Aside from describing previous telecommuting positions with keywords such as “home office” vs “on-site”, this article from Telecommuting Truths offers some interesting pointers to help us navigate the telecommuting cover letter. Check it out!

According to an American Electronics Association report in April 2008, an estimated 1.35 billion gallons of fuel could be saved if all Americans who could telework, did so 1.6 days per week. So not only would that spare the atmosphere billions of pounds of carbon dioxide, but that would mean fewer people on the roads and less frightful commutes.

Hey, all you so-called “green” companies and employers! Listen up!

For the past 2 years I have used the same project management and file sharing software as the rest of the team members in my primary job, (Microsoft Office Groove and Intelligantt.) Now that I am a little more “out on my own” (cool!), I have had to do some research into how I can replace such functions in my work life with software that is slightly more affordable for an individual like myself.

THE SOLUTION?

After a few recommendations, I decided to go with Basecamp. I signed up for a $24 a month basic account, which I’ll be sure to write off at the end of the year as a self-employed business expense. Note that this is a month-to-month charge and if I want to cancel at anytime, I can, without penalty. In the meantime, I have the following features with this account:

• 15 Active Projects
• 3 GB of space for files
• Unlimited Clients/Users

This means that I have unlimited invites into my workspace (my clients/employers/co-workers/whoever) who can be set to see only those projects that I want them to. Within each project, I have several basic functions:

• Messages: “Post messages, share project updates, ask questions, communicate.”
• To-Do Lists: Self-explanatory. (Set tasks, assign them to members of the project, create a deadline for them, etc.)
• Milestones: “Keep track of what’s due, when it’s due, and who’s responsible for doing it.” I have some more playing around with the software to see how this can integrate with the task list to set due dates, etc.
• Writeboards: “Writeboards make collaborative writing simple.” Need to review an email, or perhaps content for a webpage, together with other people? Enter Writeboards!
• Chat: If you don’t know what chat is, just give up and go fly a kite today.
• Files: “Upload, download, and share files related to this project.”(3 GB of space- Sah-weet!)

So far? I’m a fan!

NEXT STEP: DESKTOP TIMER

Now what I am looking for is the perfect (free?) little piece of software that will put a timer on my desktop and keep track of the hours I spend on things through out the day. For example, I would like to have a timer open with a label/name for each client, something I can pause and start throughout the day and then easily see at the day’s end how much time was spent working for each one. I’d like to stop keeping track of my time via sticky notes, and account for those little ten minutes of e-mail management here and there that I end up forgetting about! (And what WAHM wouldn’t love something easy to record her breaks for a diaper change with a quick pause button?)

Any one got any suggestions?

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Second, let me say that I absolutely in no way am being endorsed by Skype or any one to plug this post. This is just little ol’ me!

When I first started telecommuting, I was trying to make do with as little expenses as possible. I had a cell phone plan with Verizon in which both my husband and I SHARED 450 minutes, and the bill came to about $45/month. We did not have a home phone, and paid about $30 a month for high-speed internet since we were both students and that was a necessity.

I started doing freelance writing in the next year and figured it was crucial to have a home phone with unlimited long distance to do so. In my area, this was also provided by Verizon, and came to about $90 a month.

Sometime later, one of the companies I worked for asked me to up my minutes on my cell phone plan and to bill them monthly for the difference, so we canceled the home phone/long distance plan.

That worked okay for awhile, however paying bills paperlessly, we often neglected to print out the statements and mail them in for reimbursement. On top of that, I had moved cross-country and was using a lot more minutes for family and friends, not work, so billing for the $50 a month reimbursement seemed a bit unethical to me.

So, at any given time, in order to have unlimited local and long distance, whether via home phone or cell phone or a combination of both, we were paying anywhere between $100-150 monthly. Some of you might find that cheap, other’s have been bundled with this or that and pay slightly less than this.

Enter Skype.

I started with the basic free Skype. What this means is that business colleagues, family and friends who also have a Skype account can chat or “call” eachother’s Skype account for free,-anytime, all the time. I bought a headset and enjoyed phone conversations at my laptop. But after a bit, I thought, hey, what if I want to call people’s cell phones and landlines, whether they are on Skype or not?

