SAHM on a roll

By Kylie McIntosh

Telecommuting, teleworking or working from home is not a new concept for Australians. Many of us - read wives, mothers and some fathers - have been doing it for years. However, in the past five years it has grown significantly to the point where the Australian Government has a whole policy and website devoted to it. And there are legal contracts in place to help employers and employees negotiate successful working relationships.

In the 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics census data found that 24 per cent (2.2 million) people worked some hours for their main job from home. This figure had increased 4 per cent from June 2000. See www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS. Of these employees 79 per cent were over 35 years old, 55 per cent were women and 40 per cent had children less than 15 years old.

In addition a whole online industry has developed with the aim of providing ideas for home-based businesses and helping employees – particularly women – track down potential employers. Stay at home mums (SAHM) or www.SAHM.com is one such site. Founded by Adrian Cappola in 2007, Adrian developed the site after several of his employees started asking if they could work from home.

The aim of this site is to provide a definitive location for mums – and dads – who choose to work from home and are looking for employers. To further this purpose Adrian has begun building a comprehensive database of people who would like to work from home. He is now in the second phase of his operation – matching people to employers. SAHM’s goal is to connect these two groups.

Adrian is committed to ‘walking the talk’ and employs stay at home mums in both of his businesses. On his books he has graphic designers, journalists, telemarketers, marketing and PR people who all work from home.

Over the coming months this site will grow to include interesting content and sites of interest to people working from home. If you have a working from home experience to share please contact Kylie McIntosh on 0418 490 514 or email her at mcintosh_kylie@sahm.com.au