When it came to mobile phone access. I found that I really did not need anything special with one exception. Just having my Australian Mobile on international roaming was really all I needed. What the main thing I had to remember was that it did cost more to use. Which really is not a difficult thing to do. All up for the 5 weeks I think it came in at something around $20, as I was able to avoid making or receiving phone calls while overseas. The primary use for this mobile was SMS messages, even at a cost of 75 cents this was not overaly expensive.

The one exception where I did need a phone really was in Las Vegas. As I was attending a workshop here and needed to get in touch with people, for group meet-up’s and such having a phone here was it seemed essential. Due to the cost of my Australian Mobile and it being locked to the provider, i figure it would not be a problem to buy a phone. This is where I was right, You can literally buy a phone in the US relatively cheaply, as long as you do not expect anything to outstanding in the phone you will be happy enough. $20 got me a phone which included $15 credit on the phone, and I added another $25 to this.

When it came to internet access this was a whole other story though. This was a much more expensive area then I imagined. While I had really wanted to find hotels which included the internet access, this was not really that easy to do, with only one of the hotels I stayed in having free Wifi internet access. Costs and ease of access did vary from city to city though.For the majority of stops the primary option was $14 a night in the hotel, or the equivalent in local Currency.

While I did attempt to avoid the expensive option in hotels I did need to make use of it on a number of nights. One night in Vancouver more so for convenience and 2 nights in Hong Kong. This was not really a big issue, as for the most part I was able to find alternatives to get me through. InVancouver this came down to making use of Starbucks free wifi. In Las Vegas it was again to find a cafe which offered free wifi. Both of these options just meant simply buying a coffee or something. In England was potentially the best option which was where I choose to stay in Travelodge hotels. Being that this was a 7 day stop, even though I was at different hotels each night, I was able to sign up for a 7 day account for 20 British Pounds, which got me access to the internet at every over night stop.

At the end of the day it did come down to working a little harder on getting access and maintaining access, however I did manage to post a update on my blog www.joelbrown.com.au pretty much every day with exception on the days around the workshop I attended. So I would in general call this a success.

I suppose the best place to start is with the obvious example. Would you go to a Dentist to do your accounting, or would you go to a Financial Planner with a broken arm. Of course you wouldn’t you would go to an Account for your accounting needs, and you would go to a Hospital with Doctors, for a broken arm. So the next question which begs asking is, who do you go to for business advice? Everyone will often have an answer here, however is it a suitable answer, take a look at some of the possible answers and see if it fits.

• Family and Friends – If you answered with Family and Friends, then you are potentially getting you advice from the wrong place. The reason often lands to emotions, and a will to protect you. Often the advice that you will get from family and friends is advice that will to some extent help you to justify taking the risk is a bad idea, or may be advice based on an opinion or view that may not be completely valid in a business sense. There is however one exception, and that is if your family or friends are running a successful business them selves.
• People at Work – Especially if you are thinking about starting a business and you are still working in a job, you will often find that the advice you get from people at work will also be placed in the wrong area. Often their thoughts will be on not wanting you to succeed while they are still stuck in a job. Or even sometimes thinking how if you start a business and succeed they will have to do more work because you are not there any more. So you may find plenty of negative stories or advice coming from people you work with.

Both of these area’s are where you probably do not want to be getting advice, and of course there are always exceptions to the rule. However before listening to anyone in these area’s give advice look at what gives them the credibility to provide that advice and what if any motive they have in giving the advice. It may not always be the easiest thing to see, however it can save you a lot of grief down the road. Now I don’t want this post to be completely negative, so here are some suggestions on more positive places to get business advice.

• Find a successful Mentor – There are a lot of successful people in business, of these people that are successful in business, there are any number of them that are happy to give a little advice.If you can find two or three, that you can talk to for a little while. While you still need to take all advice you get with consideration to your own circumstances, often advice you get in this manner can be much more powerful and useful.
• A Business Coach – While there is a potential to get some good free advice, at some point you often find to get the help that you really need, you may just have to pay for it. Possibly the most difficult part of finding a business coach will be finding one that you will be able to work with. On an ongoing basis your business coach will be on the most important business relationships that you have. As such two things to keep in mind are they someone that you feel comfortable working with? and Do they have the experience or knowledge to help you lead your business in the direction you want to take it?
• Other Advisers – The fact is that no one person knows every tiny detail of business expertly. This is why there are so many different areas of specialty, so that people can focus on the one area that they know best. Finding the range of people that can provide this different functions will of course depend on your business and your own skills, however some will include, Accountant, Solicitor and Bank Manager. As well as consultants in different areas such as marketing, import/export and construction, just to name a few.

