The web has made a lot of business methods obsolete, none more so than work which involves websites. There's no particular reason why this work should be done in an office, and the actual business component of the work is also conducted online.
In many cases, the web is also the perfect place to work for creative people. It allows a lot of innovation, and professional career advancement can be rapid. As a workplace environment for this type of person, working from home makes a lot of sense. It reduces the creative restrictions placed on people working as employees of others, and allows much better business management.
Example: Sandy Shaw, web developer
Sandy, after graduating and getting her degrees in Computer Science and a range of qualifications in special systems and software, wasn't really too sure how to get started in the industry. She realized she needed experience in the business side of things, and got a job as a website developer with a large multinational.
Being a highly talented person, she did well, but found that the requirements of working for other people, and the related bureaucracy of working for a big company, didn't fit her personal style. As a very creative person, she found many of her ideas getting blocked because they didn't fit the corporate product models.
For highly creative people, working on the web, and creating whole new concepts, is a big factor in job satisfaction. Sandy was feeling like she was working in a museum. The corporate web designs were very tame, very dull, and more worryingly, not what many of their clients wanted. She couldn't accept the business logic, or the lack of input she seemed to have in her work.
The breakthrough came when she discovered that her ideas, as she'd been putting them on her website, were getting a lot of interest. She was getting inquiries from people around the world, particularly for some of her new applications ideas. She didn't really know how to do business in this area, and was a bit scared of things like licensing and copyright issues. Deciding her business knowledge was a bit too basic, Sandy decided to ask for some advice from her former lecturers.
Her lecturers unanimously said that she was sitting on major business potentials. They agreed with her view that the job was preventing her career development. They showed her where to get the business advice she needed. Within a week, Sandy had quit her job, set up her home business, and had three new contracts. Within a month, she was earning more money than she would have in a year with the old job.
