Paula of Remote Employment

Tell us a little bit about yourself:-

I have extensive PR and Marketing experience in all sectors of the market and until recently held the budgets and implemented campaigns for clients which include Wellington Country Park, The Duke of Wellington’s estate and Cannon’s Health and Fitness.

I also contracted as Press Officer for Children’s Books at Oxford University Press and freelanced for a small independent hotel group in Newbury. During my time here I was the media liaison for Donnington Valley Hotel and Spa which won several awards including AA Hotel of the Year as well as The Vineyard at Stockcross which received a 2nd Michelin Star amongst other prestigious awards.

Last year I launched Remote Employment – a new website dedicated to home based jobs, working from home and flexible positions. The site is new and growing and it has been an exciting time watching the traffic through the site, as well as a steep learning curve to understand online communications.

As a SEEDA Women’s Enterprise Ambassador, I want to help other women to work flexibly as she has needed to do. Remote Employment is her vision for bringing a better quality work life to women across the UK.

It was announced recently that I won the FreshIdeas Events Mentor Competition and was awarded Karen Darby as her mentor for the next six months. I am also working with the other winning Mentees as a group – a combination of skills and experience makes a powerful team.

We are also very proud that Remote Employment won the BT Global Action Plan ‘Responsible Business Day’ Award and Remote Employment is now working towards an Environmental Management Plan BS8555.

What is your business all about?-

Remote Employment is an online web service offering job seekers to chance to find flexible jobs working from home or home based business opportunities.

Job Seekers can register their CV and search for jobs across the UK. Once their CV is lodged, employers can search our CV Directory and find suitable candidates for their positions, so the site is twofold offering more opportunities for parents to get jobs to suit their work life balance.

What inspired you to start your business?-

My partner and I both believe that remote working, working from home or a home based business is the way forward for enterprising individuals. There are 3.1 million people working from home and this is expected to double by 2012. 1 million of these people are women and half of them own their own business.

Although the remote working concept has been around for some time there hasn’t been a dedicated service to connect reputable employers with talented job seekers and with the growing trend towards working from home, we felt this was a good market to be in.

This concept helps kids get greater parental input, whilst giving parents the satisfaction of continuing their career, maintaining income and pursuing interests outside the family. The initial response has been very positive, with potential employers spotting a great need in the marketplace. If Remote Employment could help one career flourish, one family enjoy more time together and one business gain skills that improve its development potential, then the site will have been a success and will have achieved what it has set out to do!

What do you consider to be the 3 most important factors about your business and the service it provides?-

1) We are unique in specialising in home based jobs, working from home and flexible positions.

2) We connect Employers and Job Seekers so they can discuss potential employment opportunities.

3) Our price package for employers (from every job sector) provides great value for money and is within easy reach for Mums owning their own businesses who want to get agents, consultants or home workers on board to help their expansion.

What are your future plans?-

Once we have the site paying for itself we would like to lobby for better working conditions and working from home opportunities for more people. Of course, there are always new ideas on development for the website and we attack those daily.

What has been the most difficult aspect of setting up your business?

Not being able to write HTML. The amount of times I have thought of learning more but never got around to it …

What has been the hardest part about starting a business?-

Finding the time to give the concept the full attention it deserves! Juggling all the very important tasks that need to be done and then prioritising them as they are all important and of course, the urgent stuff needs doing first. I find it hard to close down at the end of the day as my brain is still fizzing with ideas!

How long has it taken you to get to this point?-

We started talking about the idea while walking along the Thames in Henley and the idea just ‘bit’ us and we started planning and designing the website with a passion. Needless to say, our weekends went out the window as we got closer to launch in early January 2008! It does take lots of planning, research and then more planning and research to get it right, but it is great fun and inspiring all the way.

If you could rewind, is there anything that you would have done differently?-

We would have given our designer more specific instructions on optimisation. Our site is growing and evolving all the time so we are continually finding new and exciting ideas to develop. I can advise anyone starting a web business to look around at developers as there are so many out there – research, research and research again to find the right one for your business!

What have you gained as a person by starting your own business?-

Learning to be tolerant and patient and that I can’t do it all in one day! I have also learnt so much about online communications and e-commerce. It is a very energetic business and you can’t help feeding off the vitality from the site. There is so much to do when you are a small start up so you have to learn to see your priorities and take one day at a time. It is hugely rewarding to see things coming together and this wave creates a momentum and is extremely infectious and catchy to others around you.

Where do you see yourself in five years from now?-

It would be great to be able to employ people across the country to represent Remote Employment and have them working from home as ambassadors. We would love to have a fleet of remote workers who promote the idea of home working and all the while they themselves are working hours to suit them.

What advice would you give to anyone considering starting their own business?

Take time to consider all the options. Find different ways of getting help and advice and never give up. It is really tough in the beginning, but if you believe in your concept and products your faith will carry you through the hard times.

www.remoteemployment.com

Winner of BT Global Action Plan ‘Responsible Business Day’ Award
Winner of BT FreshIdeas Events Mentor Competition

Watch out for the next best business awards:  www.remoteworkerawards.com