Reply to: Finding a remote-working/home-based contract

[Murder1]

I did one home-based contract and not keen on doing one again!

It worked out fine in terms of productivity and financial.

However, it felt completely socially isolating - something I never expected. When mates of mine asked me to meet them for some beers in the city, I felt so jealous of the social contact they had as on a daily basis!

I know it seems like the dream job ( I did too ), but once was definitely enough!

Yeah, surely the aim is to find a contract that facilitates home-based working - that way you can drop in and out of the office location as and when it suits you.

[cojak]

The key is to find a project where the project team is based in a number of locations, so it doesn't make sense to be in one site.

Client before last, I did three projects. First one - business users were in Massachusetts, technical team in Berlin, me in UK. Second one was all run from Berlin. Third one - PM in Massachusetts, business users in India, technical management in Berlin.

This client is a truly 24+ hour business which never sleeps - based in almost every timezone, so there is no logical place to be based.

For each one, I've also negotiated a lower rate and then they pay expenses, so there is an incentive for the client to keep me away from site.

Apart from a two week stint away with this client to meet the team, I've not been into an office in over three years now. It's going to be a massive culture shock when I have to go back into a client office, but for the time being I'm very happy working from home.

I take my children to school in the morning, and pick them up most afternoons. I have lunch with my wife every day. I eat healthier than when I'm away, and I do more. Can't beat the life as far as I'm concerned :-)

WTFS

Most of my work is in US morning time so I'm busy from 12.30 - 17.00.

The mornings are my quiet time.

[TheFaQQer]

The key is to find a project where the project team is based in a number of locations, so it doesn't make sense to be in one site.

Client before last, I did three projects. First one - business users were in Massachusetts, technical team in Berlin, me in UK. Second one was all run from Berlin. Third one - PM in Massachusetts, business users in India, technical management in Berlin.

This client is a truly 24+ hour business which never sleeps - based in almost every timezone, so there is no logical place to be based.

For each one, I've also negotiated a lower rate and then they pay expenses, so there is an incentive for the client to keep me away from site.

Apart from a two week stint away with this client to meet the team, I've not been into an office in over three years now. It's going to be a massive culture shock when I have to go back into a client office, but for the time being I'm very happy working from home.

I take my children to school in the morning, and pick them up most afternoons. I have lunch with my wife every day. I eat healthier than when I'm away, and I do more. Can't beat the life as far as I'm concerned :-)

[herman_g]

I did one home-based contract and not keen on doing one again!

It worked out fine in terms of productivity and financial.

However, it felt completely socially isolating - something I never expected. When mates of mine asked me to meet them for some beers in the city, I felt so jealous of the social contact they had as on a daily basis!

I know it seems like the dream job ( I did too ), but once was definitely enough!

[formant]

Which means you could be away from your keyboard for more than 5 mins but still available. If you get a poor manager who thinks he can manage WFH by the colour of your activity dot TVRs little work around starts to make some sense.

Although I obviously agree that that's a particularly poor form of management (and not too uncommon), IMHO people just need to grow a pair and address that sort of thing with said manager. If you're confident in the quality your work and deliver on time, anyone should be able to appreciate that you may not actually be typing for 8-hours per day without interruption.

And anyone who thinks that just showing as available/active all day wouldn't raise suspicions (particularly with the above mentioned type of manager) needs to apply some common sense. Real people have potty breaks, conduct business on the phone, etc. The odd few mins, half hour showing as away is a lot more realistic than artificial non-stop availability all day.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Which means you could be away from your keyboard for more than 5 mins but still available. If you get a poor manager who thinks he can manage WFH by the colour of your activity dot TVRs little work around starts to make some sense.

Agreed.

[northernladuk]

When I say I am available through the day that is what I mean.......

Which means you could be away from your keyboard for more than 5 mins but still available. If you get a poor manager who thinks he can manage WFH by the colour of your activity dot TVRs little work around starts to make some sense.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

You're a fool then. I make sure

1) that I communicate the time I'm available for calls before WFH
2) that I do more than a fair days work

and thats it. Beyond that I'll do a full days work (which may well be 7pm onwards) but one reason from working from home is to escape the distractions I get in the normal day or allow me to do some of the other tulip live requires.

