During the final years of my corporate career in London, the idea of working from home was steadily gaining greater acceptance as an alternative to doing duty in the office with all the commuting time and inconvenience that that involved.
Friday was a favourite day for staff to stay at home and work remotely, no doubt because the thought of a long commute home at the end of a tiring week was the final straw that threatened to break the loyal office worker’s back!
I, myself, used to take advantage of the work-at-home movement on a Friday because I had a particularly long and tiring multi-mode commute to and from work; two hours each way courtesy of a car, a train, the underground and my own two feet!
It soon became clear to me that, with modern technology, working from home could, under certain circumstances, be as productive, in fact more productive, than the conventional approach of slogging into the office every day.
Sure, there were times when face-to-face meetings were important and building rapport required personal interactions – but by and large, working remotely was very effective.
There’s something about having the flexibility to do things the way you want to do them; to choose your breaks when you want them and not to have to live up to the expectations of others in terms of how you dress, the way you choose to sit in your chair or the state in which you keep your desk.
Unfortunately, the concept of working from home is still sneered at by less progressive companies and managers, many of whom harbour suspicions that ‘an employee not seen is an employee not working’!
Let’s be honest, for those less-than-committed employees, the temptation to pursue other interests is probably greater at home, but then less-than-committed employees are hardly likely to be genuinely more committed just because they’re under the watchful eye of the boss.
Working from home is, to my mind, the way of the future as advances in technology rapidly overcome the practical hurdles previously associated with remote working.
It just makes so much more sense.
In fact, it’s not just the convenience and lower cost associated with working from home that will, in my opinion, cause the explosion of this trend, but the unprecedented access to needed skills that remote-working technology is starting to unleash.
Think about this for a moment…
You’re a top class creative working in the field of advertising in South Africa. A London based advertising agency has just won a big contract from a leading European car maker who is seeking greater penetration of the UK market. They desperately need good people – people like you – to work on the account.
Until recently, being based in South Africa would have disqualified you from such an opportunity but with advances in technology, things have changed.
You have the right skills, you are English speaking and you have a good sense for the product and the market. Your choice of where to live and work from is no longer such an issue, thanks to the Internet and related technologies. In fact being based in South Africa becomes a two-way advantage. You can charge less than your European counterparts and still live just as well.
More and more, companies will look beyond their traditional city and country bases to find the right skills at the lowest cost. Work will be outsourced. People with the best skills-fit offering the best value for money for their services will be contracted for the required duration, rather than being hired as costly full-time employees.
The world of business is changing quickly and dramatically, thanks to what I call ‘global village technologies’.
What does all this have to do with life coaching?
Actually, everything!
One of the questions I get asked most often by people considering a career in life coaching, is:
“Do you think there is sufficient demand in my area?”
Sometimes, when the prospect is calling in from “Tweebuffelsmeteeenskootgeskietfontein” (for readers unfamiliar with South Africa this is our, admittedly mythical, equivalent to a ‘one horse town’) my honest answer has to be: “No”.
But that’s my answer to the wrong question!
You see, life coaching is, in my admittedly somewhat biased opinion, the world’s best work-from-home business.
Helping people transform their lives is a skill that transcends geographical boundaries and, with the advent of increasingly cheaper telephone calls and free Internet based telephony like Skype, offering life coaching services to people located at the other end of the country – or half way around the world for that matter – is now constrained only by possible timing and language differences.
So, if you are passionate about people and you dream of the perfect lifestyle business – where you can work from home when it suits you and work with clients that speak your language, anywhere in the country or the world, bringing them greater personal freedom, improved self-confidence and growth – then I urge you to consider life coaching.
Bill Burridge is a South African entrepreneur with 27 years of corporate experience. His company, New Insights Africa, is dedicated to developing a network of high quality, independent life coaches, inspired to bring personal freedom, confidence and growth to people from all walks of life in South Africa. The company’s core product is a unique, high quality, home study certification program in life coaching. http://www.life-coach-training-sa.com
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