On Telecommuting

Also see
How you can become a telecommuter # 2

How you can become a telecommuter #1

How you can become a telecommuter

(6) Become your own boss

I left this option for the very end because this option has most of the risks, but also can bring many rewards. Being your own boss is not just about “bossing around” (yup, only around yourself), it is about making lots of decisions, planning, executing, and so on.

… So you grew not to stand your boss, your job does not motivate you any more, let alone you have to drive every morning tens of miles to be greeted by your boss again and again…

One day you wake up with either “can’t do this any more” or “I have got an awesome idea — am going to build a killer Web 2.0. technology, or am going to sell stuff on EBay, or to prepare tax returns for sufferers before they suffer too much, or am going to become a free lance programmer, or am going to start a cleaning business AND get MY OWN web site, or”… you name it. .

This is all nice and dandy.

Before you declare to your boss, you can not stand him/her any more, I would suggest to consider doing a number of things:

• Go Google what you plan to do and your zip code — see who is out there
  Find them, talk with them, see how it is working out.
  People are often willing to share if nicely asked, and if you happen to bump into a ‘not nice one’, forget about him/her and keep exploring
• Think through business basics — yup, again we have heard it all…
  Oh well, at the very least, take a peace of paper and answer a few “basic” questions”
  Q: Do I need an initial capital?
  Maybe it is to buy a better pc, maybe it is to buy a better mob,
  whatever tools you may need, list them down and price them out, add that all up.
  Q: Do I have that capital or do I need external infusions
  If you have enough, all the luck to you.
  If you need capital, however large or little the sum can be,
  the two way to get it are:
  – debt - loan from a bank, from kind relatives, from a stranger on the street
  – equity - you have a really cool idea and you part of the ownership out to a kind neighbor, to an angel investor who may not have wings, or to a VC (venture capital companies), they often are not holly either.
  There is a third way — you may be able to get a grant, how long that may take and how large the grant may be depends on a lot of variables.
  Q: If it is a loan, how long may it take to pay it back
  Q: If I am shooting for a VC, do I actually know any?
  (A friendly note: VC do not give money to strangers)
• Think about your niche (yes, same old, same old)
  How others are going to know that you are better than A or B, especially if they have already ‘got burned’ with A or B.
  Or, if you are going to sell hm… shoes… or any other stuff on EBay — Go EBay that stuff and see what comes up. most probably there will be hundreds of entries; for starters read EBay’s manual on how you can come to the top of that list — that may give you an idea if you have stamina to sell shoes… .or that other stuff.

• Think who your first clients are going to be
  A good, a first sale are important in your “I am my own boss” business career.
  Think of your neighbors, friends, relatives that might be interested in the product or services you are going to provide (read: you are going to sell). See what their response is.
  If they are naggers, do not get discouraged, keep searching, they just might be envious of or oblivious to your “new idea”.
• Explore what licenses, federal and state registrations, and business insurances you may need to get for your business. There might be a Small Business Association office that may be helpful. In my experience, this type of organizations are less helpful than they sound by their name. Also, do not forget about finding out how much health insurance may cost you unless you are covered by your spouse or very healthy.

If those steps still keep your dream alive, then take a vacation and try what you want to do. Literally, play a role of your own boss for two weeks. Start develop relationships — your potential virtual online customers, or your neighbors, or potential freelance work providers, or start searching for those magic VCs and angels.

If after two weeks it seems like it is working out, and you have what you need or are on your way to what you need, then, ta da... You can show up in your office in jeans or without and declare your independence. I would suggest to show up nicely dressed, give a two week notice, help your boss find your successor and train him or her, and leave with good memories about you. Remember your boss may become your first client.

Now you are on your own. Working in jammies, enjoying life. Well, if it is a cleaning business, then the only thing you will get do in jammies, is taking orders from your site, if, of course you have a site and your clients know how to find it.

Just remember, ‘Leaders never quit, quitters never lead’. And, if it does not work out, you always have a choice to go back to the “corporate world”.

(2) Start looking for a job at a big company that provides telelcommuting (working from home) as an option

Many large corporations have embraced telecommuting practices and allow their employees work from homes or satellite offices. Working for a big company often may mean more security unless they are not doing too well and downsizing vs. telecommuting is they rhyme. Big companies often provide more support to their telecommuting employees than small companies, simply because ‘biggies’ have more means and often they save on telecommuters, so why not share some of that to make their telecommuting bees feel better.

Sun Microsystems — Work where you hang your coat
SBC / AT&T — Promoting telecommuting since 1992
Intel — Intel even had a telecommuting CEO
Cisco — Smart Valley Telecommuting Guide
Microsoft — Telcommuting Confessions of Microsoft’s Staffing Manager

(3) Start working for a small (more liberal) business

This option, as anything else in life, may/will take time to find. Often this will be a business in your area, so you can meet up with your other co-workers not only over IM (Instant Messenger), but also in person. If you would rather work with a team of people rather than purely on your own and for yourself, start looking for this type of businesses around, ask your friends, let everyone on the earth know you are looking for a telecommuting job, join local business associations and networks, keep asking.

Very important: update your resume and make it clear you are looking for a telecommuting position. Have your resume available in different formats — text, word doc, pdf, an post it online, you never know what your potential employee may pump up and or what they may have for resume submission requirements.