When I say I am available through the day that is what I mean.......

[eek]

Indeed - I don't even know how you get away with it - I make sure I am available all through the day when I do WFH.

You're a fool then. I make sure

1) that I communicate the time I'm available for calls before WFH
2) that I do more than a fair days work

and thats it. Beyond that I'll do a full days work (which may well be 7pm onwards) but one reason from working from home is to escape the distractions I get in the normal day or allow me to do some of the other tulip live requires.

[Vandalay]

I work from home pretty much exclusively. I visit the office for a few hours once a fortnight or once a month. I doubt my productivity would be any greater in the office, due to the nature of my work. I do work within a team, but I do have a very specialised role - meaning I don't work closely with others, I just do my bit - on my own.

My productivity therefore depends on how much there is for me to do. I can be extremely efficient and productive, but no doubt there are days where there's hardly anything to do. On those days in particular I appreciate being at home, turning on the telly, hanging out with the dogs. Unlike in an office environment, at least I don't have to make myself look busy - I just have to be available. Also, I find that I can tailor my hours to the workload over the course of the week. So I work a shorter day when I'm not busy and add those hours onto the next busy day instead.

It gets a bit 'lonely' I guess, but then I'm really not the sociable type, so I quite like it. *shrug*

I'm pretty much in the same boat as yourself - vast majority of my work is from home, and only go on site every few weeks. I'm a BA/Developer but main client is using a saas cloud system so very easy to WFH.

I earmark around a tenner a day to spend in coffee shops, and I also have Regus gold membership with my Amex business charge card. I've gone through long periods of purely working from home and it does eventually cause you to become somewhat complacent. Change in scenery does the trick for me, although I can't host conference calls from a cafe so I am careful with time away from home.

The other great thing about WFH is that it gives the chance to take a step back from things and look at growing your client base through other means - training courses etc - it doesn't have to be all day rate stuff.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

With people like you around, I'm not surprised many companies frown upon working from home.

Indeed - I don't even know how you get away with it - I make sure I am available all through the day when I do WFH.

[formant]

I work from home some days and the office have set up Office Communicator to go idle after 5 mins and they have disabled changing the setting. I tried changing it via the registry (which worked) but after a reboot the setting was put back.

Now I use this little bit of software. Keeps OC happy and also stops the screen saver/lock coming on.

Caffeine

Works by pressing F15 every 59 seconds (you can change that to shift if you prefer).

With people like you around, I'm not surprised many companies frown upon working from home.

[kingcook]

Yep, I would say the latter. Just need to figure out how to sell the services and where to find potential clients.....

On the subject of selling services, I found this article last night (it's dated mid-2011):

Why we gave up web design after 10 successful years

Web design might not be your business, but if you're selling services it could be of interest. For those who CBA to read it, it goes on about their need to get away from selling services towards selling products to make more money.

Quite a good read, at least for me. Someone mentioned in some other thread that as contractors we reach a glass ceiling, there is no way to keep on increasing income.

[MyUserName]

No magical formulas as far as I am aware, I am presuming you are a developer:

Start work on an open source project and do lots to give yourself the highest possible profile.
Contribute actively on things like StackOverflow, CodeGuru - write blogs, write useful utilities which can be downloaded from your website.

Offer to do work for groups/schools/anything - just to get some clients. Do it for free if you have to.
Advertise for real clients, using your existing happy clients as references and point people towards your blogs (containing a link to your profiles on StackOverflow etc), your utilities etc as proof that you are worth the money.

Repeat until you give up or retire.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

So start building one. Which requires finding a bit of time (the odd day now and then from now) to go out and find suitable clients.

A client base is not the same as a bum on seat contractor. You will need to find a salesman or start selling yourself to create that sort of business.

Yep, I would say the latter. Just need to figure out how to sell the services and where to find potential clients.....