Emma Jones

There's no rent to pay on out-of-home office space and, as is often the case, no full-time salaries and National Insurance to cover as home business owners tend to sub-contract work to partners and freelancers or take on flexible and part-time staff.

If you're wondering how to go about recruiting a flexible workforce, this feature is for you, writes Emma Jones

Supply meets demand

A sad repercussion of the blip in the economy has been people losing their jobs. The upside of this is a good number of quality people have come on to the market, offering their services as freelancers and independent contractors. This is good news for them (benefiting from the freedom and flexibility that comes with being your own boss) and it's good news for all the home businesses on the look-out for talent. Here are some places to look.

For project work – check out www.elance.com. A huge site that operates across the globe with a database of more than 130,000 professionals who will respond to your project requests.

For more permanent work – search on sites that offer more of a personal service. One such site is www.flexibleskillsbank.co.uk that is currently operating in 11 areas across London and the South East, offering a niche service for small and growing businesses that have staffing requirements and want to take on flexible freelancers or employees.

Founder of the business Karen Kennard says: "We understand that sometimes small businesses don't need full time staff, or don't have office space for new staff, so we can put you in touch with the right people who can work flexibly."

Since starting up two years ago, Karen Kennard's business is taking off well as more people choose to work flexibly and more companies want to hire this way. The plan is to expand nationwide over the coming months.

Two others who spotted a gap in the flexible recruitment market are Ken Sheridan and Paula Wynne who came together to launch www.remoteemployment.com on the back of personal experience of searching for freelance workers.

RecruitmentRevolution.com claims to offer 'a refreshing approach to recruitment' and this site too is set up to accommodate the needs of home business owners looking for the most flexible employment solution.

These latter three sites are operated by home based companies who practice what they preach when it comes to keeping costs low, being nimble and providing a top quality service to clients. They are businesses founded by talented individuals and have fast become the online gathering place for talent.

Emma Jones is Founder of Enterprise Nation  and author of 'Spare Room Start Up - how to start a business from home' - published by Harriman House.