I read an interesting and short article in the Ottawa Business Journal about how if you want to be the boss, you can't telecommute. There's a perception that if you telecommute, you're not corner office material.

In my opinion, if you're the manager of employees who work remotely, then it doesn't matter where you, the manager, are located. However, if your employees are all onsite, then it behooves you to be onsite.

In addition, if you do have your eye on the upper levels of management, yes, you need to be there to network and get visibility with the right people.

So I would generally agree with their premise. Ask yourself what it is that you want. Currently, I do not believe that being an upper level manager is compatible with wanting a well balanced lifestyle. What do you think?

So How Do I Get Started?
Most everyone wants to jump in with both feet first and the nose stuck in a book. I've been paralyzed by wanting to make sure that I knew EVERYTHING before I started, but I was also wanting to dive right in. It's not the easiest thing to take a deep breath and say that it's OK to not know everything, that it's OK to make mistakes, and that it's OK to try something, decide if it works for you, and make adjustments on the fly.
So let's talk a second about mistakes. Most of your life, you're raised in school to circle your answers in red when it's WRONG, and you learn not to make any obvious mistakes. But then you don't accomplish anything new and exciting either. The key for successful mistake making is by thinking through the risks involved.
You want to start a business but if you make a mistake, you could lose a lot of money. Well, Ok, create a plan to mitigate that risk. Limit your startup costs until you're bringing in some funds. One friend kept her mini-blind business going until her online corset sales reached a certain point.
When I first started telecommuting in 1993, there were risks that I would miss out on hallway conversations if I weren't there all the time. The truth is that I couldn't be everywhere anyway, so I kept in touch with the people I knew were most important to the project, and with the people that I knew were most important for my career. You learn to overcommunicate with some people.
So, step one, identify the worst thing that could happen. And then find some options to reduce the impact.

I found two good links talking about two important issues when you telecommute.

The first is geared towards everyone. Do you say if you work from home or not? Read This Entrepreneur Magazine Article discussing how to appropriately network. It's probably not the first thing you want to point out if you're a business owner. If you work for another company, it doesn't seem to add much to the conversation either. On teh flip side, I knew people who wanted to advocate their work at home status in order to gain visibility on to it and make telecommuting more mainstream.

The second is geared towards mothers who own their own businesses. Read This MSNBC Article on the word Momprepreneur. This is interesting as some women want to be considered Entrepreneurs only, and others are proud of the fact that they're work at home moms.

So how are these connected? It's all about perception. I was a work at home mom and found when I was vocal about it, I didn't get the contract. When I presented myself as a business owner out of my own office, I got a lot more contracts. It's not fair, it's not pretty, it just is. I had dreams at one point of changing the world by holding firm to my ideals and educating everyone that I met about how much more productive and fulfilled my life was by being a work at home mom. (it is, but I don't need to convince you of that) Now that I'm older and wiser, I realize that it's more important to get the work and earn the respect and model what you hope the world will eventually achieve. Or something like that.

What do you think?

Everyone always asks "Where can I find telecommuting jobs?" Well, there's a lot up front before that can be answered, but in a nutshell, I'd find my jobs through
Monter
Dice
HomeJob Stop
Telecommute Jobs

When I was consulting, I was only looking for technical jobs and Dice and Telecommute Jobs had those in spades. Monster has a wide variety of jobs, and you can search on telecommute and telecommuting. Home Job Stop is a wonderful place with a wide variety of jobs. Sadly, even though I applied to a lot of them, i never heard back on a single job. I still have high hopes, though.

Monster and Dice are free, and Home Job Stop and Telecommute Jobs are premium one time only fee places.

Please reply with your favorite place so we can share our knowledge.

How Not to Telecommute

This sad tale of woe is to remind you to lay the groundwork first. Someone I know wanted to work from home on a regular basis, and was given a few opportunities to prove itself (I can't say if it's a male or female, so we'll stick with 'it'). Itself wouldn't do the work, nor would It answer it's cellphone. There was always an excuse such as "oh the battery ran out on my cellphone, and I didn't realize it." The first time, I buy it. The second time, I don't. Lesson: if given the opportunity, over-deliver. Make it seem like you're going to be super-productive (which you are since you won't be distracted by the water cooler talk). Lesson: Don't lie, either.

So, for every week It was there, It asked if It could telecommute. EVERY WEEK. When It's manager was gone on vacation for two weeks, It even had the audacity to ask It's boss' boss if It could telecommute. Lesson: when told no, don't keep asking hoping it will become a 'yes.' First address the issue of why it was a 'no' to begin with.

And the last lesson is: when told no, do not phone in saying you're telecommuting that morning testing your VPN when you weren't authorized to receive VPN.

It's very important to be up front and do your absolute best. Address the reasons of No to get to Yes.