Beating the downturn by staying at home to work - Watching the Web, Opinion - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Beating the downturn by staying at home to work - Watching the Web, Opinion - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk: The web offers a low-risk way of starting up in business.
So you won’t be surprised to learn that these entrepreneurs are not alone in their quest for online riches.
Let me introduce the “mousewives”, as they’ve become known — women who work from home using their computers to boost the family income during the recession.
According to one piece of research, almost half of stay-at-home mothers use the internet to make money.
The survey, by the European Inkjet Systems division of Kodak (www.kodak.com), found that one in 20 made at least £200 a month, with many earning much more.
The work ranges from selling CDs and books on eBay to doing accounts for other businesses.
It also encompasses market research work, secretarial services, party planning, mystery online shopping and web site design.
The main motivating factor is that money can be made with a relatively small investment. In many cases, the additional investment is nil, because the budding entrepreneurs already have a PC and internet connection.
There’s a web site dedicated to “mousewives” at www.mouse wives.com, as well as an online magazine at www.wahm.com (the initials stand for “work at home moms”, so you’ll gather that the site is American). Incidentally, the reason I keep putting “mousewives” in inverted commas is that some of the women engaged in running their own business from home object to the term.
They prefer the word “momtrepreneur”. Whatever the preference, there’s no shortage of clever shorthand for the practice!
Some stay at home mothers have branched into online franchises for everything ranging from toys to jewellery. See www.wahm. co.uk. In fact, the web is packed with sites dedicated to this new breed of businesswoman.

Work Wise Week 2009

Work Wise Week this year will run from Tuesday, May 12, until Monday, May 18.
This will be the fourth year that Work Wise Week has been run by Work Wise UK, an initiative led by the TUC, CBI and British Chambers of Commerce which promotes smarter working practices, such as flexible, remote and mobile working, and working from home.

It aims to give half the working population, some 14 million people, the opportunity to work smarter by 2011.
"This year, smarter working is more relevant than ever," said Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise UK. "With the recession biting hard, businesses have to find ways of improving productivity, and smarter working practices are an integral part of the solution."

The themed days will take a different approach this year. The week will consist of the following:

Mobile Office Day (Tuesday, May 12) - the first day will encourage people to work while on the move, instead of travelling to a central office.

Remote Office Day (Wednesday, May 13) - this day will encourage people to use remote offices instead of travelling to a central office. These would include serviced office space, touch down centres or even hot spots such as coffee shops.

Virtual Meeting Day (Thursday, May 14) - this day will encourage people to conduct meetings by audio or video conferencing or go online instead of travelling to meetings.

National Work from Home Day (Friday, May 15) - this will be the fourth time this popular day has been run. It will encourage people to work from home on that day, instead of commuting to their usual place of work.

Smarter Travel Day (Monday, May 18) - the concluding day of the week will encourage people to travel outside peak times. Coming into work an hour early, and then leaving an hour early at the end of the day, or going an hour later, and leaving an hour later. This will reduce the peak rush hour, and make the commuting experience far more bearable for many.

European Parliament: How should we help balance family and career?

(EP Press release)

Equal opportunities for men and women, equal pay for equal work, freedom from unfair discrimination: these are fundamental European values. But how far should we go to achieve them?

How far should we go to ensure that people don't have to choose between career and family? How much do we invest in making these things happen? There are practical choices to be made, laws to be enacted and action to be taken. The choices are yours, when you cast your vote in the June 2009 elections.

Times have changed. Many may recall times when women were expected to bring men their...slippers and a woman's role in life was to have and raise children and obey their husbands. Maybe times haven't changed as much as we think.

More women than ever are managers or involved in politics. In 2006, the number of female managers in the EU was 32.6% and the number of women MEPs rose from 16.3% in 1979 to 31% in 2009.

But women in Europe still earn on average 17% less than their male counterparts and one person in 10 has suffered at one point in his/her life from some form of bullying, harassment or violence at work.

According to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, a woman working full-time works 40 hours a week, while men work on average 43 hours. But can we say that men work more than women, given the unpaid hours that many women put in caring for children, sick or elderly relatives and doing household chores?

And in a world where people live longer and have fewer children, is work-life balance really an option or more like an obligation for the legislator? And are men being given the choices they deserve?

In any case, the MEPs you choose will be the ones to decide on what more (if anything) needs to done in Europe on many issues that could affect your work-life balance, such as job sharing, teleworking, flexitime and compressed working (where full-time is compressed into fewer days), maternity leave as well as part-time and temporary work. What else would you like them to do? Make your choice clear with your vote on 4-7 June!

