The modern concept of small office/home office, or SOHO, refers to the category of business, which involves from 1 to 10 workers. SOHO can also stand for small or home office orsingle office/home office. A larger business enterprise, one notch up the size scale, is often categorized as a small business. When a company reaches 100 or more employees, it is often referred to as a Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME).
Before the 19th century, and the spread of the industrial revolution around the globe, nearly all offices were small offices and/or home offices, with only a few exceptions. Most businesses were small, and the paperwork that accompanied them was limited.
The industrial revolution aggregated workers in factories, to mass produce goods. For the most part the so-called "white collar" counterpart— office work— was aggregated as well in large buildings, usually in cities or densely populated suburban areas.
