According to an Optus study released on Nov 21, Australians are now engaged to a business lifestyle dubbed as "Life Splicing".

"Life Splicing" means that business owners now prefer to do their work within the comforts of their home. The study revealed that business owners spend 13 hours per week working at the home office. This is equivalent to 17 weeks each year.

The study also showed that 65 per cent of small business owners like to start their work as soon as they get up from bed; 40 per cent said they do this at least one a week. The study also reveals that 68 per cent of Aussie businesses took its jumpstarts from home.

Hence, Optus saw this as an opportunity to launch flexible home wireless broadband plans for a successful juggle of work and home life for those working home based.

"Having the right setup is critical for business success particularly when juggling work and home life - no one wants a complicated and confusing broadband plan. That is why we've launched the My Office bundle plan, to give small business owners the freedom to choose broadband and telephony bundles that deliver flexibility and control without any nasty hidden fees or gotchas," Annie Mackin, Vice President of Fixed Marketing at Optus said.

But before officially launching its Home Wireless Broadband plans, Optus first started its three-month trial with its very own staff. The staff were given modem for home use for them to do work from home.

Optus' managing director for Fixed, Martin Mercer, is pioneering the trial.

"This Optus Home Wireless Broadband trial is about putting our powerful 4G Plus network through its paces to understand the full potential of what we can delivery for our customers - not just in mobile, but also home broadband," Mr Mercer said.

"This is not just in terms of speed and experience, but also how we manage our 4G Plus network to actively prevent a customer's connection changing, wavering or dropping off during busy times. If the trial is successful, Optus will be able to offer home broadband services across ADSL2+, Cable, NBN and Wireless - providing real choice for whatever circumstances suit our customers' needs."

Small business owners (78 per cent) that continuously run the business at home admit that working from home come with lots of frustrations - poor home tech set up (33 per cent), household chores and children (44 per cent), lack of office banter (32 per cent) and the inability to bounce ideas off others (23 per cent).

However, the Optus study also reveals significant advantages of working from home.

  • Avoiding the daily commute (67%)
  • Multi-tasking between home and work life (59%)
  • No office politics (55%)

Long-time "life splicer" Natalie Bloom, founder of Bloom Cosmetics, shared with Optus her successful experience of balancing home and business working home based.

"I started my business in 1993 from my parent's home. When I became a Mum 11 years ago, having a good home office with reliable technology was the key to me being able to maximise my time and juggle home and work life effectively. Fast forward to 2013, I now have four kids and blend working at home, in the office and on-the-go. While the blurred line between work and home life can be a blessing and a curse, having a functional home office allows for an improved career and home life flow."