HAVE OFFICE…WILL TRAVEL
These days, it seems that the lighter on your feet you are the better. Since breaking out on my own back in January, the only fixed asset investments I’ve made have been of the mobile/portable variety. A new iPhone 4, a portable wireless printer, a fancy ‘WiFi anywhere’ apparatus, & a new mountain/road Cannondale hybrid! Well, OK, I’ll concede that last purchase to be just as much for personal use as professional…but you get the gist. The long and short of it, adopting the mantra ‘local to anywhere’ has been almost essential. And with the major Northeast Corridor markets of DC to NYC only a hop, skip, & jump away, it’s a nice luxury to settle in behind the wheel of a 6-cylinder/4WD office, and be on site within 2-3 hours time.
What’s being left in the rear view are the days of ‘tethered to the desk’ infrastructure, replaced instead with a sort of lily pad to lily pad approach. Hopping from one WiFi hotspot to the next is common, and almost assumed. Kudos to Barnes & Noble, for their (albeit delayed) decision to do away with the pay to play internet access. Instead, they’ve opted to join the ranks of the Panera Breads & Starbucks of the world by allowing all customers to use their in-house WiFi free of charge. And I hear they even sell books there as well!
These days it’s easier than ever to stay ‘connected’, and the modern mobile freelancer can keep tabs on his/her world from just about anywhere…sorta gives the notion of being tied up at the office a whole new meaning!