Remote worker awards

Remote Employment has announced the Remote Worker Awards! They are currently working with prominent sponsors to highlight how remote and home working benefits the environment, business productivity and employees' quality of work life.
Everyone who works remotely or works from home and employers who have remote workers are able to enter. And anybody who wants to work from home can also enter to win a £15k home based franchise of their very own as well as other great prizes, one of them being a Garden Home Office worth £10k!
There are consumer awards for working professionals and anybody who wants a career change, as well as business categories for Home Businesses and Employers of Choice who allow their staff to work remotely or work from home. This is one of the UK's highest prize awards.
If you work remotely or work from home, have a home-based business or employ remote and home workers, the Remote Worker Awards is waiting to hear from you!
See more about judges, supporters, categories, terms and conditions, and how to enter at: Remote Employment

The availability, affordability and protection of content in digital Britain

The UK Government on Friday invited views on the role a 'digital rights agency' should play in protecting and promoting the legal use of copyright content online, and how industry, consumer groups and government can work together to create an environment where investment in creativity is rewarded.
Creators, commercial rights-holders and consumer groups are all asked to respond to a discussion paper exploring the potential benefits of a new agency and the impact it would have in combating unlawful online file-sharing and piracy.
Minister of State for Intellectual Property, David Lammy said: "The real prize here is a rights agency that sorts out the complexities that keep consumers on the right side of the law, and ensure artists get properly paid.
"We need to make it easier for consumers to do the right thing. The internet has become an integral part of daily life. You shouldn't need to be an underwriter to take out an insurance policy, and you shouldn't need legal training to surf the web."

Minister for Technology, Communications and Broadcasting, Stephen Carter, said:
"...in the new digital age, copyright infringement has become easier and more socially acceptable, so it's clear we need some form of legislative backstop for the protection of rights as well as new and innovative ways to access legal content."
He added:
"Today we have published proposals in the form of a Straw Man on digital rights. That Straw Man could be torched, tolerated or a touchstone for the start point of constructive debate and design. I for one hope it is the latter."
Key issues raised in the discussion paper published by the Intellectual Property Office today include:

• 
  How to educate and change consumer behaviour towards copyright material;


• How to support industry efforts in developing new and attractive legal ways for consumers to access content;


• How to support legislation to address consumer activity that breaches civil copyright law and how to tackle persistent infringement;


• How to enable technical copyright-support solutions that work for both consumers and content creators;


• Whether or not the Agency should be an independent industry body with back-up legal powers held by Ofcom


• How such an agency can be funded.

All these issues will be publicly addressed in a discussion forum later this spring but comments are welcome before then.
The concept of a 'digital rights agency' was initially recommended in the Digital Britain Interim report, published at the end of January. The report represents an ambitious and strategic plan to accelerate growth in the digital industries and cement the UK's position as a world leader for innovation, investment and quality.
For more information please contact: James Thomson at IPO press office 0207 5966 547 or Una Flynn at BERR press office 0207 215 5256.

Top 10 Must-Haves for Mompreneurs--Mompreneur Must Have List--Entrepreneur.com

Top 10 Must-Haves for Mompreneurs--Mompreneur Must Have List--Entrepreneur.com

Successful women business owners weigh in on the people, places and things they can't live--or work--without.

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The Ultimate Small Business Twitter List

The Ultimate Small Business Twitter List

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Web searches for jobs increase by 20% with seniors the fastest growing group

Web traffic to career development sites increased 20 per cent year-over-year in January, with 65+ being the fastest growing age group in the career development category according to a report released in February.

Nielsen Online reported that unique visitors to career development websites grew from 41.5 million unique visitors in January 2008 to 49.7 million in January 2009. CareerBuilder Network was the No. 1 online career development destination in January 2009, with 20.8 million unique visitors. Yahoo! HotJobs and Monster took the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, with 11.7 million and 9.5 million unique visitors.

“With the current unstable economy and rising unemployment rate, more people are heading online to search for jobs, and interestingly not just the unemployed. The career development category also grew 20 percent year-over-year among at work users, suggesting that many people are trying to build up their resumes and get a sense of the job market before the next potential layoff,” said Chuck Schilling, research director, agency & media, Nielsen Online.

The number of unique visitors 65 and older to career development websites grew 41 percent year-over-year, increasing from 2.5 million unique visitors in January 2008 to 3.6 million in January 2009. This was the largest increase year-over-year among people aged 18 and older.

“While 65 used to be considered the age when most people retired, we are seeing a trend towards later retirement or partial retirement. Much of this desire to stay employed longer can probably be attributed to the fact that people are living longer and feel the need to keep generating income and sock away more retirement savings, especially in light of the current economic climate and its effect on people’s nest eggs. There’s an opportunity for publishers and advertisers to appeal to this niche market by providing content that’s relevant to longtime career holders looking for their next position and trying to shore up their retirement savings,” said Schilling.

At Work Anywhere knows that the 65+ age group has a lot to offer in terms of experience and wisdom. We intend to support 'silver surfers' by assisting them to find opportunities that will make the best use of their life experiences and professional skillsets to the advantage of all concerned.