No Fixed Office

While you may not have thought a lot about the bag that you use to carry your equipment. It can be a very important consideration especially if you are going to be moving around with your portable office a lot.

If you do have the full portable office, including a laptop, potable printer, portable projector, and extended battery’s or solar panels.  You can have quite a full carry bag. So looking for a bag that can carry all of these items, without causing you to many problems can at times be a challenge. There are a number of points to look at

• Store Everything – It is well worth knowing exactly what you are going to be taking with you before purchasing a bag. It is not a great idea to go and buy a bag to carry your laptop specifically without paying thought to the portable printer you are also going to need frequently.
• Easy to Carry – While if you do have a full featured portable office, you may not always be carrying your bag, but taking it into consideration is important. At times you may even only need to lift it out of the car or up and down stairs, but the way this is done can be an important consideration.
• Wheels – As opposed to carrying your bag for your portable office, you may prefer to be able to pull it along, on wheels of course. Take a close look at the wheels, to be sure they are going to be able to handle frequent use and in your opinion be able to last based on what you expect to be carrying around with you.
• Ability to secure – As a mobile worker, there is a chance that you are going to be traveling. Being able to secure your laptop, and other accessories when traveling is important. While you may not be able to avoid someone taking your bag, the ability to stop people from getting into your bag is something you will want to look at. Zips with the ability put in a padlock, or security seal of sorts.

When i went looking for a carry bag for my portable office, i made the move to actually look at small luggage or over night bags. Some are designed as a split laptop/overnight luggage bag, however this is easy to just use entirely for your office. So don’t think that you have to buy the carry bag that the sales guy is trying to sell you when you buy your laptop, take a look at other stores such as travel good and bag stores. You may be surprised at versatile some bags can be.

For anyone that has had to make presentations as part of their business be it sales, training or any other sort of presentation, you will probably appreciate the need for a projector to make your presentation. For quite some time this has meant lugging around a fairly chunky projector, which is honestly still an options.

There are really two considerations when it comes to selecting a projector for your business. Cost and portability. This choice is very much dependent upon what you need to display, to how many people, and the time you have available to set up prior to a presentation. Let’s consider some of these choices for a moment though.

• Cost – Projector’s do have a very wide range of price. They can really vary anything from under $1,000 to tens of thousands of dollars. Depending on the specifications and requirements you have.
• Portability – The ability to move a projector around can be a key buying decision, there is no point in buying a very high end projector, with high level features as they will often be larger and bulkier and not really designed to be moved around. On the other hand there are a number of small and portable models which are more then suitable for many indoor situations.
• What you are displaying – Displaying a presentation using powerpoint slides, is quite different to displaying a live video, while often you may be able to display both on the same projector, it is quite possible to get better results from spending a little more for video, but this is probably going to be marginal, and will be more dependent on the next few points.
• How many people need to see – The visibility of an image from a projector over distance, can vary depending upon many factor’s aside from the projector itself. However a low end projector is probably not going to be suitable for displaying to an auditorium with thousands of people in. Where as a high end projector, may be a little to much for using in a boardroom presenting to a dozen people. So matching the needs of the projector to the audience size is a consideration.
• The Lighting Conditions – Different projector’s have different brightness ability. This is usually defined in Lumens(or ANSI). The higher the Lumen’s the better the projector will perform in even well lit environments. This can have a dramatic impact on the cost at times, so while a 1200 ANSI projector may work ok for an office or boardroom situation, it may be ineffective in a better lit environment or outdoors.
• Set-up time – This should be a consideration, if you have to spend half an hour unpacking your equipment and setting it up, with alignment, and such, this may be to much time. Sometimes half an hour is all you have to setup present and be done.

While these are all considerations that you may like to make when you are purchasing a projector. If you know that you are going to be doing a lot of indoor presenting, then you may like to take a look at a very small and very portable projector like the AIPTEK PocketCinema V10. Which is pretty much a handheld projector. It is small, light and can project up to 42″ which is well probably more then enough for business sales presentations.

So now with any luck making the decision when buying a projector may be a little easier, or at leas you may be little more informed on some of the considerations that you need to make.

It is almost inevitable, that when you make that move from having an office to No Fixed Office, there is a need for a way to communicate. While you have maybe used you mobile Phone for some time. You will now be using it more than ever.

To some extent being mobile and having a mobile number as your primary number can make it appear that you are more easily contactable. So it can be a benefit in that respect. However on the negative side, there is also the possibility that people will be wary of your not having a fixed business line (this could be overcome with 1800 or other type of number which is a free call or lower rate call which just directs to your mobile, if available in your area).

