No matter how big my company gets (see more info about the 400+ sites I own, such as Bored.com, in my previous posting), I will never work in an office. I love working from home. No commute, no dressing up, no meetings. I started my company 12 years ago in my house in Massachusetts, but after a few years it got to the point in 2000 where I needed an office. So, I got one. But, I set it up in California.
I figured even if I opened an office in the town where I lived, I would still never go to it, so a business friend of mine offered to setup an office for me in CA in an office suite on the same floor as his own office. He helped me hire a few employees to get it started, and he setup the furniture and computers for me. The fact that it was part of an office suite made it easier, because they provided much of what I needed.
This worked out great for a few years, but now that almost everyone can get high speed internet access and so many things are Web-based, I have all those same employees work from home. Since then I also have hired 10 additional employees and independent contractors and they all work from home also. Many are overseas, like from India, Romania, and Pakistan. Some are college students in the USA. I have never met any of these people, and including the original employees who have been working for me for the past 7 years, and I have never even spoken with most of them by phone. We just use email.
My office in CA now sits vacant, and I still never even seen it, but I keep it anyhow because I use it as my corporate mailing address. Hundreds of companies send me mail to that address, and it would be a huge project for me to change to a new address, so it is worth it for me just to pay the $500/month to keep the mailing address. Plus, you never know, I may end up hiring somebody who wants not to work from home, so they could work there instead.
Yeah Eric
Guess not many people would want to work anywhere else other than their own home, eh? I know that would be my perfect workplace!
This post is inspiring, thanks Eric!
Home sweet home, Chee Kui. Who don’t want to work from their bed wearing pajamas!
I would like to work from home, but a lot of people actually dont. People that work from home often end up working longer hours and miss the company of colleagues.
The other thing is that you know when your working day is over at work… at home your work and home life kind of merge…
I would still prefer to work from home though….
Although working from home has its benefits, for which I am extrememly grateful, it is a tough thing to do. I’ve been working from home for a year now, and some days it goes well. Other days I struggle to get anything done, I struggle to deal with the domestic noise from other neighbours and roadworks etc…, I miss the interactions with other people and find it hard to switch off in the evenings.
Email contact can be frustrating when colleagues don’t answer right away or misinterpret what you have written.
I know there are things to do to counter such problems. But it’s not all sweetness and light and it’s important to be aware of that.
That all may be true, but there are also a huge amount of distractions at an office that waste time, like chatty co-workers and office politics. But, I agree, working at home is not for everyone. I am a nerdy/loner type of guy, and don’t like socializing so working at home is perfect for me. Working at home is also not good for meeting women/men to date or lust over, but luckily I am married so that is not an issue for me.
I push myself to stay away from the TV and I removed game icons from my desktop, I also put big sticky nodes around the place to remind myself about current tasks – that keeps me on track
I love working from home as well. I’ve never worked anywhere else and don’t plan to.
My goal is to be able to stay home with my daughter. I am newly certified to teach and although I love the idea of teaching as a profession, I hate the idea of not being a stay-at-home mom. Finding a way to make at-home earning work for me is a priority.
I’m working from home as well – no office drama Besides, I can do even more…
I commute a long way to work currently. In a couple of months I will be able to work from home x number of days per week, that will be a big improvement….
I still trying to figure out how to fully
maximize my blog’s earning for me to
able to say “I work from home.”
As you say, it is really the connection speeds that have made this possible, most companies have the ability to provide full access to theirs systems over secure VPN’s now… video conferencing has also made a big difference to the way I work….