If you do get a call for an interview, dress nicely, be nice. These are people you will be working with, you want them to imagine you looking nice behind your computer screen. You will have a chance to relax later on — wearing jammies and so on.

Examples of small business with distributed teams of people working mostly from homes — my company TnR Global, 37 Signals, IR3W, and many others. Just keep looking and be open to options.

(4) Government agencies offer telecommuting opportunities

Government agencies have gotten a mandate to introduce and promote telecommuting.
I have little experience of working with/at government agencies and can not help you there yet.

Most of the answer you can find at Telework America and then discuss with your supervisor.

5) Find a job at a virtual call center or become a virtual assistant

Virtual call center provide services for companies to handle customer support — inbound and outbound calls. They often hire people to work from home. Willow is one of such options and is promoted by the Telework Coalition. A few more options for virtual call centers from the Telework Coalition site. An average pay is $10 to $14 per hour.

The concept of a virtual assistant (VA) has become a reality in today’s world. Virtual Assistants provide administrative support to busy professionals. They often help search for info, prepare power point presentations, organize contacts, type documents. The International Virtual Assistants Association will give you some answer as to how to become a VA.

(1) Start from where you are, see if your current employer offers telecommuting options

You might have gotten lucky and your management is ahead of the curve. Look around, ask your HR department if telecommuting options are being offered.

If telelcommuting is offered, but not for your position, see what you can do to get a position where at least a few days a week you can work from home. Find out how your company supports telelcommuters — like who pays for phone bills, who maintains equipment if it breaks, will they reimburse for your home office furniture and alike.

If it is not offered, gently discuss this with your boss… Start from “what do you think about telelcommuting” and if she is thinking about it, there is your chance to promote the practice and help set it up. If she is not fond of it and would rather see you in the office, well then start looking for other options… more below.

As one of my friends says “my boss wants to see my alive body in the office everyday”.

Found this great commercial from BT Group — Enable your people to actually work from home.

(YouTube does not allow posting videos in WordPress yet, only Blogger and LiveJournal.)

The idea of this blog came to me as a result of a chain of events that I may get to write about in more details in my future postings.  This chain started from a Practicum at Isenberg School of Management, UMASS Amherst, where TnR (myself in this case) worked with three very capable MBA students, Chris Woodworth, Erin Rice, and Christina Danforth, who helped find a niche where there is yet to be a lot done for telecommuters and potential candidates for telecommuting.

During Practicum, Chris Woodworth came up with an idea on how to ‘classify’ telecommuters to help understand their needs better. A picture worth a thousand words.

Among many other possible views, telecommuters can be classified based on where they work from, how many days they telecommute, and what generation they are (from Gen Yers to Gen Xers to Baby Boomers). Based on this view, there can be nine potential categories.

For example: a Baby Boomer working for a big corporation and telecommuting two days a week or a Generation Xer working from home for a small business and telecommuting five days a week.

This categorization will become meaningful and important as we explore needs of telecommuters in their telecommuting lives.

First, let’s agree on some definitions:

Telecommuter is someone who does not have to drive to her client and/or corporate office every day and can render her services while working from where she is, most often from home.

Telecommuting, as such, is working (most often) from home and connecting with the outside world (employer, clients) using advanced technologies and communication means like email, IM, VOIP, phone, ets.

A few more formal definitions we can get from Google search:

Telecommuter is a work-at-home computer user who connects to the corporate LAN backbone using remote access technologies. www.ohsu.edu/vcs/glossary/

Telecommuters spend at least part of their workday at home, using computers or other telecommunications equipment. Most telecommuters live on the fringe of large cities and in the suburbs and exurbs, in what is known as the “two-hour telecommuting ring”. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommuter

Hardly there is a fine line between telecommuter and commuter.

If you have to drive to your work place every day and your boss gives you a 30 minute lecture for being 15 minutes late after you were stuck in traffic for an hour, then you most probably a commuter. However, if you make souvenirs at home and sell them on Ebay, you potentially can be considered a telecommuter.

The precise definition is less important than the concept of providing more flexibility to do your work or to do what you love doing from where you are versus from where your boss/your client is as long as you meet the requirements for the quality of service/product you deliver.

A list of telecommuting jobs would include: programmer, web-designer, pr, writer, copywriter, life coach, customer rep, lawyer, accountant, sales professional, ‘manager’. In other words, professions requiring mental work vs. physical work often are good candidates for telecommuting and require less frequent presense ‘on site’. Or, as Forbes Publisher, Rich Karlgaard, alludes: ‘If you think or sell for a living–perhaps the only two career options if you don’t want your income arbitraged to the level of Shanghai or Bangalore–then two office days are certainly enough‘.

One of the most recent trends related to telecommuting, which I have yet comprehended, is telemedicine. I have a hard time with a diagnosis rendered over the net/TV. But, I guess there are enough (lonely) people who, when they see on a TV screen a ‘doctor’, that is a person in a white doctor’s smock, stating a ‘cold’ diagnosis and prescribing vitamines, more sleep, and more frequent work-out, start feeling better because they received some attention. Attention can make wonders.

As we proceed, we will have more definitions, for now let’s continue our exploration.