Since this is the beginning of my blog I thought I’d take a minute to cover some fundamentals. And I’m not trying to be insulting here - if you know what telecommuting is, you know what telecommuting is. Basically the term is most commonly used to describe people who work for a corporation, but work either exclusively, or partially, from home.

But I just spoke to a friend in the UK and apparently the term has very little meaning there. I think many Americans are used to the term ‘telecommuting’ and it’s variations - ’telepresence’, ‘telework’, etc. My friend in the UK says that the closest name they have for this working style is “work from home”. Which is interesting because in the US “work from home” or “work at home”, while referring to telecommuting, can also refer to people who have a home-based-business (people who run their own small business out of their homes). There’s even websites dedicated to “work from home moms”, for instance, for mothers (and fathers) who want to earn a little extra money while still primarily caring for their children.

While my own personal experience right now fits the more formal telecommuting definition I gave above, many of the issues, challenges, advantages, and other miscellaneous bits of knowledge I will cover in my blog and eBook apply to folks who are working from home, running their own business too. Especially those who want to interact with their clients by phone, and other virtual means, to some degree to avoid long drives or flights.

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