How much would you need to earn...

[Pizdets]

I'm on maternity leave at the moment but have been thinking for a while about what might be a gap in my market.

It would involve having people work from home for me - doing a few flexible hours over the course of the week (only about 30% would need to happen 9-5, I reckon) mostly online and maybe a bit on the phone. I'm trying to work out if it'd be a viable business so thought I'd throw it out there and would be really grateful if anyone could give me their thoughts:

• if you were looking for a part time work from home job, how much time would you be able to put in weekly (roughly)
• How much would you need to earn to make it worthwhile? (Hourly, monthly etc) bearing in mind you would need minimal/no childcare?

Any other comments or thoughts welcome too. Please let me know if anything doesn't make sense or I've not given enough info - not sure how much was appropriate to give!

Thanks,

Piz

Bump, no one? Maybe I've posted in the wrong place...

Personally if I were you I would start the business myself and only employ as and when. To hire people before you even have a turnover is a very high risk strategy unless you have a large bank balance and time to employ people who may not be working at full capacity whilst building a business.

15 hours fits the free child care model.

Hi lavenderhoney thanks that's great advice. At first I'd be looking to take people on a freelance basis so it'd be very flexible. 15 hours would work well.

Freelancers are a good way forward, however you will need non disclosure agreements perhaps and it will be very hard to stop them going direct to clients and not through you!

It depends on your business - you have to do a massive gap analysis.

I am freelance. I earn £15-£22 per hour (at home). I work approx 20 hours per week. HTH.

Hi PrimalLass, really helpful, thanks!

I usually charge by the day - working from home I charge £200-£250.
I only work 9-3 and occasional evenings.
You can employ people to work from home for £7 ph or less but it doesn't always go well - one of my first commissions was to sort out a project where this had been tried.
Feel free to PM me if I can help ( free, not touting here!!)

I use freelancers and haven't really had a problem with them going direct to clients as I break the work into components and nobody has the packages I put together.

I launched my agency while pregnant and while it has been a challenge things are going well. I think maternity leave is a great time to start a business.

It's 15 hours a week free child care but you have to allow for travelling etc. many people will prefer something over the WTC threshold of 16 hours a week for a single parent/disabled person or whatever it is for a couple.

Thanks so much for the replies, lots of food for thought!

Hopping - I agree you get what you pay for! I'd hope to pay a fair amount to smart people who want to work v flexibly but I just need to work out whether it's possible and what expectations would be from both freelancers and clients. Thanks so much for the offer of advice. Right now I'm just gathering my thoughts but I might well take you up on it later if that's ok?

Waiting - what an inspiration starting your business while pregnant! Exciting to hear it's going well and that freelance're are working out for you.

Youwillalways - I hadn't thought about wtc. Not sure if that would apply here as people would work flexibly self employed but I'll look into it, really useful, thanks!

Self employed people get WTC too - it is how most low paid people survive while they start a business and makes up a huge amount of your income even if you are minimum wage full time - mine basically covers what I would be getting on benefits so my earnings are on top of that, which is nice. But obviously if you pay minimum wage rates you won't get people who usually charge more.