Skype Pro offers just such an option- for only $36 a YEAR, I can now “Skype Out” call landlines and cell phones nationally for nothing extra per minute, no fees, nada. (International rates aren’t bad either!) Follow the Skype Pro link for more info.

Then I got to thinking- okay, for $3 a month, I have unlimited Skype Out calls, local or long-distance. But what about if people need to call me? Do I want to always answer my cell and say, “oh, can I call you write back with my Skype account?” It is not likely I will always remember or find it appropriate to do so.

So why can’t I just have everything a home phone can do?

Then I saw that with a Skype Pro account, you can get your own online number (which is a local telephone number!) assigned to you, with voice mail and everything, with a 60% discount. (Follow that link for more info). I paid the $24 dollars for the YEAR to have the telephone number, and now can pass that out as my home phone number and any one can call me too!

Let’s recap- previously spent $100-150 a month on features such as local, long-distance, a phone number to call me for free and voice mail, (including the various cell plans I tried).

Now- I am fulfilling my contract with Verizon and am back down to the 450 shared minutes for $45/month bill. This is used for when I am out of the house and emergencies (Skype does NOT call 911).

Then for another $70 a YEAR ($5.83 a month- any telephone providers willing to go THAT low for ya?!), I have replaced my home phone with Voice Over IP.

I should mention we also use a Skype approved cordless phone at the house- therefore I can walk around, cook dinner, whatever while on the phone, just like if I had a home phone. Factor the cost in for a phone if you plan to do this, but remember you can use this for years to come too. (Though the online number link above mentions the number will work on cordless phones, so I’m not sure how necessary it is to have a skype approved one, we just didn’t have a home phone to start with.)

Quality- I have never had a problem with the quality of my Skype line, even when in conference calls with 5-10 others. However, sometimes one of their Skype lines is really fuzzy, though I am pretty sure its their headset. When people call me and I’m cooking dinner as referenced above, they are often surprised if I tell them I’m using VoIP. I have heard nothing from callers but that it sounds just as good as any ol’ phone.

There are, of course, more options than Skype, but I’m really happy with the price (the cost of a coffee and scone each month!) and quality and features I get with Skype. There are also lots of extras available, including a way to use Skype to e-fax and everything!

Also, I hear from my dad and best friend about how great it is that they use Vonage for only $30 a month. Big savings, they think. Big rip off, I think.

Anyone use VoIP with Skype or another provider and care to share some insights? Chessia commented on my last post regarding ooVoo, feel free to tell us more!

First: Ask Yourself Some Questions:

1. Are you sure the location your at offers free Wi-Fi? Note that many cafe giants, Starbucks included, offer Wi-Fi only with a subscription ($) to a provider, such as T-Mobile.
2. What are their hours? (Boy, have I done this one before!) You go in with the plan to punch out about 4 hours only to find the hotspot location is only open another 2!
3. Okay, your in- now look around! Chances are you aren’t the only one with the same idea. Are there any free tables near an electrical outlet? If your battery isn’t plugged in, how long will you have to work? Be careful to scope out the scene BEFORE you order a coffee and scone and realize you have no where to sit while your coffee spills over its rim as you wonder what to do.

Second: Don’t Bite the Hand that Feeds You

1. Order something, and not just an ice water. Don’t be cheap, either. An 8 oz. coffee for here might be the cheapest thing on the menu, but please order a little more than that!
2. Order often. Sorry, but a coffee and a scone at 9 am will not buy you time until 5pm. (I don’t know how you could go that long without eating anyway, you animal!) It doesn’t have to be much, but I would say the polite thing to do is order something about every 2 hours, particularly if you aren’t ordering more than a couple dollar menu items. Okay, now you’re doing the math and realizing that an entire day at the hotspot might cost you up to $10 or so. But keep in mind- A. you HAVE to get out of the house here and there to break up the monotony, B. you HAVE to eat while you work anyway, C. you are getting FREE Wi-Fi, and finally and most importantly D. you are taking up a seat in the store!