Whatever the path you eventually choose to gain your advice, just be sure the question the validity and reason for any advice you may be getting. Especially if it is given to you without being requested and most important confirm the advice is being given in good nature to help you rather then hinder you. But possibly the most important part of advice it self is learning what it is you need to listen to and what you should ignore, if you can learn this skill properly you can start to listen to all advice and be able to discard that which is of no use.

While rude customers can happen in many forms, and in many different type of interactions with many different businesses. the main focus i want to deal with today is rude clients within your business providing a service as a consultant or contractor. This is where you can have a lot more control over the situation and there are more steps often involved that you can put to use to help you to avoid rude clients. Where as in an environment like a retail store, the interaction can happen quite quickly, and the rudeness displayed by customers cannot always be directly altered, as it is not always a result of you or your store.

One of the first things that you need to remember, when you come up against a rude client is “Don’t take it personally!” What it comes down to is the reason they are being rude may have nothing to do with you at all. It could just be a side effect of something else either in their personal or business life. By taking it personally and acting accordingly, you my just be making a bad situation even worse. One of the best things you can do at this point is to just listen.

The second thing to remember is possibly more something you need to do before it even gets to the pointof the customer being rude. It basically comes down to being sure before you begin a project that you are both on the same page. There are a number of ways that you can do this.

• The first point is a little repeition, but you basically need to be sure that you are listening to the requirements. If you do not hear what the customer wants how can you expect to deliver the correct result.
• The second point should be seen as part of the listening, and that is taking as many notes as you need, to be sure that you will understand the requirements.
• The third step is possibly the most important, at this point you need to review your notes, and clarify your understand of what you have heard, and what you have made notes on with the client to ensure that you are understanding it in the same way they are explaining it.
• Finally create the contract for the consulting/contracting work around this brief. Look to set things like milestones, and clear points of everything that you see as being involved. This can make it a little easier for you both to see clear boundaries within your relationship, and understand what both of your expectations are.

Your finalstep if you can see the potential of a rude customer before you even start doing business is to basically just not take the job. If you can see the making’s of a rude customer even before you start working with them, there is often little chance that you are going to be able to change this. So while you may be thinking that the you need the work and you can change the client, the chances are slim that you will be able to change them enough, and if you find yourself getting stressed over rude customers, then is it really worth that stress just to get a job you may not even make money on trying to solve all the problems of a rude customer.

Interacting with your customers is often one of the most important part’s of your business, and one of the parts that makes the difference between repeat customers or not. It can also make the difference between how well you connect with a client, there is a definite difference between an email communication a phone call and a face to face meeting.

Meeting new clients can also be much easier when you make contact in a direct person to person instance. So you may be asking if i do not have an office how do i meet these new clients in person. There are a couple of ways.

• Join local groups – Things like the Chamber of commerce, or Toastmasters, may have people or businesses within your potential target market as members. Attending or joining these sort of groups are ways to meet new potential customers.
• Attend Networking events – These are events purely designed to connect people, so attending these events may again have people that are within you potential market attending as well.
• Tell everyone you meet – When you meet people have a fairly specific definition of what you do ready to share. Don’t drone on to long, but something that gets interest and lets them know what you do, in around 30 seconds, may gain you interest. Just don’t forget your business card.
• Create your own events – It will take work, and require some extra effort, but you can create your own networking event or local business group and create a network of contact not just for yourself, but for the other members or attendees that you get along.

They may be fairly simple idea’s and they may be the same sort of things you have thought about doing, but it really comes down to the pure fact thinking about it, does not solve anything. You need to get out and actually do these things, for them to benefit your business.

