Now that I am doing the majority of work for my blog, brand, and business at home, I miss the days of having an actual office or decorative cubicle which allowed me to leave my house and mix and mingle with other coworkers. Working at home does have it’s advantages—I can choose to work in my jammies with my scarf on. I can eat my breakfast in front of my laptop and not worrying about anyone seeing me slurp the milk from my cereal. I can listen to my iPod as loud as I want and even do a mean air guitar (yeah, I like a little rock every now and then so sue me). But, sometimes, working in the home fort stifles my creative because I like to feed off others. The solution? Try a mobile office?
What is a mobile office you ask? The concept is pretty simple, and it has been made popular due to A-list bloggers such as Perez Hilton and other social media types. Supposedly, Perez began blogging on his Macbook while at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in L.A. He would see stars and wanna be stars and blog about them in the trendy cafe. It allowed him to have access to the dirt and be productive.
We don’t have a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf here in St. Louis, there are other alternatives such as Starbucks (now offering free wi-fi), Barnes and Noble, Northwest Coffee, Panera Bread, and a bevy of others. Getting out of the home office and plugging into a mobile environment such as the above mentioned places and bring a new vibe to your work. Seeing different people, interacting with others, even reading material offered in a bookstore environment can make a great idea even better. I am a people person so tapping into a mobile environment so appeals to me.
Coworking is also a viable source for office space on the go. In most coworking spaces, you can rent a desk space by the day, week, or month, with drop-in rates or a lease. There are also small offices you can rent for dedicated space as well for clients and meetings. And the cool thing about coworking is they usually have wifi services, fax, phones, receptionist, mailing address, and conference room space all at your disposal.
If the mobile office spaces I mentioned don’t appeal to you, you can choose your favorite eatery, coffee shop, or place (such as a park) and make it a mobile office by purchasing a USB hub that also acts as a Wifi connection. Verizon, AT&T, T-mobile, and Sprint all offer these devices. Your Blackberry can also act as a modem for your laptop. If you don’t know how to do this, click HERE.
Other than Internet access, all you need is your wireless phone to conduct business. Use a system like e-Fax to accept faxes while on the go as well. With those tools, you are a all-in-one mobile office!
At least once a week, I leave my home office and venture to a mobile environment in order to work. It keeps me sane and allows me to people watch and meet.
What do you think of nixing your home office for a mobile office?
I'm actually reading this from a mobile office – Starbucks. I work at home as well, and it is great to get a change of pace. What I find is that the people here during the day are regulars, and it becomes another place to network.
I love the idea of networking with others while working. Thanks for commenting.
This is actually my dream. Currently I still have a "day job" so I try to get MY work (blogging, writing, designing, etc.) done at home in the evenings. The problem I've been having lately (probably due to the heat, but probably also due to being tired) is that I end up falling asleep before I finish. I finally realized that I needed to switch things up. The other night, I stopped by one of my fave spots before coming home, set up my laptop and got to work. It was wonderful.
The reason I say that the mobile office concept is my dream is because I really have an aversion to the "you have to sit at the same desk around the same people every day to be effective" concept. I realize that, as you said, as long as I have my laptop & a cellphone, my work can be done pretty much anywhere. Unfortunately, I currently work for someone else (ugh!) and she has an "I have to know you're at your desk to make myself feel good" mentality. I would love to be able to work from home, or Starbucks or wherever I choose. Someday…
Yes, someday. Which may be sooner than you think. It will happen. 🙂
I live in a super small town, so it's kind of difficult to find a mobile office, but it's something I'd really like to start doing.
As much as I love working at home and having the peace and quiet, I do miss being around people sometimes. I think I'm going to start looking for places to go in nearby towns…
I am so glad you found my site and find it informative. I didn't see many sites dedicated to working mothers so I thought I would create one. Thanks for visiting! 🙂
Oops, that last comment was a mistake. My bad Yolanda! 🙁
I started working at a coworking facility when I realized that being around my dogs, the chores that needed to be done around the house, and the robin that insisted on pecking on the window under my office was slowly driving me insane.
I have to drive about 20 miles to get to the office, but love having lunch with like minded people and constantly meeting new people.
I also use some Starbucks and St. Louis Bread Co (Panera) as mobile offices. I find that being around other people helps to keep me on task.
Great tips!!
When you said mobile office, I thought you meant mobile! For a while, I had my laptop strapped into the passenger seat and it would read my eMail as I drove to visit clients. I was never able to get it to do the voice recognition (in the car) due to the ambient noise (and, no, I would never entertain driving slower).
But, I eventually gave that up, because it was too hard to remember which eMail needed my reply and which could be erased, without rereading them.
A mobile office might be nice for a change of pace. Working at home can definitely be isolating. Not sure it work on a regular basis though — working in a coffee shop would have too many distractions for me.