Third: Play Well with Others

1. Don’t bother other worker’s. Okay, I broke this rule a lot in the beginning. “Um, do you know what VPN is?” I would ask the guy on his laptop next to me. “I can’t get online, are you getting online?” Because of that, I offer the same friendly troubleshooting now if any one asks me the same type of questions. But please remember that they are most likely trying to get work done too, and they can’t play Tech Support for your every hiccup. Also, if you are really into what you’re doing and some one asks you for help, it’s far more polite to tell them you don’t know than to say you’re too busy.
2. Bumping into Others: If you need to bump into a fellow worker or customer to, say, get to an electrical outlet, make some sort of inquiring gesture as a nonchalant “could you please excuse me?”. Always say your “please” and “thank you”’s. (If your feeling extra nice- you can offer your outlet to some one looking for one while your’s is powered up, and make a deal with them to switch when you run low!)

So there you go, some ideas to consider before venturing out to work via hot spot. Did I miss something? Comment with some tips of your own!

At the moment, he is in the process of interviewing for a position as an assistant store manager at Target. While, for him, this is a great job, you couldn’t pick a worse one for me! I wouldn’t be cut out for 50 hour work week’s and 15 hour a week commutes, making a salary of $40,000 a year come out to only $11.50 an hour. And that’s only because I’m home watching the kiddo! Imagine so many mom’s out there taking jobs that seem like a decent amount of money for some one in their twenties, like the above 40K. Imagine the same commute and $12,000 a year in preschool. Do you know how much the “real” salary would come out to? If I’ve done the math right, it’s about 10-15K a year! You could almost make that much working 25 hours a week at Starbucks in the evenings!

While I support my business major, retail background husband in his pursuits, I’m also amazed at the difference between those who are entrepreneurial minded verses those who are employee minded. There’s nothing I want more than to work less hours and make more money! I’ll teach myself whatever skills I have to learn to make that a reality, because the commutes and clocking-in are so.not.my.thing.

Doing the math on a commute alone, the average American commutes about 50 minutes a day to and from work, five days a week (according to a poll done by ABC). Let’s round that to an hour, from the time you leave your house the time you sit down at your desk in the office.

That’s an extra 5 hours a week, 260 hours a year.

260 hours a year that could be spent:

A. Working. (If you telecommute.) The average American makes about $20 an hour, (in 2005 the average salary in the U.S. was $45K.) If your the average US worker, that 260 hours commuting costs you $5,200 a year. Yep. Family vacation = *sounds of toilet flushing*

B. Spending time with family/children. (If you telecommute.) According to one report I read, the average working mother spends 5.8 waking hours with her children per day. But if you go to work from say, 7-5, and you have little one’s who go down at, say, 7 pm, I can’t image the number being higher than 3 on a work day. And is it possible to spend those 3 hours in quality mother/child time? Or are you unwinding, making dinner, and hauling off to bed? Now, telecommuting moms might still need some childcare, and they definitely don’t spend all day with the kids! But if you just take back that one hour of commuting, if we JUST focus on that one hour per day, already you can see a better way to spend 260 hours a year!

C. Doing whatever the heck you want to. (If you telecommute.) Maybe you live alone and those 260 hours are all your own. Maybe you want to spend 5 hours a week volunteering or participating in your favorite hobby!

For a 1.5 hour each way commute to work, which will likely be what entails a job at Target for Hubby, that’s 15 hours a week (the equivalent of a part-time job!) and 780 hours a year. 46, 800 minutes a year on the road. (Thank you, contributors to global warming!) And likely a lot of money on your vehicle’s insurance, gas and maintenace. A monthly bus pass for Hubby is about the lowest commute cost you could have- $1,200 a year. But take that off that salary, people. THINK about it.

I am so so so (did I say SO?) glad to wake up in the morning, put my slippers on, brush my teeth, make some coffee, and open my laptop. Bam. That’s my commute.

Telecommuting HAS ITS CONS. Especially being a work at home mom! Buuuuuut…

I’ll never say the grass is greener on the other side

Technorati Tags: salary, mom, money, commute, preschool, entrepreneurial, employee, skills, American, house, office, global warming, gas

However, I am not about to afford over $1,000 a month on preschool either! Yikes!

