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If you think you have an interesting "Today's Woman" topic, you can contact Candice at cmadsen@ksl.com. A lot of parents would love to find a job that allows them to be home with their children. One Utah woman has done just that.
Kristi Hilbert owns Visioncorp., a company that provides technical writing and documentation to high-tech firms across the state. She began her career at Novell and expected to give it up to become a stay-at-home mom, but then she found a way to stay home and keep her career.
Like most days, Kristi Gilbert is enjoying breakfast with her family before she starts work. But instead of driving to the office, Kristi only has to walk down the hall.
She says, "For me, it's the only way I could balance a professional career and then being a mom. I wanted to be here for them."
Kristi began her career as a technical writer at Novell. She said she intended to be a full-time mom after working for the company, but Novell still needed her writing skills. So she started doing contract work from home and, through word of mouth, found herself more clients than she could handle. "So then I started contracting and looking for other writers, and it's just gradually grown over the years," Kristi said.
She now has a team of instructional designers, technical writers, graphic artists and desktop publishers, who all work from home.
Utah Business magazine recently recognized Kristi's success by selecting her as a "Woman to Watch." She said, "You don't have to be in the office, always available to people all the time, to provide better services to a company."
Kristi isn't the only one in her family working from home. A year ago, her husband, Joseph, set up his own international consulting business out of their house. He said, "It's very nice to see your kids growing up, not to miss out."
The Gilberts admit it can get pretty hectic juggling a family and two separate careers out of the same house, but they say it's definitely worth it because they get to be home with the three people who matter most. Kristi said it's the best of all possible worlds.
About 15 percent of the U.S. labor force now works from home, and, according to a Gartner Group survey, telecommuters are 40 percent more productive than their office-based counterparts.
