Remote Employment

Business name
Remote Employment

Location
South-East

Your name
Paula Wynne

What does your business do?
Remote Employment is dedicated to flexible working options, remote working, jobs working from home, home business opportunities and home based franchises. We are number one in the remote working sector as we only have these types of jobs on our site. We are also unique in that we provide advice and resources to help people finding jobs working from home, remote jobs and setting up a home business.

What’s its annual income?
We have not completed year one as yet.

When did you start?
We launched in February this year and we offer resources, guidance and jobs for people wanting to work, flexibly, work remotely or work from home, as well as home business opportunities.

What were you doing before?
Ken Sheridan was a marketing consultant after a long corporate career in FMCG working with companies such as Tetley Tea (and launching the round tea bag), Pepsi, Walkers and others. Paula Wynne was a PR and Marketing Manager for a small independent hotel group in Newbury, after having worked as a freelance PR Consultant for many years.

What made you think of this idea?
Ken Sheridan and Paula Wynne, launched www.remoteemployment.com earlier in the year after finding a gap in the recruitment market for flexible home workers. They came up with the idea for the business after Paula (a freelancer and mum looking for flexible work from home) was looking for a site that offered outsourcing opportunities and Ken (a corporate employer) was looking for a site to source home workers or freelancers. Remote Employment is the result of their shared vision and answers the squeeze’s flexible working policies.

How many people work in the business?
So far we have three with a few more coming on board in the next couple of weeks. Our growth plan brings more people into the company over the next year.

Do they work from your home or their own?
We are all home based and will continue to manage a remote workforce.

How did you finance the start up?
We financed the start up ourselves.

Have you had to refinance?
No.

What next?
We want to be the authority on remote working and flexible jobs working from home. We are inspired and passionate about the remote employment culture and even in these depressed economic times we believe people should now be looking for alternative ways of working or consider starting up a home based business utilising their skills and experience.

We have had lots of media interest since our launch we have great plans to develop the site as we want to be an authority on remote and home working and to be known for ‘making a difference’ to employers and employees. There are so many benefits for flexible, remote working to companies, job seekers and the environment, the UK working culture is now embracing this new way of working. We recently started a skills and training area and would like to help people back into employment by training and developing themselves. There is a lot of development being made to the website, we want to make it a great experience for people to visit and above all help them towards a better quality work life.

What tip would you pass on to other home business owners?
The FreshIdeas Events mentor competition reinforced our belief in the remote and home working concept and we believe we are on the edge of a work place revolution. Many companies are starting to consider flexible working options and we are excited to be involved in the remote working culture. It was a huge thrill to be awarded Karen Darby as my mentor and to work with her to grow and develop Remote Employment.

If there is anyone out there who wants to start their own business, yet holds back, I say GO FOR IT! It is about being confident, brave and taking control of your own destiny. Sometimes it can be terrifying going alone or starting up a small business, but if you have a great passion for your belief you can climb mountains. Entering the Mentor and Global Action Plan competitions reassured me that Remote Employment is a brilliant concept and working with Karen is inspiring me to go out there and make it happen for Remote Employment.

When starting out research the market, plan your website and learn as much as you can about your business and how you will interact with others. Put yourself out there and get noticed by marketing your product or service. Be creative with ideas on gaining publicity and solutions for business growth. Learn, learn and then learn so more!