Pimp my ROAD office! Best remote locations to work

I recently went on a 2.5 week, 14 city road trip out to the east coast (Adam, I almost looked you up but I ran out of time as I had a game to catch in Boston!). I went to see my Milwaukee Brewers play at Fenway Park in Boston and Yankee Stadium in NYC, and along the way visited a whole bunch of places. One thing I enjoy doing is working from different places, in essence showing that one can escape the artificial lights of the cubical world in exchange for more inspirational locales.

Out of all the place I visited, the #1 place to work was Battery Park in New York City. They had tables near one of the food stands where you had a view of the harbor and to top it off, the Statue of Liberty in the background. I happened to be there on an absolutely beautiful day. The park had free, fast AT&T wifi. You could not ask for anything more.

Statue of Liberty is in the distance above the left person's head

 I only wish I could stay longer, but alas Katz Deli was calling my name...

Pimp my ROAD office! Best remote locations to work

Restarting the 5 hour weekly commitment

Well, it looks like @Timothy didn't quite make his 5 hours a week goal. To his credit, he fulfilled his promise and bought some pink Chicago Bears shirts from their charity. Read about it here. I'm curious to see where he goes next!

With that, I'm re-starting my 5 hour a week commitment after taking a week off on vacation. I'm still trying to brainstorm what my reward and punishment would be. I think I'll keep the $100 donation to Bears Care as the punishment. I've kicked around a few ideas about the reward. One was to buy one of my friends lunch. That way, they'd be encouraging me to make it work. Another idea was to offer up a $10 gift card to Amazon to a random commenter if I completed the goal. That way the whole community would be encouraging me! Thoughts?

Restarting the 5 hour weekly commitment

Inspiring video about sabbaticals

Thanks Tom for this TED video about from Stefan Sagmeister...  Stefan closes his design studio for a year every seven years. The best part of this talk was the illustration of little pieces of retirement put into the working years (about 1:30 into the video).

As I enter the last week of MY 3 month sabbatical, I plan on taking some time to reflect on what I've learned and accomplished in the last 3 months. But one thing I can say for sure right now: it was definitely a great thing to do. Enjoy the video!

Inspiring video about sabbaticals

Countdown to the sabbatical!

Last week I turned in my leave of absence form to HR... And it's suddenly it's feeling a lot more real that this is actually going to happen! I've spent the last few days working on finishing up some things, transitioning my work to my replacement, and starting to do some pre-work in finding my new role for when I return. I sent out an announcement to my project team today, and the best response I got was "You lucky SOB." August 5th will be my last day in the office for three months... Only 12 business days left!

I read an update about the guy who left his corporate job to join a baseball league in Germany on the Escape From Cubicle Nation blog. One thing that hit home with me was how his parents didn't exactly agree with his decision, just like mine, and it encourages me his parents are starting to come around (my dad still avoids the subject when I bring it up). He's enjoying his time and doesn't regret doing what he did. Here's to me having the same experience with what I'm calling my SEEF3M!

Countdown to the sabbatical!

Bloginage

So once in a while I like to do a "Bloginage" which is a takeoff of the word "blog" and "badinage." The word badinage, which I learned in a game of cranium, basically means "banter." So I'm just gonna banter a bit, giving some snippets of random stuff...

So about the upcoming leave of absence (or SEEF3M), the analogy I had earlier was I felt like I had senioritis. You know, when all you can think of is graduating and being free from all this homework. Well, since I'm a little over a month away now, I have a new analogy from my college days: It feels like final exam month. I have all this stuff I need to get done at work before I can leave for summer vacation!

I've inched my way out of the dip... The new project I'm looking at trying out is a single use wipe for use on the exterior of cars. It's not a ground breaking idea, but it'll let me learn about selling a physical product. Also, I'm thinking this as an example of a commercial innovation: the product is very similar (if not the same) as an existing product, but you position it in a way so it solves a different problem for the consumer.

I had a short meeting with the wipes vendor and learned about the typical issues with this kind of business model. Minimum order quantity is 50,000 wipes. The cost isn't too bad (in the thosands of dollars for 50K wipes). But then I figured in fulfillment and shipping costs, and I'd prob at best break even if I charged $0.50 a wipe. Adam, how do you make money using this model? :) Next step is some testing with people...

