cottage industry

American  

noun

1. the production, for sale, of goods at home, as the making of handicrafts by rural families.

2. any small-scale, loosely organized industry.

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cottage industry British  

noun

1. an industry in which employees work in their own homes, often using their own equipment

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Etymology

Origin of cottage industry

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

Entire cottage industries now exist to exploit men who don’t have enough social support to keep them sane and out of trouble.

From Salon

Second, tying liberty to wealth — and allowing other people to profit off the provision of liberty, thereby creating a cottage industry of freedom loans — is morally repugnant.

From Salon

The cash bail lobby loves to portray itself as sort of a cottage industry of mom ‘n’ pop operations devoted to serving the public weal, but that’s false.

From Los Angeles Times

A decentralized, low-cost, flexible cottage industry will likely be transformed into a centralized, high-cost, inflexible cash cow for the merchants of death.

From Salon

A cottage industry of firms purporting to help consumers track down their forgotten subscriptions sprung up — typically operating on the same subscription model.

From Los Angeles Times