… And, I called into a radio show for the first time ever to speak about my experience of working from home!

I never listen to radio these days, but the stereo in my car isn’t working at the moment and this morning as I tuned into Radio Bristol, I heard Graham Torrington talk about the new Home Business Report that was released today and he got my attention.

I live in Bristol, UK and we are apparently second only to London in the number of people running their business from home, as people are moving away from the workplace for better work-life balance and to cut costs during the recession.

Whilst it wasn’t news to me to hear that there was a rise in the number of work from home businesses,   I was shocked at the figures:

• In the UK, of the 4.5 million small and medium-sized enterprises in the UK, more than 2.1 million of them are home-based businesses
• Home-based businesses have a combined turnover of over £364 billion?
• Over 60% of new businesses are started at home whilst people are working a 9-5 job
• 5M people work from home in the UK

One of the freelancers at Radio Bristol said how much he noticed the increased number of people in the supermarkets during the day and often wondered “don’t these people work?”  Well now he knows … many of them work from home.

But the question that was really being asked was “is 9 to 5 outdated and should companies be more flexible?”

I think the issue for many people lies not so much in their job being 9 to 5 but what happens before and after and more importantly, during the 9 to 5 period.

People have to take into account commuting time, taking their children to School, daycare or wherever, collecting them at the end of the day, petrol costs and, many other things I’ve not listed.  But my biggest concern for why I HAD to get out of the corporate world (and I was a manager) was what I will call the “potential integrity gap” that was missing for me.

Employers tell you what skills they expect you to have for a job and, they are not interested in any other skills or potential that could effectively be useful.  The attitude is very much, “don’t show me it until we ask to see it” kind of thing.  And in my view, this is the difference between being passionate about your job and going through the motions of your job.

I worked for Direct Line Insurance in the claims department many years ago and when I started, it was a young dynamic company and there was room for creativity and personality input.  By the time I left some 8 years later, it felt as though even the way you said “Good Morning” was scripted.  I once heard one of the managers challenge a member of staff for giving out the wrong information and the staff member said “I thought …” to which the manager shouted across the floor, “you’re not paid to think!”

And I could go on about a friend of mine now, a qualified solicitor (lawyer) working for a company in Bristol who treat their staff – qualified, trained or otherwise – like battery hens … “we put in the system and you must produce.”  And by system, I’m talking about call centre systems where everything you say and do is managed by stats and you need no personality or skill to be a manager any longer because all you do is look at the stats and give a scripted response to productivity … “your call stats are low.”

But I digress.

Working from home can be hard work, especially initially when you’re not quite sure exactly what you want to do.  And often both family and friends see you working from home as an opportunity to call and chat or invite you out to lunch for hours on end and they will forget that you are “‘Working” from home and so, it’s up to you to remind them!

It is however very rewarding and, if you’re passionate about what you do, it really is the motivator that get’s you out of bed in the morning and keeps you going with a task even when you hit roadblocks.

So, if working from home is something you’re serious about doing, don’t let the hard work element put you off.  Do your research, speak to people who already own a business and doing it successfully and then start small, but start, even if it means being one of the 5 to 9 workers as they are now called … those who work on their home based business after working hours.

We’re almost into 2010, and the last thing you want, is to let another year go by without you taking some major steps towards your dream of running your own home business.

I want to challenge you to go for it and, if you’re still unsure where to start, grab a copy of Timothy Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek.

All the best in your new ventures,

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