So that leaves a work-from-home parent of a toddler/preschooler with a few affordable options, and often a combination of them will even work out just right:

Childcare Option #1: Family member/friend. Maybe it makes sense for your partner to cut back to part-time, or for grandma to commit to two days a week. Maybe your gal pal is in college and would like to nanny for ya at a good rate when she’s not in classes. This is obviously a great option for the kiddo, as family and friends know and love your child, and you can have peace of mind about where they are and what they are doing while you pull in some solid hours. However, maybe you’re like me: I just moved across country from Florida to Oregon! I have no friends or family in the area! Well, have no fear, there’s a few more options…

Childcare Option #2: Childcare Swap! I am very fond of this idea, personally, and recently found what seems like a great fit. Another mom who has one day off per week is going to watch my son, in exchange for a day off on my part to watch her’s. The kids get a playmate two days per week, and you get a whole day to work sans toddler without the financial cost! Of course, you have to be in a position to enthusiastically take the day to watch the other child, which might mean pulling in longer hours 4 days a week. I think an even better option is if you can find one or two more children/families. If we were to add one more toddler to the mix, we’d take the same amount of time off but get two days off in the exchange! Often things like this are posted in newspapers, community or church forums and hyper-local parenting blogs, and Craigslist. Of course, have some qualifications in mind and visit with the families at their homes to try to avoid sticky situations later on down the road!

Childcare Option #3: Licensed and registered Home Daycare: My step-mother has run a home daycare for more than 25 years with great success. Her talent and heart for children really shines, and she can keep prices down to a comparative rate because she is allowed to watch up to 6 kids (age restrictions, number of families, so on apply). I really don’t have any problem with these set ups, so long as you’ve toured the home daycare and feel confident about the quality of care your child will receive from the owner. Remember that they have exams, classes, and home inspection drop-ins; they are professionals. Prices vary but are typically in line with that of an average daycare, about $4 an hour.

In all of these low-cost options, your child gets low adult:child ratio, time with some one besides you, and you get to work minus the interruptions without it hitting you hard at the bank.

And what about those days you still have to telecommute with toddler in tow? Don’t worry, I’m saving up a post just for you!

For more articles about telecommuting with kiddos, check out the following:

• Working at Home with Young Children
• How to Work at Home with Young Children
• WAHMS with Young Kids
• Work at Home Parent
• Childswap!
• Raising Kids While Running a Business
• 10 Tips for Working at Home with Children

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, kids, infants, naptime, Mama, laptop, discipline, routine, work, layoff, illnesses, schedule, preschool, work-from-home, parent, toddler, preschooler, affordable, family, friends, child, Florida, Oregon, Childcare Swap, mom, playmate, financial, newspapers, community, church, forums, hyper-local parenting blogs, qualifications, home daycare, daycare, low-cost

I have been down with a bad cold all week and it struck me that one great thing about telecommuting is that you take far less sick days! Had I needed to go in the office and expose all of my co-workers to my illness, I would have taken 4 days off know doubt, probably more with all the nights I was up into the wee hours with my two year olds restlessness caused by cough and fever. As it is, with the comfort of my couch, my medicines and teas all around me, and no threat of making the entire office sick, I’ve only missed about a day and a half when it just got too bad to be on my laptop. And, if I get better before Sunday night, I can always make up a few hours this weekend.

Sick days are NEVER fun, (unless of course, you’ve made that part up and really you’re going to Mardi Gras- which I know NONE of you would dream of doing!). But when you have the flexibility of working during the hours of the day that your symptoms are a little more mild, and you don’t add on the stress and anxiety of losing work, it can be a LOT less devastating.

If you’re already telecommuting and are struggling because you’re sick, remember to take advantage of your situation. Drink plenty of fluids, keep a waste basket and Kleenex handy, and if need be, make a doctor’s appointment; all things you can do so easily with a flexible schedule.

Get well soon!

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My best friend found out today that the job she left because she had to relocate contacted her for a position as a “guinea pig” telecommuting in the same job she had before. She couldn’t be happier that all of her hard work while in the office landed her a chance to telecommute from the comfort of her home office! I’d say she got “lucky” too!

But before you quit your job in hopes that they’ll offer you a telecommuting position, you might want to consider a less risky way of approaching the boss! I did some looking around and found such a well done article here at Quintessential Careers that I just couldn’t neglect to pass on the link. This article provides wonderful resources to help you research the success of telecommuting, decide whether or not telecommuting is for you, and finally, how to bring up the idea to your employer. Since I couldn’t have said it better myself, I won’t!

Technorati Tags: job, telecommuting, home office, quit, risky, boss, Quintessential Careers, success, employer