Home Business Innovation: Elsworth Communications
Name: Elsworth Communications
City: Cockermouth
Website: www.elsworthcommunications.co.uk
Here on the west coast of Cumbria you quickly grab every tool available for remote working. Without email, Skype and my trusty smartphone, my copywriting and PR business wouldn't survive.
My clients, which range from universities and local authorities to businesses and charities, are based across the north-west of England – some of them more than three hours' drive away – so travelling to their office often isn't practical.
My fledgling company almost fell at the first hurdle, however, when our new hometown of Cockermouth suffered devastating floods three weeks after we arrived. Our rental house didn't have a phone line, so I'd used the library or a pub's free Wi-Fi. That is until the floods washed away my makeshift offices.
We were evacuated as the water reached its peak and I worked through the night in a hotel bar on my biggest client's projects, fearing they would sack me if I couldn't deliver. As it happened, they were brilliantly flexible until my broadband was installed. They're still one of my best clients today.
Now my study is perfectly set up and my Skype and links to social media are always connected. But that's not to say I only ever work from home. I've handled crisis communications from a mountain top, filed magazine copy from the beach, and plug in my laptop in a favourite cafe when home working gets lonely. We moved to Cumbria to enjoy its amazing landscape – who says I have to be chained to a desk?
Suzanne Elsworth is the founder of/at Elsworth Communications
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