As Britain wakes up shivering from the coldest night this Winter, with local government offices reporting road grit supplies are dangerously low and the MetOffice predicting more snow on the way, we’re wondering how everyone is doing out there. Are you able to make it into the office? Are you working from home? Or are you just glad you’re a freelancer with everything you need in your home office?

We’d love to know how you’re working throughout this week – twitter tag: #workingfromhome

Small businesses and freelancers continue to work remotely during big freeze

Statistics from Gradwell, the internet services provider, show that employees from many small businesses and freelancers have continued to work this week, despite being unable to reach the office.

Despite the snow, stats indicate that between 9am and 10am on the 5th and 6th of January, almost as many phone calls were made as on any other working day of the year.

Gradwell provides small businesses and freelancers with broadband services including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, enabling users to make phone calls over the internet whilst appearing to use a business’s landline number.

Managing Director Peter Gradwell said: “Although our statistics reveal a slight dip in the number of calls in the main businesses have continued to operate as normal despite the snow.” Although there are lots of potential reasons for adopting VoIP technology, including cost reduction, one of the main benefits is the ability to use one number from any location. The advantage of this becomes particularly apparent during bad weather.

Gradwell went on to say that 12 members of his staff were unable to reach the office yesterday, yet all are able to work from home.

“Despite the recession, we’ve seen customer numbers rise dramatically in recent months with over 10,000 SMEs and freelancers now using our services. he increased use of VoIP technology is a trend that I think we’ll see throughout 2010 as broadband access continues to increase and more and more people choose to work flexibly.”

Gradwell is a leading independent provider of Internet communications services, from Internet telephony and broadband, to website hosting and email management, they design flexible service packages, ideally suited to the small business customer.

Image by: -RobW-