The Voice Issue 7, Summer 2013 | Page 17

assignment Working from home in the short term Even if you haven’t got the first thought about working from home full time, you might want to consider it as a short term measure while you recuperate. If your company allows it, and assuming your job makes it possible, it’s often a good first step back into work after a long lay-off. Depending on the job you do, you might start by catching up on some emails, or reading up on what’s been going on in your absence. Then, little by little, you can feel your way back into the job you were doing. Alternatively you might start back on a reduced working day or alternate day basis – there are lots of ways to ease the transition. Is it the right time? So much for the basics. If you’re really serious about setting up your own on business, you’ll already have worked one question round and round till it spins: just how viable is your home working business idea? After two or three of the worst trading years in recent memory, you need to have complete faith in your proposition. Obviously no one business comes with any guarantees, but provided you’ve done your homework, you should be ready to do your home work! Actually, this is quite a good time for some home-working businesses. One of the big benefits of the recession is that the world of work has undergone a bit of a change. To help cut their costs many businesses are keen to outsource more of their work. Hiring in expertise as and when they need it is a lot cheaper than having full time staff on standby. This is the time to tout your experience. Perhaps you can set yourself up as a consultant for hire – ready to pitch in and help out whenever and wherever required. Whatever your area of expertise, there are people out there who want to work with talented home based professionals with the flexibility to work on demand. Open for business It doesn’t matter if you’re an engineer or an architect, working from home can work for you if you enter into it in the right frame of mind. A good contact list will get you off to a good start; call on some old associates and let them know you’re working on your own now. One good word-ofmouth referral is worth its weight in gold. So if you’ve got the nous and you’ve got the time to devote to it (there’s no such thing as a nine-to-five), working from home could be for you... ? Summer 2013 | THE VOICE 17