I've gotten some buzz on NotTheBookstore.com, as 3 students have signed up for my mailing list in the same week. The mailing list is invaluable; these are people who voluntarily want to be reminded to buy your product. I haven't rolled out the new site yet, but I've gotten to the point now where I've redesigned one page and have sent it in to my programmer.

I find it interesting that Brad was in "The Dip" just as I was at the same time...

I've always wondered if this blog would ever make money for us. It's been great as a way to get inspiration and meet people similar to you in this journey, so even if it doesn't make me a penny it'll be worth it. But last week, someone bought a copy of the E-Myth that I blogged about. So our first pennies of revenue! Funny how such a small thing inspires you so much...

As usual, things just kinda flow when you just start writing and instead of a bunch of small snippets I end up with a pretty long post!

Bloginage

Places to SEEFAD

So where's a good place to do a SEEFAD? We've tried a number of places, and here are some of our favorites:

Panera Bread - Free wi-fi, plenty of tables and booths available, nice touch with fireplaces and high backs on seats to give a little privacy. Decent number of plugs. It's large enough to not be crowded, and has a nice ambience. In all but one of the Panera's I've gone to, I've felt welcome to hang out for a while.* Avoid the lunch rush, but other than that a great place to go.

Starbucks - I don't even drink coffee, but when Starbucks offered free Wi-fi when you use a Starbucks gift card, I was hooked. The nice thing about Starbucks is there are so many of them around, and so far about 80% of the ones I went to had the free Wi-fi. It feels a little more crowded than Panera, but they have better selection of drinks. I usually get an iced tea or a hot chocolate (their hot chocolate is actually really good).

Caribou Coffee - All the ones I've been to have free Wi-fi, some with purchase some without. A nice alternative to Starbucks, I'm still trying to find a good non-coffee drink. The ones I've gone to were a little more crowded, but not a bad place to hang out.

Bruegger's Bagels - I know one I went to has free wi-fi for sure, the other one I believe has it too. I don't go too often because there aren't that many, and bagels don't do it for me. But they have a decent ambience and I like a smoked salmon bagel.

I always thought some place should have free wi-fi, charge a few bucks and give you all you can drink and all you can eat snacks during non-lunch hours. I mean how much can you eat between 1:30 and 5 anyway? Maybe charge $3-5, which would be more than the drink I ordered here at Starbucks (albeit not much more).

Any good places you've tried out? Feel free to comment!





*There was one Panera in West Chester, OH where the manager was being really obvious that he didn't want our type there... he was overly fakey cheerful in nudging us out, eventually the wifi turned off because it was near lunchtime. So on the way out I confronted him, and he said it was a "business decision" and wouldn't budge when I brought up that the restaurant was like 40% full and we had bought a few drinks... even told him I was a shareholder and therefore really interested in them making money, but he kept his fake smile and even said have a nice day in an exaggerated tone of voice on the way out. I hope he realizes how much incremental profit he lost by me never going there again.

Places to SEEFAD

What is Corporatepreneurship

This blog has been going for about three months now... Figured it be a good time to reflect a bit on "Corporatepreneurship" and why we started this blog. We got the term "Corporatepreneur" by adding "corporate" and "entrepreneur." We all work at a very large, Fortune 50 company as our "day job" and are or aspire to be entrepreneurs at all other times.

So why are we both? Speaking for myself, there's a few reasons... From the corporation side, I don't know enough about entrepreneurship to make enough money to do it full time. I get a nice steady paycheck from my current job. I enjoy the camaraderie with my co-workers. I'm scared to leave my job to be an entrepreneur. All the role models, education, and messages I ever got was for the corporate world.

The fun part is from the entrepreneur side. Why? I'll never live up to my potential in the corporate world. I can make a much bigger difference as an entrepreneur. There are so many ideas I want to try that the corporate world will never try. I believe my strengths fit an entrepreneur very well. I can make a lot more money and reach my dreams as an entrepreneur.

There's a lot of unique pros and cons to this double life. Pros: You don't hafta worry about putting food on the table and paying the bills. You can learn a lot in the corporate world that you can reapply to the entrepreneur world. You can fund your own ventures.

Cons: By the time you get home from your 9-5, you're tired and all you feel like doing is sitting down and watching TV. Sometimes you hafta work longer hours and run out of time at night. You can't do any ventures that require you to be available during the day. You can't sink all of your passion into your venture because you've got a day job to worry about that's first priority. Your employer may get paranoid about you doing something on the side.

