The reality of teleworking ?
Nigel
love to work from home, I have space for an office and would be happy to
finance the equipment, so how much work is there out there, were do I look.
I'm computer programmer (c++) and have been working subcontract for about 10
years, but it's rare, very rare to find a contract that will allow me to
work from home. Websites exist that aim to put developers in touch with
clients, but in the main the clients are people with little or no business
experience, no idea of the costs of development, who want somebody to spend
the next 6 months developing an application, in return for a share of the
profits when (and if) they manage to find customer or two.
Any advise would be appreciated.
Chris Croughton
<jassira_remov...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I have often thought of teleworking but wonder about the realities, I'd
> love to work from home, I have space for an office and would be happy to
> finance the equipment, so how much work is there out there, were do I look.
Contact a Citizens Advice Bureau and get booklets which tell you about
running a business from home (in particular council tax, insurance and
possibly other 'rates' are likely to go up, there may also be planning
permission issues). You may be already doing some of them if you are a
limited company (as it the case for most programmes doing contracting)
but if you are working full-time from home there may be more.
> I'm computer programmer (c++) and have been working subcontract for about 10
> years, but it's rare, very rare to find a contract that will allow me to
> work from home.
That's what I found as well.
> Websites exist that aim to put developers in touch with
> clients, but in the main the clients are people with little or no business
> experience, no idea of the costs of development, who want somebody to spend
> the next 6 months developing an application, in return for a share of the
> profits when (and if) they manage to find customer or two.
In particular, I've found that most clients are afraid of 'security' if
they allow remote working. Security of connection (although VPN can help
-- if you can persuade them that VPN is safe) and even more having
materials "out of sight" at home. If you are developing an application
for them on your own, with not much contact needed, and they can draw
the contract tight enough they may be more willing, though.
(There are other aspects -- how well do you work "at home" with
distractions? How will you prove to them that you are actually doing
work? They might insist on paying totally in arrears to cater for those
doubts...)
Good luck!
Chris C
Tim Sharrock
>love to work from home, I have space for an office and would be happy to
>finance the equipment, so how much work is there out there, were do I look.
I have been working largely from home doing C++ programming for the last fifteen
or so years - but as an employee of the same company (this may not last much longer
see other posts recently in the group). In my case I had been working conventionally
for a few years for the company when my wife accepted an academic job elsewhere.
I told my manager that I would be resigning in a few months for this reason, and
she suggested that I work from home. With some hiccups I have generally continued
doing that - most of the managers I have had have been very helpful (though there
have been some exceptions). There have been limits on which tasks and projects
I could work on, but there have been enough semi-detached projects that I
could work on without face-to-face contact every day (or at times even every month).
I suspect that it is less easy to start a job as a telecommuter, so if I do seek
a new job it is likely to be a much more local one to SW Manchester, where I
currently live.
Tim
--
Tim Sharrock (t...@sharrock.org.uk)