What opportunities are there to become a self employed project manager?

[nkingy2003]

I am currently working as a project manager in the manufacturing industry. I have only been in this position for 2 months so I am quite inexperienced.

Is it possible for a project manager to work from home? I see a lot of IT project managers can work from home but dont see any opportunities for other project managers and IT project managers need to be highly qualified in IT which I am not.

I like the responsibilities and fast paced environment that go with the job but I have always wanted to work from home in the long term. I am also considering accountancy as once qualified it is quite common to work from home.

I am progressing well as a project manager and I know there is opportunity to earn good money in this position. I am not talking about working from home after 2 months as a project manager but rather working from home after 2-5 years having proved myself within the role. If it is unlikely to work from home as a project manager are there any other positions which you could work from home in having experience as a project manager? I also realise that work from home doesnt mean strictly working from home every day, I would expect to have to go into the office/visit customer a few days a week.

Are there any other project managers on here and if so, what advice can you offer?

I appreciate any help you guys can give me.

 

[liwenbingbag]

I'm a trading manager in a US company's China office. My job is mainly purchasing goods from China and delivering them to head company. Normally, I work from home and only visit some factories some times. I can handle it well, it's a good working way. I don't know what is your job responsibilities exactly?

 

[Astaroth]

Having been a business project manager for 7 years I would strongly argue that you could not do the job well from home. In all my time I have never known a single work from home IT Project Manager either.

The reality of project management is that a big element is about influencing/ motivating key resources/ stakeholders and you are massively more limited when your only contact with people is by telephone.

Now you can manage your diary so that you can possibly spend one or two days a week at home most weeks but at the same time you will also get times when you need to spend weeks away from home. I've already been in the US for a few weeks this year because video conferencing still doesn't give the level of personal touch or commitment that is necessary. Next year I am going to be in several countries in Europe for far too long for my tastes.

Now, of cause if your self employed and therefore contracting you can be more selective of which projects you take on to mitigate against the need to travel but the reality is that to get the £600+ per day rates the projects are often going to have an international element

 

[SusanBryant]

What is it that drives you to work from home? Is it working for yourself or the actual working from home? I work from home, daily, as it suits me and my family (I have 3 children under 5) but it is also rather isolating and can be a little lonely. There are obvious benefits to working from home when starting your own business - I'm just curious as to your determination!

Susan

 

[nkingy2003]

Having been a business project manager for 7 years I would strongly argue that you could not do the job well from home. In all my time I have never known a single work from home IT Project Manager either.

The reality of project management is that a big element is about influencing/ motivating key resources/ stakeholders and you are massively more limited when your only contact with people is by telephone.

Now you can manage your diary so that you can possibly spend one or two days a week at home most weeks but at the same time you will also get times when you need to spend weeks away from home. I've already been in the US for a few weeks this year because video conferencing still doesn't give the level of personal touch or commitment that is necessary. Next year I am going to be in several countries in Europe for far too long for my tastes.

Now, of cause if your self employed and therefore contracting you can be more selective of which projects you take on to mitigate against the need to travel but the reality is that to get the £600+ per day rates the projects are often going to have an international element

Thank you for your advice. Is it possible to go from being a project manager within manufacturing to a business project manager? What do you actually do? If you are a business project manager, what does a 'business project' actually entail? I am just curious as this is something I would be very interested in.

I have also ran my own business previously so I do have business experience.

I agree that project managing cant really be done from home easily as you only have contact through phone and email.

I would be interested to hear more about your experiences and your career.

 

[nkingy2003]

What is it that drives you to work from home? Is it working for yourself or the actual working from home? I work from home, daily, as it suits me and my family (I have 3 children under 5) but it is also rather isolating and can be a little lonely. There are obvious benefits to working from home when starting your own business - I'm just curious as to your determination!

Susan

Hi Susan.

My motivation for working from home is that I have also wanted to not let work overule my life. I do not enjoy the 'rat race' of getting up the same time every morning, going to the same place every day, etc. I realise that working from home doesnt mean you dont have to work but it does give you more freedom.

I ran my own vending business which was based at home. I worked from home the majority of the time as I had an employee to do the driving for me. I sold this business earlier this year and have since been looking for other work from home opportunities but there doesnt seem to be many at present.

What do you do from home if you dont mind me asking?

 

[Astaroth]

Thank you for your advice. Is it possible to go from being a project manager within manufacturing to a business project manager? What do you actually do? If you are a business project manager, what does a 'business project' actually entail? I am just curious as this is something I would be very interested in.

A business project can be anything from launching new products, redesigning processes, opening a new location, buying a new company, reacting to changes in legislation, tackling issues like customer retention etc etc

Depending on an organistations exact setup many of these projects include IT changes or production line changes and so the business PM leads the overall project but an IT PM looks over the IT aspect, an infrastructure PM looks over telephone lines etc etc

A big difference with business -v- IT is volume and percentage allocation you have of resources. So in a previous new product launch for an insurance product the IT PM had circa 10 people working for him all of which were 75-100% allocated to the project. As business PM I had a total of circa 60-70 people (marketing to create and manage adverts, compliance to sign things off, sales & service to create call scripts and do training, claims to do guidelines and training, underwriters to do T&Cs, pricing to do... pricing, finance to sign off business cases etc etc) but some I only needed a couple of days work from them over a few months and other than the business analysts I don't have anyone allocated for over 10% of their time for the duration of the project.

At the end of the day true project management should be independant of specialty as what you are a specialist at is delivering managed change. The reality is that experience in fields help and as you get more indepth knowledge the earlier you get engaged in projects and you also get treated more as a subject matter expert (though a very wide set of areas and not full depth of knowledge) during the initial engagement.

 

[nkingy2003]

So how would someone (me) go from being a project manager in a manufacturing role to a business project manager?

Obviously I would have to prove myself within my current position first. Would I then just start applying for business project manager positions? Im guessing as there would be a lot to learn in business management, especially coming from a manufacturing background, I would have to start as an assistant business project manager.

Are there any big companies that offer business project manager services?

Are you self employed or do you work for a company? I get the impression from your first post that you are self employed.

 

[Astaroth]

To be honest, job titles are fairly immaterial as if I remember them correctly in the right order mine have been:

Project Manager
Project Executive
Project Manager
Senior Project Manager
Senior Project Executive
Project Manager
Product Development Manager
Head of Product Development
Project Manager

My day rate/ salary has gone up with each role even though the seeming seniority from the job titles have jumped about.

As you become more senior but still hands on it becomes more difficult to switch industries/ roles. I would expect an experienced PM to know when to engage Compliance for example though not necessarily the exact mechanism as this will vary between organisations. If you are wanting to switch it is better to do it sooner rather than later.

There are certainly consultancies which hire large amounts of business project managers and likewise some consultancies that are purely about business change.

I have switched back and forth being an employee and being a contractor. Contracting is less common in business project compared to IT but unusually rates do go higher.