Home Office Success Stories – September 2002

Some interesting - if conflicting - news has emerged from the business pages recently. A September story on the Marketplace Morning Report discussed how 11% of former corporate executives surveyed said they were eschewing any attempts to get rehired by Corporate America, and instead were planning to start their own businesses.

A week later, USAToday had a story about how the American entrepreneurial spirit was "suffering." For the first time in almost three generations, businesses were floundering, innovation was lagging, hiring was down - and entrepreneurs weren't leading the country out of recession, the paper reported from government stats. It seems health care and insurance costs, difficulty getting financing and corporate scandals have tarnished the entrepreneurial spirit. The result? The number of self-employed workers has dropped since the March 2001 the start of the current recession to a record low of 6.2% in February, the paper reported from Labor Department numbers.

By contrast, historically, self-employment has risen following lay offs of the past nine recessions - dating back to 1948. It peaked a year later at 12.7%.

Now, compare that with teleworkers (corporate employees who occasionally work from home). One of the interviewees in my latest book, "Teleworking & Telecommuting," was a long-time executive in the Miami Beach office of a multinational television network. She started teleworking with the birth of her daughter about two years ago. Late last year, word came down from New York that she was going to be laid off. A nice severance package would soften the blow, but she no longer would be part of the company.

A year later, she's happily self-employed - and wondering why she didn't take this route sooner. Teleworking from a dedicated home office with a computer, broadband Internet connection and all the trimmings of the corporate space (only it's based in suburban Fort Lauderdale home) made the transition from corporate worker to entrepreneur much simpler, she admits.

What's the take-away? In some ways, entrepreneurship might be down. In other ways, it's there for the taking. Home-based workers, teleworkers and entrepreneurs alike, are in an ideal position to lead themselves - if not the entire country - out of its current economic woes.

Telework & Broadband Delivers the Green
A recent survey of 1,500 AT&T teleworkers revealed that those employees reported a 10% gain in productivity on telework days. That translated to roughly one more hour of work worth a combined $65 million a year. Still, another 36% said they quit teleworking because they lacked in-home broadband (DSL, cable modems or other high-speed Internet access). Those who were most productive were those who had company-paid broadband at home. Other annual telework benefits: Corporate savings of $100 million every year, 5 million gallons of gas and 100 million driving miles saved by not commuting.

Whether you telework or are a home-based entrepreneur, you're a productive - and green - citizen.

Jeff Zbar, the ChiefHomeOfficer.com, is a speaker, writer and expert on alternative officing. He is the author of Teleworking & Telecommuting: Strategies for Remote Workers and Their Managers (Made E-Z Products, 2002); Safe@Home: Seven Keys to Home Office Security (FirstPublish 2001) and Your Profitable Home Business (on CD-ROM from Made E-Z Products). Visit his Web site to subscribe to Home Office Success Stories, his free electronic magazine on home business and teleworking.