Net Boosts Work-At-Home Market by Broderick Perkins Business-to-business Web sites, specialty sites for independent contractors and generally easier digital access to information is giving a boost to the nation's minions who work at home. Turning the American Dream into a workplace, however, is not without a caveat or two. In the telecommuting arena, Ford Motor Co.'s recent announcement that it will provide at-home computers to its entire work force is a vote of confidence in the transformative aspects of the Internet, says Janet Asteroff of The Concours Group, a Kingwood, Texas, e-business consulting firm. Intel Corp. is taking the vote of confidence a step further by buying all of its 70,000 employees worldwide a personal computer, complete with Internet access. Ford is only leasing the computers. "If this strategy fails, Ford can quickly become an also-ran after spending about $1.5 million on what will undoubtedly be called 'another Edsel,' but if it succeeds, Ford may assure market dominance," Asteroff says. On the other hand, the two companies' employees may simply work more and find their leisure, family and tinkering-around-the-home time disappearing. "There's more to it than the employees becoming comfortable and familiar with the Internet. First, the employees become accessible 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. Second, as has been the trend for years, having a work station in one's home will implicitly encourage more after-hours and and weekend work," said work-at-home guru Paul Edwards, who along with wife Sarah, penned "Working From Home" (Tarcher/Putnam, $18.95) and a library of similar tomes. "If someone were to study the effects of Ford's and Intel's employees over a year after receiving the computer, my guess is not all the results will be positive in terms of family life or stress levels," Edward says. But companies are hard fought to retain employees, and more and more often acquiesce by giving them what they want, virtually speaking. Even if an Intel employee quits the day after getting the computer, the employee will be free to keep the machine, losing only the free Net access Intel provides. "On the other hand, the companies are merely facilitating what is a trend anyway. The silver lining for some employees is they will have the tools and the access to online information with which to start their own part-time businesses and they will," Edwards said. Indeed. Web sites like Freeagent.com and Guru.com offer a host of business-to-small business services previously unavailable with such easy access to freelancers and independent contractors who've converted a bedroom, den or garage to TheBuckStopsAtMyHome.com. An estimated 25 million full- and part-time freelancers are generating more than $300 billion in revenue each year, because they are a cheaper source of labor than hiring full time workers with benefits. "By properly utilizing freelancers, corporations can save money and a tremendous amount of effort in search time," says Jon Slavet, who along with James Slavet is co-CEO of San Francisco-based Guru.com. | 
