3 Secrets to Turning Your Office Into The Anywhere Office – webinar replay & follow-up Q&A post

Late last year, I had the pleasure of presenting a webinar for Cisco where I shared my three secrets for turning your office into The Anywhere Office®. In the presentation I discussed how the world of work has changed and that whether you’re a freelancer, entrepreneur, telecommuter or remote worker, there are smart ways to work without an office.

In case you missed it – you can watch the replay of  3 Secrets to Turning Your Office Into The Anywhere Office®. In this webinar I share three secrets to mobilize your workstyle and make your business and projects more flexible. These simple steps will allow you to work wherever and whenever you want.

We had a lot of questions during the webinar and not all were answered, so I answered the bulk of them in a 2 part guest blog post I did for the WebEx blog. There were some excellent questions – here are the links so you can check it out:

The Anywhere Office: Collaborating While Working Remotely (Part 1)

In this post I answer these questions:

• How can you stay connected with workmates and interact with your team in a virtual office while avoiding feeling isolated?
• What is the best way to convince ‘old school’ management that this will better for yourself and the company?
• How do you keep the team spirit and consistency in the quality of work when everyone is working from home?
• How do you convince a customer to trust in remote management of his/her data?

If you’re currently a mobile worker, or you’re starting to get more involved with virtual teamwork and remote collaboration the tools and strategies I discuss in this Q&A will help. The key to success is embracing the change about what defines work and taking the time to really think about how business gets done.

So check out the webinar and part 1 and part 2 of my Q&A blogpost on the Webex blog.

If you have further questions, you can post them as comments below or over at the webex blog and I’ll answer them there.

3 Secrets to Turning Your Office Into The Anywhere Office – FREE Webinar

I’m excited to be hosting a free webinar with Cisco/Webex on November 17th titled “3 Secrets to Turning Your Office Into The Anywhere Office®“ as part of their No Office Required series.

Business as usual no longer involves working in a centralized office at set times. Whether you’re a freelancer, entrepreneur, telecommuter or remote worker, modern workflow is far more dynamic and individual. There are smart ways to work without an office.

As you know, as a reader of this blog, I’ve created a blueprint for virtual work that I call The Anywhere Office®. In this webinar I’ll shares three secrets to mobilize your workstyle and make your business and projects more flexible. These simple steps will allow you to work wherever and whenever you want.

I’ll show you how to:

• Make your work location independent
• Improve communication and keep people connected
• Manage a virtual team, distributed project group, or ebusiness across time and distance

This recent Cisco interactive infographic  serves as  a great visual representation of The Anywhere Office® concept I’ve been talking about for the last decade and will be discussing on this upcoming webinar. It shows the current and future state of workplace mobility. As Cisco states “Long commutes and being in an office at a certain time with limited flexibility is gradually becoming a thing of the past. The future will see an increase in workplace mobility creating the “anywhere office,” a place where employees can work anytime from anywhere.” By 2013, mobile workers will make up 35 percent of the worldwide workforce. While that leaves out over half of the global workforce, it shows us a new world of opportunity.  Are you shifting your business to “The Anywhere Office®?”

Who should attend

This webinar is perfect for anyone who must coordinate with co-workers, clients, vendors, or contractors across time and distance: project managers, program directors, team leaders, project coordinators, or anyone in a leadership role for a virtual team or distributed project group. This includes freelancers, entrepreneurs, telecommuters and remote workers.

Make sure to signup today and reserve your spot.  Even if you can’t make the live event you will be emailed a link to the recording so you can still benefit from all the tips and strategies I’ll be sharing.

I’m looking forward to a fun webinar and I hope to see you there!

Do You Know the Secrets for Getting Approval to Telecommute? Free Webinar & Interview

I had the pleasure of recently interviewing Pat Katepoo – a flexible work advisor and the founder of WorkOptions.com. Pat is the developer of a series of Flexible Work Proposal Packages which have equipped thousands of professionals to negotiate the flexible work arrangement they want.

