Floating Office:
The Boat as a Home Office
I work for a
GREAT company. I show up to my desk every
morning wearing my skivvies and a tee-shirt. I don't
have to shave, my hair is often a mess, and I can have a
smoke at my desk whenever I please. These transgressions are
overlooked for the simple reason that I work from home and
my employer can't see the way I look. In their minds,
I'm probably dressed in that wool suit I wore to the
interview. Heh, heh!
My boss also
works from home (and, whom, I suspect, also doesn't shave
every single day and wears tee-shirts and shorts at
work...but his hair is never a mess because he's bald).
So it is, among us work-from-home types. I talk with
customers and prospects all over the country every day.
Because the telephone only has sound capabilities, nobody's
the wiser that I'm not clean-shaven and wearing a suit
behind some antique oak desk stuffed away into a windowless
office somewhere in a high-rise building. Working from
the boat is just friggin' cool!
This section
will explain a few tricks I've learned over the years in
dealing with my job aboard a floating office.
Business Cards
My business
card reads as follows:
Robert Doty
Pearson NCS
c/o Ortega River Boat Yard
4451 Jacksonville, Florida
32210
(904) XXX-YYYY
(904) XXX-YYYY (fax)
Sorry, I'm
not going to post my real telephone number all over the
Internet. ;-) The point is that most people look
at my card (I do travel a lot for my job and have to make
myself presentable) and they ask, "Boat yard? Do you live on a
boat?" When I answer in the affirmative, the response
is almost always, "I've always dreamed of doing that!" or
"My cousin lives on a boat!" or "I love to sail, can I crew
on your boat?"
I have found
my lifestyle to be a fool-proof ice-breaker. I'm truly amazed
by the percentage of potential business partners I've met
who have dreamed of sailing away into the sunset. So
why not spend fifteen minutes talking about the lifestyle?
It will get you closer to your customer...and that can only
result in good things for both parties.
So, my
suggestion is to not hide your lifestyle. Don't feel
like you must remain "in the hanging locker" about
your lifestyle. Tell the world
that you live and work from your boat! Trust me when I
say that it will open doors that were previously shut!
Liveaboard Pride, man! Liveaboard Pride!
Advertise! Advertise! Rah, Rah, Rah!
Computer Equipment
Like many
people, I earn a living from my knowledge of computers and
how they can change the way business is conducted (usually in a
positive manner). Since I was twelve years old, I've
always had one or more computers at my disposal. What
can I say? I'm a geek! Currently, I have two
computers on board Candide. Both are laptops.
One was issued by my employer, while the other is my
personal machine.
Laptop vs.
Desktop
Several of my
liveaboard friends have full-size desktop machines with 21'
monitors on their boats. Personally, I find that
amount of equipment to be obtrusive. Even though a few
of them use flat-screen technologies, they still have to
find somewhere to mount that large screen, store the computer chassis
and keyboard, etc.
Generally, the chassis gets stuffed into a locker or under
the settee. This tactic has been known to cause
overheating problems with the computer. If the chassis
is hidden away under a settee, it makes it difficult to load
CD-ROM's or floppy disks.
With the
power and features found on modern laptops, I simply don't
see the benefit of having a large desk-top computer crammed
away into various places on board. Laptops offer
another advantage to the home worker. Whenever I feel
the hulls of Candide closing in on me and I need to get out
of the cabin for a while, I can simply unplug the laptop and
take it to a coffee shop or library to continue my work.
One of the
problems with having a laptop (or any computer) on board is
all those damn wires that go along with it! One day,
someone will figure out how to eliminate every computer
wire. I am convinced that the genius who figures this
out will be richer than Bill Gates. Until then, I'm
stuck with a network cable, mouse cable, power cord, and
wires to connect to the stereo. Since I have two
laptops, there are twice as many wires! In an office,
all these wires can be hidden or at least moved out of the
way. Aboard Candide, though, these wires are generally
strung out all over my salon table during the week (I
generally stow them during the weekend).
Printers
Storing a
printer has always been a big problem for me. I used
to have a nice high-speed laser printer. I simply
couldn't find room for it on the boat, so I gave it to my
boss (well, it belonged to the company so I didn't really
"give" it to him). Much to my surprise, my boss was
gracious enough to reimburse me for the small ink jet printer that
I bought (I told you I work for a great company!).
Even this printer is difficult to store when it's not in
use. Right now, it rests in the shelf space above the
hanging closet in the vee-berth. When I need it, I
pull it down, plug in the power and USB cable, and let it do
its thing on the salon table.
Storing paper
for the printer has been a challenge. If you store
paper in an area with a lot of moisture (you'll discover
these when it rains), the paper will be ruined. You'll
need to store it on a flat surface, otherwise it will curl.
I store printer paper in a large ZipLock freezer bag and
keep it in one of the drawers near the chart table. I
also stuff that Ziplock back with desiccants (you know...the
packets of silica gel that you find in the box when you buy
a new pair of shoes). These packages absorb moisture
so that the printer paper doesn't get ruined.