In reality what this has meant is that i have been slowed down on many fronts. I have not done a lot of writing for my blog, as this i usually do away from home. Without decent connectivity, it literally does take me a few minutes just to connect to my blog, log in and got to the page to write a post. Which is what i have accepted as having to do today, to make this post. However Then writing is not so bad, except that you then also have to contest with ensuring that you copy it to a document elsewhere before you publish or save the draft, as it seems you get a lot more page cannot be loaded errors.

Creating connections with people is something that has also suffered as well, as i have found that the time to load and navigate sites like twitter, takes time as well. It can take up to a minute to change between the main feed and the @ replies. Posting sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.

I have been able to fall back a little to a project that i am working on. Which is a report, which i am about 50% done in creating the content. However this only the beginning of potential problems as, if this issue isn’t resolved soon, then it is going to impact more heavily on these area’s. My creativity is more open when out to work, which means i have to use my Mobile Broadband for internet access. Mostly due to less distractions i believe.

I am hoping that this is fixed soon, but if not i suppose i will just have to work to find ways around this inconvenience, and if not for a contract i would potentially look for another provider for my Mobile Broadband.

1. Fixed Phone – While having a fixed phone without having a fixed office is possible (a second phone line at home) it can still be achieved without really having a fixed phone. A 1300 or 13 number could be connected to a mobile phone line, or a VOIP option could be setup via a home based internet connection, or mobile internet if you use it.

2. Mobile Phone – Using a mobile phone for a business number can have advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is that it makes you appear more contactable to people as mobiles are often seen as being something that you always have with you. In comparison though, a mobile number can be seen as not as permanent, for the same reason, because it is so easy to get a new mobile number with a prepaid phone.

3. SMS – Not something that is overly common, however it is another option that many people are comfortable with using. Depending on the business and the way you present this contact method, an automatic response, or manual response could be set up.

4. Email – With many of the latest mobile phone’s email access is better then ever, so really there is no excuse not to have email. Even if you do not use email via your phone, you need to have it there available for people to contact you. If you don’t have email already get an account that matches your website, (eg. yourname@yourbusiness.com.au). If you have a website it is essentially very easy to have your own email address with the same address.

5. Fax – For the most part email has taken over from the fax machine. However many people do still use fax machines for sending orders. So while you may have your business setup for entirely email based contact, you can never discount the potential need of your customer to be able to contact you how they are use to.

6. Web based chat facility – Because you are working with no fixed office, you may find that it is hard to do the regular sales things. Like responding to potential customer questions when they are browsing, or just talking about the product options. There are a number of options available for chat systems that can be built right into your website, which will enable your potential customer to contact you live and ask a question or request other details. These can be a powerful presales tool, but can take a little bit to get working optimally.

7. Web based contact form – While you are more then likely going to have your email address on your website, it is good to also include a contact form which can be filled out and submitted from your website. While the difference in time to send an email and fill in this form may seem minimal, having both options just makes it appear easier to get in touch.

Whether you are using any or all of the above, or maybe even some other options, you need to ensure that they are visible as often as possible, on your website, your business card, and your marketing materials. If they cannot be found then it does not really matter how many options you have, people still will not contact you.

To combat this potential problem, more and more people are turning to alternative means of communication. Options like social networking sites, chat applications and other types of websites and applications that help enable communication. Sites like Twitter, can help with small quick updates, and linkedin can help with connecting you with business associates worldwide, while still sites like facebook can help to allow connecting to a higher level in chat, updates, and messaging.

The primary advantage in using these sites over things like email, or telephone, is especially when covering multiple time zones, you can have more flexibility. Often email is harder to access, while you can share a real time conversation on twitter or facebook, reply from multiple devices, such as phones, PDA’s, internet cafe’s and some others. Which is really what makes communicating with these types of sites makes it easier to connect then email.

TWITTER – Good for quick updates, maybe project updates, with your team. Private is available so that only the choosen people (eg collegues or team members) can see what you are updating.

FACEBOOK – While twitter is a good option, you are limited to the length of your message, where facebook allows you to send messages between multiple people, and keeps things in a time line order, additionally a chat option is available, which can immediately show who is online and who isn’t.

If you do happen to want to expand your communication but don’t want to add large amounts to your phone bill calling around the world. An option my be Skype, or other similar VOIP calling software. This lets you connect via phone over an internet connection to anyone with the same connection for free, or with a standard phone service for a small fee, often much lower then a standard phone service.