with relatively few employees or a limited customer base or low economic impact.

   Remote and difficult to access, many villages in China’s interior have developed a criminal cottage industry, involving anything from drugs to internet fraud to counterfeiting.

   2017 April, Robert Foyle Hunwick, “Big in China: Murder Villages and Scam Towns”, in The Atlantic

   3 more examples

   Customers quickly sensed the change when CA took over a company: The new owners vigorously enforced license agreements, often in the courts. A cottage industry soon sprang up to advise companies on how to negotiate with CA.

   1996 November 11, Amy Cortese, “Computer Associates: Sexy? No. Profitable? You Bet”, in BusinessWeek, archived from the original on 09 Jun 2000

   So why was there so much breathlessness about a blogger joining this emphatically non-exclusive club? Because the blogging story has become a cottage industry, a cultural fashion trend that blogger and establishment alike have a vested interest in keeping alive.

   2005 March, William Powers, “Sleeping With the Enemy”, in The Atlantic

   Microfinance, once a relative cottage industry championed by antipoverty activists and development wonks, is on the verge of a revolution, with billions of dollars from big banks, private-equity shops and pension funds pouring in.

   2008 June 5, Barbara Kiviat, “The Big Trouble In Small Loans”, in Time, archived from the original on 09 Feb 2011