Operating a small-scale household business is risky. A particular feature of HBs is that they largely rely on a single worker’s labour input (or in the best case scenario, a few). In addition to what are considered common risks for medium and large businesses, HB activity may be negatively impacted by any adverse event that affects the owner of a HB, and sometimes even by those that affect other members from the same household. While a construction company is unlikely to suffer from a worker being ill, even though s/he has major responsibilities, an informal bricklayer will lose income for any day spent in bed – and s/he will probably lose customers as well. In the first section of this chapter a framework for understanding HB vulnerability is developed. Exploiting a special module of the 2014/15 HB&IS survey, it describes the type of adverse events faced by HB owners, the frequency with which they occur and the coping strategies that are used. It appears that HBs frequently experience shocks and that health problems are by far the main vulnerability factor. Dealing with the resulting expenditures often implies borrowing or selling productive assets, which can have lasting consequences on a HB.