There are a number of options which you can choose from when it comes to a mobile phone, so lets take a look.

• Mobile Phone – A straight standard mobile phone, is the most simplest means to make contact for you. Going this route means not really worrying about any features beyond being able to accept and make phone calls. This will be a fairly minimal cost, and makes things relatively simple.
• Mobile Phone with extra features – There are a number of features that can be of benefit to you as a business owner in a mobile phone. Some can be more benefit then others. Things like a Camera, Internet Access, ability to run other applications, can make your phone a more useful tool for you.
• Smart Phone – Effectively a smart phone is a PDA (Personal Digital Assistance) and a Mobile Phone merged into the one device. These type of devices normally give many more features, and allow use of a wider range of programs. Many include Word and Excel or equivalent, along with a range of other useful tools.

While there are probably any number of other variation’s, these are the main options you have. Making the choice is often not hard as you often tend to make the choice by just using the mobile phone that you already own.

So really the choice comes down to what you want to be able to use your phone for. If you want something that all you need to do is make phone calls, then any phone will do. If you want the additional features of a smart phone you will be spending more money, but if you will use the features this can be money well spent.

A final option that you may like to consider as opposed to a smart phone may be to make use of an existing or a new mobile phone, and purchase a PDA. This can be a benefit if you do not like to rely on a single device for everything. As with any all in one device if one function stops working and needs to be repaired you loose all functions until you get it back from repair, so it can be a benefit to split devices with different functionality.

Being able to communicate with your clients is a very important part of you business and this is one are that you should not look to avoid spending a little extra. As buying an inferior product can easily lead to your business being dramatically affected by having no way for clients to contact you.

If you are planning to be running your business pretty much entirely when you are on the move. Then a portable printer is almost an essential tool. While the idea of a paperless office has been floating around for sometime. There are still a few times when you really do need the hard copy paper version of a document.

Choosing a portable printer is in some cases a very closed decision as there is not very many options. So more of the decision comes down to if you really do need one or not. In fact the choice of printer at this point comes down to either a HP or a Canon. So What are the models

• HP Officejet H470 – This printer can print up to 22 pages per minute in black and 18 pages per minute in colour. With a weight of 2.27kg, it can add a little weight to your office, and operates on a rechargeable battery which can print up to 480pages. At time of writing this model is priced at $549.00 (Australian Dollars)**
• Canon iP100 – This printer can print up to 20 pages per minute in black and 14 pages per minute in colour. With a weight of 2.0kg, a little lighter than the HP model, and also operates on a rechargeable battery which can print up to 290pages. At time of writing this model is priced at $449.00 (Australian Dollars)**

At this point these are the only two real contenders which i have been able to find for a portable printer. So while there is only two choices for which printer to buy. The primary choice then comes down to do you need one. Well lets take a look at what you can use one for.

• Invoices – Printing invoices is possibly something that you do a lot less of now. However there are still times when a printed invoice is needed. This need can vary from business to business, so it would be worth considering if it is something that you will use enough to justify the price.
• Information - There are many times when being able to print out an information page for a client can be really handy. It can create a more professional look, then just saying you will email it. This can also be useful to help a client make a more informed decision on the spot.
• Letters – If you send letters to clients, rather then emails. You need to be able to print them somehow, and while having a printer at home can do the trick. If you need a printer for any of the other items mentioned here, why not just go for a portable printer instead.
• Quotes – There is nothing like putting together a list of requirements and recommending a product or number of product to a client and being able to print up a quote on the spot. Can be powerful to motivate the client to make a decision, without having to wait to receive the quote via email later that day.

As you can see there are a number of reasons why you may need a portable printer, and if you need the printer for any of these is primarily what your choice is going to come down to. So spend a little while and consider what you exactly are going to need to print within your business, and if this could be done easier, quicker or more efficiently with a portable printer.

The decision to work with No Fixed Office, often means that you need to rethink the equipment that you use. Almost the first thing that it is almost impossible to get by without changing is your computer. If you are using a desktop computer now, there is little chance it is going to be overly portable, and as such if you want to actually be working anywhere but where that computer is, then you need to make the move to a laptop.

While there may be some occasions where a computer is not really needed, by far the bulk of what you may need to do on a day to day basis for your business may require a computer. Choosing a laptop is not always the easiest choice to make though, there are a number of different factors which you need to take into account when making a decision.

Netbook vs laptop

Choosing a netbook or a laptop over the other can be a confusing task. There are really 2 major differences. When you are looking at netbooks the specifications (such as processor, ram and hard drive) will likely differ little. Where as with notebooks there can be quite a large difference in specifications. The other primary difference is that netbooks rarely if ever come with a CD/DVD drive, this can mean an added cost or you may find that this is not overly important.