On September 13, she’s presenting a free webinar called Telecommute Now! How to Get Fast Approval to Work from Home where she will be sharing secrets for the easiest way to ask for a flexible work arrangement and get your managers to say YES.

In our short interview Pat and I talk about:

• the importance of knowing how to negotiate the flexible work arrangement you want and how to ask with confidence.
• the different shapes and sizes of flexible work: including telecommuting, compressed workweek, part-time, and job sharing.
• the three-ingredient formula that gets managers to agree to a telework request — even where there are barriers. She also reveals a preview of two barriers that keep people from asking for a flexible work arrangement.

Listen to this 15 minute interview to learn more:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:50 — 13.6MB)

Pat’s expert advice on flexible work has been featured in several national publications including The Wall Street Journal, US News & World Report, and also on NBC Nightly News. I’ve been following Pat’s work in this space for the last 15 years and we first spoke many years ago when I was working on my book – Lose Your Commute. Read more

Small Business Tips for Disaster Preparedness from The Anywhere Office

With our first named storm bearing down this season (Hurricane Irene) and a recent earthquake in the Washington, DC area it’s the yearly wake-up call for small businesses to start thinking about business continuity and disaster preparedness. I prefer to talk about it from this perspective, ‘continuity’ and ‘preparedness’,  rather than “disaster recovery”. With a smart, flexible business structure in place, hopefully you won’t need much recovery.  Instead, you are fluid and can simply roll with whatever comes along.  If  you work in The Anywhere Office – you’re mobile and  can communicate and collaborate across time and distance. You can work where and when you need to – just like you do every day.

Not quite there yet?  That’s OK – you’re not alone – and we’ve got you covered!

Below are some useful disaster preparedness resources including websites, an episode of our radio show, a free business continuity teleseminar,  and some recommended tools to help you weather any storm.

AUDIO (Radio Show Archive):

Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail (Business Continuity in the Changing World of Work)
There are many potential obstacles that can interrupt a company’s ability to do business as usual: inclement weather, natural disasters, special events, transit strikes, and skyrocketing transportation costs just to name a few. In this episode from our radio show archive we took a look at the differences between business continuity and disaster recovery as well as some strategies and technology to help you and your organization prepare. Jason and I talk with Brian Donahoo of Citrix Online, makers of GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting, to explore how aspects of the digital lifestyle can address and overcome these obstacles. As the Zen proverb says . . . The obstacle is the path.

FREE TELESEMINAR:

Riding the Storm Out (Tips to develop a business continuity plan)
Consider this, almost 40% of small businesses that close due to a disaster event never re-open.

What would you do if the building your business is located within was damaged or destroyed in a disaster? Where would you go to continue providing your business services? Would you have the resources, databases, contact information and other necessary items to adapt to these changes? Read more

Mobile Printing with FedEx Office Print & Go (win a free test kit)

If you’re a mobile worker on the go, one of the challenges you’ve probably faced is how to print your documents when you’re on the move.  Maybe you’re on the road meeting with clients, or on your way to make a presentation, and need to get some handouts or a report printed.  Well here’s a solution – a great service I tested recently from FedEx Office called Print & Go. It lets you print from your mobile device or USB flash drive at more than 1600 FedEx Office locations. I was very impressed with how well it worked, so I want to explain what it does and how it works as I know for many of you it’s probably just what you have been looking for.

Let me start by letting you know, in the spirit of transparency, that I was contacted by the folks at FedEx as they were looking for bloggers in the mobile work space to review this new service.  They sent me a “test kit” which included a 512 MB USB flash drive pre-loaded with instructions on how to use the service and a $25 FedEx Office gift card to cover the cost of anything I chose to print with the service.  They also offered to provide a similar “test kit” for me to giveaway, so make sure you read to the end of this post to find out how you can enter to win.

