That being said, many of my clients (and I’m sure many readers) have the very same question.  After all, who wouldn’t want to earn a paycheck while staying home?  Who wouldn’t want to eliminate driving in rush hour (as well as the frustration and gas associated with it)?  Who wouldn’t love to take a meeting in their bathrobe and bunny slippers? 

The topic of looking for – and acquiring – telecommuting jobs isn’t as difficult as many would want you to believe.  Before you make the leap, however, make sure you have the following: 

Determine if your job can be done remotely

An organized, dedicated office space with a high-speed Internet connection

The discipline to work alone

A great phone plan

The software and other industry-specific tools needed to complete your work

Full understanding from your family and friends

Quality last-minute child care

Assuming you have – or will get – the items above, the matter now is to locate and land a stay-at-home gig.  While not too difficult, it does require an organized approach.  Here are a few tried-and-true steps and methods: 

Expand your search.  While you may find telecommuting work by only looking online, your odds will be much better looking within your home town and several relatively close cities.  If, for instance, you live in Greensboro, North Carolina, then you could realistically expand your search to Winston-Salem, Durham, Raleigh and Charlotte.

Conduct your expanded search normally.  Regular readers of The Daily Machete know that searching online should comprise no more than 30% of your job hunting activities; the remaining 70% of your time should be spent networking.  The same holds true for looking for telecommuting positions.  That means you will actually need to develop and cultivate networks in those surrounding cities.  This can be done by utilizing your existing network as well as visiting organizations and clubs in those cities.  While this will likely expend a bit of time, energy, money and gas, look upon it as an investment of resources.  Obviously, you’ll want to utilize your quality last-minute child care while you’re networking.  

Pitch it properly.  While many (if not most) jobs can be done remotely, employers may not see the advantage of having employees work from home.  It’s your job, therefore, to convince them it’s in their best interest to allow you to telecommute.  That means you have to appeal wallets and need for seamlessness.

Money.  Since commercial real estate is rented and purchased by the square foot, you can clearly show how you are saving them space, therefore money. Remember that businesspeople only care about three things: 1) how you can make money; 2) how you can save money; 3) how you can add to company brand or provide customer service.  Telecommuting appeals to #2.  Play up that angle.

Seamlessness.  Since you will already have a high-speed Internet connection and good phone plan, it will be like you’re on-site.  Most of your meetings, in fact, can and will be done over the phone.  You’ll also be in daily touch with the home office by email and phone.  You’ll be collaborating online.  You may want to sweeten the pot by offering to come into the office one day each week to pick up hardcopies and other supplies, but your remote status will be transparent to clientele and departmental workflow.