We've come up with a bunch of ways to live this double life. SEEFADs make you take time out to work on your stuff and allow you to feel the life of being a entrepreneur. We try to find business models that don't require constant involvement. I'm looking to take a personal leave of abscence, which kinda gives me the best of both worlds.

Hopefully this blog will touch people out there in the corporate world who've always had the itch, and show them that it is possible. We've also gotten great contributions from people who've done it and can share experiences. And maybe I'll be in the position where I'll hafta think up a new name for this blog someday...

What is Corporatepreneurship

My 4 Hour Workweek Moment

The book 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris talks about working no more than four hours a week and from anywhere you want... including the beach. I had my 4-Hour Workweek moment last August, which gave me the vision of what I wanted in my life...

My dad's company sent him to a conference in Honolulu, Hawaii... Quite a boondoggle. My mom joined him, and I figure I would too. Free lodging in Hawaii, all I had to do was buy a plane ticket. My dad even offered to cover that to get me out there, but I really didn't need any more incentive to go so I told him thanks, but I'd be more than happy to pay my own way there. This was August of last year.

Rewind back three years... I was an MBA student, and I discovered that buying textbooks at the bookstore was a crock... you could buy books on Amazon.com for at least $20, if not $50-100 cheaper. So after graduation, I started playing around with creating a site that felt just like buying from the campus bookstore, but it pointed you to Amazon instead. I got some revenue out of it, but nothing major.

Back to last August... I had spent the spring of 2008 working on marketing and promoting the website. I dropped almost $1000 on marketing (doesn't sound like much, but I'm closer to the "corporate" part of corporateprenuership than "entrepreneur"). The start of the textbook buying season coincided with my trip to Hawaii. And since students weren't accessible in the summer, all the advertising was done in the spring. So all I could do was watch and see how much revenue would come in every day.

The resort had a wireless connection, and it was accessible from the beach. So every day, after sightseeing, I'd take a swim in the ocean, have dinner, shower, and head to the beach with my laptop. Since Hawaii was 6 hours behind, I was able to check the previous day's revenue while I was still up. Each day I checked... some days would be $30 days, but some days got as high as $120 days. By the end of the week, I was up to almost $500.

I was living the dream... money was rolling in, while I was basically working one hour a night. That's a 7 hour workweek (not quite 4 hours), but when that one hour a day is spent on a laptop on a beach, I think anyone would sign up for that. The money I made wouldn't even pay for my flight out there, but it was a major breakthrough to taste it for just that week. I considered this the first step in the long term goal of financial independence. My mom took a picture of me with my laptop on the beach, and I have it up on my wall so I can look at it every day.

Some people back home didn't get it... They felt like it was sad that I was working on vacation. On the contrary... people thought my working on the beach was replacing vacationing on the beach. I wanted working on the beach to replace working.

My 4 Hour Workweek Moment

Work hard and the company will take care of you

So what's the first thought that crosses your mind when you hear that? Many people are probably cynical, saying no more loyalty or what not, but there also is a positive ring to it... we're in an era now where we can set it up so we don't NEED the company to take care of us! So why try the entrepreneurship route? How the heck do you even spell entrepreneurship? Here are some reasons I can think of:

1. As a hedge to if something happens to the company you work for, or if you can't find a job when you get out of school. What I don't understand is people who are out of work who decide to get more education. If you're in need of money, why would you go pay more money to other people? Why not go out and try to make some money yourself?

2. As a way to give yourself a raise. Let's say you want a raise. You can work hard, continue to deliver results, and do what you can to show everyone that you deserve a raise. Then you can go state your case to your boss, who may or may not be able to give you a raise. Let's say he does. That raise then kicks in the next paycheck... maybe it's 5%. Maybe it's 10%. But it's maybe 6 months or a year later! If you've got your own business, you get a raise the second you deliver results.

3. A way to really leverage our strengths and keep you sane at work. You are in control over what venture you want to do. So you can pick stuff you're interested in and good at. For me, it's a great release when my ideas fall on deaf ears at work because it's not part of our "core competencies" or corporate strategy. It's a creative outlet for me that allows me to use the skills that my job doesn't let me use!

So that's why I do it. So far I've not been successful yet in turning a profit, but I'm gonna try until I get it! And hopefully blogging about it and hearing what everyone else's trials and tribulations are will keep me motivated.

Work hard and the company will take care of you