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
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