With FedEx Print & Go you can print from your iPhone^®, BlackBerry^® smartphone,  Android^TM phone, or USB flash drive. I tested the service with my iPhone 4 as well as the USB flash drive they sent me.

Their service allows you to print to any of their self-service machines. What can you print you ask?

• Accepted file types include Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe PDF documents. (Update – the service now also supports JPG, TIF, and other image formats)
• To print other formats, or for binding and other finishing options, you can see a FedEx Office employee at the store.

To begin using FedEx Office Print & Go from your iPhone, BlackBerry smartphone, or Android device you first have to download the HP ePrint app.

I jumped to the Apple App store and downloaded the HP ePrint app. This app lets you do more than print to the FedEx Print and Go service.  It also lets you print to other public print locations as well as to wireless HP printers that support AirPrint.

The app wanted to use my current location to find nearby public print locations so I clicked OK.  It then asked me to create an account with my email address. I receive an activation code via email and enter into the app and clicked activate to complete the registration process. Read more

Catch my video chat with Dave and Brian on Freelance Jam

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of joining my friends Dave Yankowiak and Brian Casel on their awesome web video show Freelance Jam. Dave runs AnywhereMan.com and once we met on Twitter and chatted on Skype we knew we had a lot in common! The show is targetted toward independent professionals who build the web but anyone who runs a small business can learn a lot from their guests and discussions.

In this edition of the show we talked about things like how to build trust with clients you may never meet face to face, working in virtual teams, what effect technology has on the shift from employee to freelancer and the future of the “anywhere lifestyle” – being able to do the work where and when you want. Read more

5 Tips for Clearing Digital Clutter – A Zen Approach

Cloud computing, smart phones, and technology truly allow you to have The Anywhere Office: the ability to get work done and be productive anywhere has brought untold flexibility to mobile professionals and web workers today.

This mobility and anywhere access has caused the lines to blur between our work and personal lives. For most entrepreneurs and small business owners, the two are forever intermingled. If done right, mobile work should be empowering: providing you more freedom and flexibility than you ever imagined as you easily manage the shifting flow of tasks, responsibilities, and communication that are part of your daily life.

But it’s easy to let the technology, and our work, start to take over and demand more and more of our time.

I discovered that in today’s eBusiness world, pure “work/life balance” doesn’t seem to work (at least not for me). What seems a better, more dynamic, fit is a zen-like approach which aims for “work/life integration” instead. This quote called “Master the Art of Living” sums it up.

So how do you do it?  How do you handle the demands of today’s fast paced, 24/7 business environment, along with all of the commitments and enterprises in your personal and family life?

Here are my top 5 tips for a zen approach to mobile work. They will help you achieve “work/life integration,” and ensure that technology is your tool and not your master.

Know how your technology works. Turn off audible or visible notifications so they don’t provide unnecessary interruptions when you are not working or need single-minded focus on a particular project or task.

Setup clear communication guidelines. Make sure everyone knows what is expected of them with regard to accessibility. These include prioritizing communication channels and determining expected turnaround times for different modes of communication (ie. 3 hours for emails, 1 hour for voice mail).

Centralize email and social media messages. Find ways to filter these messages into as few programs as possible so you can easily and quickly check and reply to them without feeling overwhelmed by too many systems.

Consolidate Technology. Find one tool that can serve multiple purposes. Smartphones and tablets can take the place of many devices such as point and shoot cameras, video cameras, laptops, voice recorders, and more. Finding ways to consolidate several tools, and information, into one device lets you travel lighter and stop wasting time switching between multiple platforms or programs.

Unplug and Turn off. Just because you can work from any place at any time doesn’t mean you should. These tools have an off switch – use it! Give projects their proper focus and attention. And don’t be so distracted that you fail to stay present with family and friends.

Following these simple steps will help you navigate the flow of digital information in your life.

Do you have a great tips or suggestion for clearing digital clutter?  Don’t keep it a secret! Post a comment below and share it with the rest of the tribe here on The Anywhere Office.

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