You will find another separation between netbooks and laptops in the weight and battery life. Netbooks will often be designed for being more portable, as in lighter weight, and to operate for extended periods on battery. This can provide quite a benefit, if you are looking for the ability take them anywhere and work for longer.

Battery Life

Getting the most out of the battery is an important factor if you are planning to be working away from a fixed location often. There is not always easy access to a power point, and looking at other options can start to add quickly to the cost of your portable office and the weight that you are going to be carrying around.

Expected battery life can range anywhere from 60 minutes up to 11 hours. All dependent on the model of the laptop and the size of the battery provided. While some models give information about the expected battery life this is often not something that is easy to determine, and can vary a lot. It can be worth looking for a model that at least gives some information in regards to the battery life.

Screen Size

The screen size of a laptop can be very important for a number of reasons. First you need to establish just what you are planning to do with the laptop. There is no doubt that bigger is usually better, and for a number of different tasks, like web and graphic design, CAD, and a number of others a big screen is almost essential. Where as other uses you may be able to get away with a smaller screen size if you are happy to do so.

Weight

Like the battery life, the weight of a laptop can vary greatly. From as little as 1.3kg up to 4kg+. The actual weight of the laptop will depend a lot on the size of the screen, with smaller screen sizes generally offering lighter options, and larger screen sizes getting heavier. The reason behind this lies in the footprint of a laptop. There needs to be more consideration made to using smaller and lighter parts for smaller screens, because of the smaller amount of space, where this becomes less concerning on the larger screen sizes.

Extra Features

The additional features that you may want to look at can be of great benefit. For example looking for a laptop with Bluetooth can give you a much great range for devices to use, such as Bluetooth cordless mouse, which would not require a dongle to connect to the laptop. Things like card readers, HDMI, and other connectors can all add to the ability to use your laptop in a much more productive way then if you dont have them available.

Looks

Many vendors are making a number of different models now that have a much more interesting and unique look to them. While the looks of a laptop can go a long way towards catching you attention, this should probably not be one of the main focal points in making your decision. Especially if you are sacrificing a feature or two to be able to have a different look.

Overall you should be looking for a laptop that provides the complete range of features you need. While taking into account the time you need to use the laptop in respect to the potential battery life. Finally don’t forget the consideration for the weight. You will soon get tired of carrying around a 4kg laptop, if you did want to go for the larger screen.So make your choice wisely and hopefully a little better informed.

Technology is one of those things that is always evolving, and inevitably changing. As such the products and technologies that you have available to you as a business owner with No Fixed Office, are always changing. Being able to maximize your ability to use these products that are available can be a key part of your ability to grow your business.

To help you make more sense of all the different options and technologies that you have available to you over the coming 3 to 4 weeks  i will be making available a number of articles on the topics below. Initially i will give you a base to work on what you may need and what you may not need, as well as helping you get an idea of just what is available in each category. Once we have established this base, I will start to help you get a little more in depth by taking a closer look at specific products and technologies and just how they will best suit your business.

So the question is, I suppose what area’s can you expect to see discussed in this series.

• Laptops – The most obvious choice for someone with No Fixed Office, they are portable and offer pretty much the same features as desktop computers. Things that we will look at include the base requirements, and how to differentiate the specifications you need from the ones you would like.
• Printers – While it would be nice to work with the paperless office, especially when you have No Fixed Office, however there are some things that you cannot get by without a printer. There are two questions to be answered here, Do you need one? and Which is the best option for you?
• Smart Phone/PDA – Having a device to communicate with is pretty much essential for you with No Fixed Office. However choosing the best option can be a little more challenging. Do you go with a Mobile Phone, a PDA or Smart Phone, or even multiple devices.
• Power Options – When you are on the road or away from a fixed location for any length of time, you can quickly learn just how short the life of a battery can be. However there are options to keep you up and running without having to find a power point every couple of hours. From Solar to Extended Battery’s What are your options
• Portable Projector – Making presentations to clients from a small laptop screen can be hard, however for a long time it is has not been practical to carry a data projector. However these devices are getting smaller and smaller and some even pocket size options. But which will suit your needs.
• The Carry Bag – Being able to carry all your equipment, especially if you have a Laptop, Printer, Projector and other accessories, can mean finding the right carry bag is not easy. However with any luck I may be able to help you with this.

As you can see there is a lot of information that we will cover in this series of posts, and this will only become even more when we start to expand on some of these topics later on. Please enjoy the series and share your comments or requests below.