Scanners
When I first
moved on board, I had the perfect digital scanner for my
floating office. It was called "PageScan" and it
looked like a large Tootsie Roll (except it was blue.
You probably shouldn't eat blue Tootsie Rolls). It was
a near-perfect cylinder about 4" wide and 9" long. It
would scan photographs and single-page documents...which was
really all I needed to scan. One day, it died.
It simply wouldn't work anymore. I went to the local
Best Buy, thinking that I'd simply pick up a new one.
Much to my surprise, the PageScan company had gone out of
business! To my aggravation, Best Buy doesn't carry
any small scanners like the one I wanted to replace.
All they had was flat-bed scanners.
Flat-bed
scanners are fine, I suppose, but are not easy to store
aboard Candide. They'd almost certainly have to be
stored in a drawer and I'd have to be very careful not to
put anything on top of them lest I break the glass scanning
surface. So, I walked out of the store without buying
a scanner...and I haven't had one since.
Fortunately,
I don't really need one anymore. As my company is
quickly moving into the electronic age, there are fewer
paper documents that I need to store on board.
Virtually everything that I need in the way of contracts,
work statements, manuals, etc., are available
electronically. There's simply no need anymore in my
life to scan a bunch of paper documents.
Telecommunications
Like many
folks who work from home, I spend a LOT of time talking on
the phone. Reliable telephone service is an absolute
must on Candide. Before I consider moving to a marina,
I always ask if telephone service is available at the slip.
If it's not, well, I keep sailing on until I find a marina
that provides the services I need.
Most marinas
located in urban areas will have telephone service at the
slips. All you'll have to do is call the local
telephone company to have them turn on the service.
The telephone bills will come directly to you...the marina
has nothing to do with the process, other than providing a
place for you to plug in your connection.
Since I work
in the computer business, high-speed Internet connectivity
is extremely important. At my current marina, the
telephone company provides an ADSL connection to my slip.
I surf the net at about 300 kb or so...right from the boat! A little
research with the phone company will tell you whether or not
high-speed internet connections are available at your
marina.
Some marinas
are beginning to install high-speed wireless networks as a
service to their tenants. These systems are GREAT,
because they're fast and free (for the most part, marinas
don't want to be burdened with monthly billing for wireless
Internet connectivity...so they consider it to be a service
that's included as part of the monthly slip fees).
To use a
wireless system at a marina, all you need is a wireless
network card in your computer and a password for the
network. You'll be surfing the Internet from the
privacy of your cabin at a very high rate of speed, if your
marina offers the service. Total investment on your
part will be less than $50 for the necessary wireless card.
Trust me when I say that having such a service is a huge
advantage to the work at home liveaboard. I wish that
my current marina offered this service!
Fax
Machine
I don't have
a fax machine aboard Candide. There's simply no room!
Fortunately, I don't rely on faxes to do my job. Oh,
sure, there's an occasional non-disclosure agreement or
contract that I have to sign and fax back to my customer.
I simply use the fax at the marina office when I need to
send a fax (I'm charged $.25 per page for all outgoing faxes
in the U.S.). On my business card, I list the marina's
fax number as the one to use when a client needs to fax a
document to me. My current marina is so cool, that
they'll call me on the land line when a fax has arrived in
my name.
It's my
opinion that you won't really need a fax machine on board a
boat that is docked at a marina. Simply ask the marina
management if it's OK for you to receive the occasional fax
using their equipment. In the several marinas I've
stayed in aboard Candide, I've never been denied permission
to use their fax equipment as if it were my own!
Business
Clothes
As I
explained earlier, I have to travel a lot for my job.
My business suits are stored in one of the hanging lockers
in the vee-berth. The problem is that they soak up
"boat smells" that I don't pay attention to anymore because
I've become accustomed to them. Other folks, though,
can readily detect a strong odor of diesel fuel and mold.
This is NOT a good thing if you're meeting with the CEO of a
company! You don't want to stink!
Personally,
I'll have my suits dry-cleaned right before I leave for an
important meeting. More practical people who live on
board store their suits in a zip-up plastic hanger.
Some of my fellow liveaboards even use vacuum-packed bags
(the kind that you see advertised on late-night television.
You put stuff in a plastic bag and use a vacuum cleaner to
suck out the air). Quite frankly, the best policy is
probably to store business clothes off-site at a
dry-cleaner. Pick them up when you need them and drop
them off when you're done with them.
Trust me when
I tell you that you'll become accustom to "boat smells"
rather quickly once you move aboard. Your clothing
will pick up these scents though, and you'll be caught
unawares when you're at a meeting and someone pulls you
aside to say, "You smell like diesel fuel." It's
happened to me. Think about how you'll store your
business clothes before you move on board. It will be
a LOT easier to clean your suits (or store them properly)
than it will be to rid your boat of foul odors.
