1. Telecommuting Saves Money. Truly.

Companies have the potential to benefit financially in a number of ways from supporting telecommuters. First, fewer people in the corporate office means companies save money on such expenses as rent, furniture and facilities maintenance.

Second, companies open to hiring remote workers benefit from wider — and potentially cheaper — pools of applicants. They can hire qualified workers without regard to their geographic location. For example, a Sydney-based company might find a top-notch programmer to telecommute from Hobart for far less than the company would pay a local developer confronting Sydney-area housing costs.

This "more diverse pool of applicants" includes disabled citizens, 70 percent of whom are unemployed, primarily due to the lack of accessible transportation to the workplace, especially in rural areas, according to Ed Dodds, a systems architecture consultant, who telecommutes for several different companies that have retained his services. "Working from home offices outfitted with assistive technologies via broadband and VPN 'virtually' eliminates this barrier," he says.