I'll start with the 'why' first.
I've been a business owner for most of my adult life, I should say a 'small' business owner - I've never had more than 4 staff working for me, a few of them I would walk over coals for, most of them did what they had to do, and some of them enjoyed me throwing money at them for no return. A common story I'm sure.
I sold up 2 years ago with the birth of my second daughter, determined not to miss another childhood, and became the full-time dad to them both while my wife went to work for BT. We got along fine - bills were paid and seasons passed. Until about 6 months ago - I was getting restless.
I started searching around for ways of making some money - nothing stressful, a bit here and there while the kids were at pre-school or, better yet, asleep. I entered the often bizarre world of Work From Home (WFH) opportunities:- typing, paid shopper, email reading, avon lady, blogging, data entry, cold calling, virtual 'human', crafting, door-to-door energy sales, transcription, envelope stuffer - so on and so on. Not to mention that never-world of internet marketing - "make a gazillion before breakfast on Google", "Twitter Zillionaire", "I make £30,000 a day selling crap - you can too!"
I needed convincing, so as any modern member of society would do I went to the forums. Hello? Anyone there? I need advise and information from a complete stranger.
The news was fairly neutral, people made a few quid, sold some mascara, stuffed some envelopes; but it wasn't a particularly optimistic vista with chanting fans and die-hard promoters. But something happened - I started to talk to parents on the forums about all kinds of stuff - got to know them. And I found something out.
These people were highly qualified professionals, former entrepreneurs, deputy foreign office diplomats - you name it, they were players! So what the hell were they doing asking how much each other got per cold call? What a waste! Did the British economy know this lot was here?
And there is your 'why'
There is a vast pool of untapped talent being wasted on menial tasks because people want to be parents. Just because they want to spend more time at home and see their kids grow up they're expected to happily drift off into obscurity and forget about all those skills - all that experience they developed before their priorities changed.
My entrepreneurial senses started twitching and I thought about starting a business with a few of them, maybe something in marketing or design - consultants! That's it! A whole teams of specialist consultants working the hours they want when they want. Doing the job right because they know about responsibility, hard work, reliability - they were parents!
I was very excited - it was going to take a lot of hard work to set up but once we had our business structure in place and business cards printed we would be unstoppable. But then... I stopped. All of a sudden I had parents coming out of the woodwork asking to be part of the team - "I'm a mechanical engineer" - "I'm a corporate lawyer" - "I've got 20 years experience in selling widgets" - you get the idea. We couldn't possibly find enough work. Then the light bulb came on.
The 'What'
With the wings falling off BA, no more 'pick-and-mix' at Woolworths and small businesses everywhere desperatley trying to cut costs the new 'flexible working' legislation came at just the right time for hard-pushed firms. Those that wanted to go part-time had the requisite form shoved in front of them and their hours cut with immediate effect. Home-working has become favourable, with many firms getting rid of their premises completely. But it won't last for ever - eventually we'll pop our heads above the parapet and realise there are some customers at the door and everything will go back to normal. Not.
I believe that if we play this right, society I mean, then we can really make a few changes coming out of this recession. Companies will wise up to the fact that people can work just as well at home as in the office - a computer's a computer wherever it is and with broadband, skype, webcams and online tools the 'where' really doesn't matter.
You've heard the arguments - lower emmissions from commuting, lower costs on business premises, a gradual meshing of society as people become a local community again - all good stuff.
But if companies are going to take advantage of the lower costs of home-workers, part-time staff and even freelancers where are they going to find them? You're ahead of me aren't you?
Where are companies going to find a pool of experienced staff and professionals that actually want to work flexibly? Mmm, let me think.
That's 'what' hiremyparents is. A resource that business can use to find the quality staff it needs and that is willing to work flexibly - in fact...they demand it. Parents not only win by getting a wage doing what they've trained to do (no envelope shoving) but they also get to cut down or get rid of the childcare. Can I hear a 'woh..ho'! That's money in the bank already.
Opening up this parent resource will open the tap on skills coming into the workforce, and not just any workforce, these people have kids to provide for. Do you think that's a good enough reason to do a good job? Do you think they have a vested interest in making sure business comes back to them again and again?
And it doesn't stop there. These parents will go on to start their own companies, with the revenue that businesses looking for reliable workers gave them. They'll prove themselves and get full-time flexible jobs with the companies that previously outsourced to them. A whole swaith of this demographic, unrestrained and unleashed will push the economy on and on.
I should write speeches.
Alright, I started to rant, but do you see the possibilities? Business can use hiremyparents to post there jobs: flexible working, part-time, freelance or contract straight to the site and our parents' inbox. Parents can then apply knowing that the business understands that they are parents with a parent's responsibility but also a parent's maturity, reliability and need to provide a top notch service.
hiremyparents.co.uk launches in the Autumn. We're currently giving away free membership to 1000 parents and 250 businesses from our blog with only the slightest of catches. You'll see when you get there.
Give it a go - Britain needs you
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