How Work At Home Businesses Survived With The Power Out

From the Miami Herald

Work’s a struggle when lights go out…

Many telecommuters found ways to stay connected after the storm. Those who couldn’t lost pay.

When Hurricane Wilma blew the power out at Kelly List’s Coral Gables home, she realized she need to act fast. Like many who work from home, her income depended on it.

List, who edits direct mailers for a Dallas company from a home office, got creative. She cranked up her car, plugged an adapter into the cigarette lighter, and powered up her laptop, printer and fax. A long extention line on her home phone brought Internet access to her makeshift car office.

”The rest of the company in Dallas was not affected by the storm, and I knew if I couldn’t do the work, they would give it to someone else,” List says. “I laughed at myself for doing it, but it was my pay at risk.”

About 85 percent of IBM’s 1,700 employees in South Florida telecommute, at least some of the time. In the storm’s aftermath, that presented a challenge — both for the company reaching out to its staff members and for employees trying to get back to work.

Mary Young, location leader for IBM’s Coral Gables office, which reopened last Wednesday, said the high-tech backgrounds of its workers made it somewhat easier.

”We have a lot of backup telephone numbers for them and a lot of ways to communicate with them,” Young said. Young used her generator to keep her cellphone and laptop powered up. She sent e-mails to her employees, some of whom have wireless mobile devices.

Karina Diehl, a diversity communications professional with IBM in Miami, resorted initially to powering up and logging on from the hospital while visiting her ill grandfather. Most hospitals had power throughout, running on backup generators. IBM has mobile centers in Coral Gables and Boca Raton for teleworkers to use the Internet, phones and printers.

”I think we all realize now there is a downside to telecommuting,” Diehl says. “But nothing fell through the cracks. Most of my team is out of New York and they were able to pitch in.”

Meanwhile, working mothers like Michelle Matthews, an independent contractor with home offices, needs to compensate for lost income when her power and phone service are restored.

Matthews is paid for transcribing and typing medical records for hospitals. A Hollywood resident, Matthews still doesn’t have power and has lost a week’s pay so far. A former paralegal, she says the work-at-home arrangement allows her to be around when her 12-year-old son returns from school. The convenience, she says, now is offset by the challenge. It’s her second time losing power this hurricane season.

”I don’t know where the money is going to come from,” Matthews says “I’m going to have to work until midnight, until I can’t type anymore.”

”Power is the lifeline of the self-employed,” says Daren Jairam, owner of JMJ Management Service in Cutler Ridge, which buys merchandise for Caribbean companies. Jairam says he lost about $100,000 in business when he was unable to communicate with overseas clients and procure goods for them.

”I don’t have business insurance to cover loss of income,” Jairam says. But he has made precautions for the future: He purchased a generator and has signed up for wireless Internet service. The expense now, he says, will pay off in the future.