Currently, I’m looking for opportunities to produce content for organizations, events, etc. I think my work in new media speaks for itself.

Congratulations on building your website to the point where it supports you — that’s an impressive achievement that many people only dream about instead of putting in the hard work to make it happen.

Here’s our job posting seeking a Ruby on Rails developer. We’re in quiet mode right now because we’re getting ready to launch our first product at DEMOfall, but you can read a little about our company at batchblue.com.

Check out the job post and drop us a line if it seems like a good fit.

The problem I see is that it takes a lot of time, effort and determination to make it happen and people today seem to want an easy way to work from home. Rarely is there an easy way to make this happen…

Just yesterday I asked my boss to let me work from home that day, using one of Tim’s ideas.

Tim says to find reasons you need to be away, Family Illness, Travel Plans, etc ( I was not feeling well yesterday, thus I gave it a shot ). Then, talk with your boss telling them you want to work while you’re away. ( This should also score you some loyalty and hard worker points with the boss ).

Tell them the work-from-home arrangement is strictly temporary, and the boss is more than welcome to eliminate it at any time IF your prove less productive. If they allow it, GREAT! Make your out of office work days the most productive of any.

My boss turned me down saying they did not have a policy in place to allow this, so I will be compiling information ( like Tim says to do ) proving working from home is a great way for the company to save money (on offices, computers, electricity, furniture, etc… ) and to make their workers more productive (enjoying their jobs more… you all know these reasons! ).

I hope to be publishing my findings, and an aggregate of several articles, for ammunition PRO remote work agreement, on my blog soon.

Until then, Good Luck To All!

A caveat from my experience: I’m not making as much doing freelance work from home as I could if I returned to a full-time-with-benefits job (likely in an office). I may eventually reproduce that income, but in general I see that I’m trading off a lot of flexibility and the ability to work on what I want when I want for better pay. That might not be everyone’s experience though.

C.C.: good advice to start small with your employer and show them how well it can work.

And I have the same productive time, right when most people are commuting. That’s a good thing to note when working on convincing an employer to let you give a remote arrangement a go.

With previous employers I found that it worked best to start small. A couple days here and there to show them that it can be done. It’s crucial to be productive during those days so that they SEE you are working.

With thing such as Skype’s video chat it has made it much easier to stay connected. Even if it’s a five minute “how you doing call” with people back in the office it keeps it so that they know you are out there and still connected. It’s more of a perception thing then anything else. For some reasons many companies think that if they can’t physically see you then you must not be working. It’s a mental hurdle that managers have got to break.

My most productive time is between 7 – 9 am when most people are dealing with a commute. THAT is a big selling point I’ve found.

But you’ve given me something with a simple turn of phrase: a headquarters in Cyberspace. Being that I’m not so SL (waiting for the Sheep to make a better front-end), I might make me a blog-faced office. Hmmm. Nice, Anne.

I’ve been lucky to have an understanding boss and HR department, I suppose, but it’s seemed to work quite well.

Related, if anyone’s interested in a work-from-home job, one of my clients (Nokia) is hiring for a hybrid community manager/marketer for its new mobile-to-mobile content sharing site, MOSH (http://mosh.nokia.com).

Job’s listed here: http://jobs.paidcontent.org/job/0fe9231a31c542013ed8f6077a200cff/?d=1

My company – a regional phone/cable/Inet/wireless provider – has differing levels of support for telecommuting/remote work throughout the organization. My department – IT – has 35% remote employees, and a good portion of the other 65% work from home at least part of the time. Other departments are less supportive and a couple prohibit it.

I’ve transitioned from FT office, to 3-4 days a week office, to only a day every couple of weeks office.

The one caveat I would add is that as a remote worker it’s *my* job to overcome any communication barriers with my employer’s main site. I have to work three times as hard to reach out, stay in the loop, and communicate proactively. As a project manager, that’s critical.

There are many job and ‘gig’ boards (gigs being shorter term/contract type opportunities).

I believe there are several important factors that influence this type of situation:

1) Are you trying to go remote as an existing employee?

Might have more leverage as an existing employee.

2) Are you looking for remote work from new clients/businesses?

This is where experience as a remote worker definitely helps. References are also good.

3) is the work you are seeking contract or ‘permanent’ in nature [i use permanent loosely].

Contract work seems to be very strong in the area of remote work.

4) How is your work-ethic?

I believe it requires a very strong work-ethic to do remote work. You must be disciplined to do what needs to be done. You often have to work harder in some areas to reach the same benefit as working in an office – for example communicating with team members. If you want to ’stay on the radar’ then you have to make an effort to stay in touch with people, even your own teammates or colleagues.

5) How well are you able to control your working practices and habits?
I will admin i am horrible in this area. I enjoy my work and am constantly struggling with work/life balance. I had this problem being an office empoyee as well. However, when you office at home its very tempting to bust out another few features in that app you are coding or . I can’t say how many times i have started out with this idea in mind only to realize the sun was coming up the next day and I had worked a-n-o-t-h-e-r all-nighter. Not because I had to but because im addicted to the productivity high of getting more and more things done (off topic).

6) What is your personality makeup in regards to social needs?

I must say when i first started working remote I went from being in a leadership role to working by myself in my office. Yes the productivity is endless but you must take care to get out of the house. See people :) and no instant messaging doesn’t count!

I have had many friends come to me and tell me they would do anything to get a home gig. But I tell them the same thing i typed above. If you can deal with the whole package then great. If not, don’t ruin a great opportunity until you have weighed the factors (of which im sure i left some out ).

In the end I do not regret going from corporate in-office to remote. It does limit you in some areas as to where you are going in a corporate career path perhaps but I enjoyed it so much i went to work for myself as a freelancer. I love it.

Ryan

Oh and networking is definately the key. Facebook has proved invaluable.

I left and now run my own business as a L.I.P (location independent professional) which takes this concept one stage further and means I actually work from wherever I fancy being in the world. So far this year, I’ve lived in Panama, Buenos Aires, Toronto & Grenada.

I attract clients worldwide to my businesses & run the business purely using online tools. My marketing is done largely via my blogs and I keep in touch using skype & other networking tools. My professional & personal network has expanded enormously since doing this – as have the business opportunities.

As Ben says, it’s not for everyone nor for the weak of heart…but it is one of the most rewarding ways of life I have ever experienced.

But when I was an employee, I was able to work out a remote arrangement because that was the only terms on which the employer could keep me. One of the best ways to find a remote arrangement is to start as a traditional in-office employee, show your value, and then propose home-based work.

It’s unfortunate that more employers aren’t open to hiring on home-based or otherwise remote workers, though. Maybe this is because they find it hard to trust people they haven’t worked with in person.