Gypsy Life

I have a sexy red phone that has Internet built right in, but it turns out that if you check your email when away from any possible Internet connection for your computer and find out that a client really needs you to send that file RIGHT NOW, it doesn't help much. And apparently my monthly wireless bills weren't quite high enough yet, so now I have an AirCard.

This magical little device looks like a USB keychain drive and hooks right up to my MacBook to get me online wherever I may travel. Given how much time I've spent trying to hunt down a Starbucks when I've had an unexpected problem pop up when I'm away from home - and given that they charge you $10 in addition to whatever you spent on the coffee! - I expect that this will pay for itself quickly.

The fun part is that my entire office now actually does fit in that cute little black backpack I'm always carrying around. If I have a cell signal and any battery power left, I'm good to go. If I don't have a cell signal, then the clients probably can't find me anyway, so that's okay too.

Mobile Office

Panera is now the preferred mobile office location of Hectic Red. Free WiFi, free refills on the tea, and tables that can actually hold a laptop, notebook, and my other miscellaney with a minimum of juggling. Also they make wonderful egg sandwiches here. Take THAT, Starbucks - with your extortionate $10 WiFi.

Working Mobile, NYC Style

I'm not sure my trips from the East End of Long Island into New York City can officially be considered business travel, but then again, any time I have to go 120+ miles to see a client, it definitely should count as something.

I stopped in a Burger King of all places - right, I went all the way to NYC to eat at a Burger King? No, but I wasn't above buying a bottle of water there and settling in to use their free Internet to get caught up on email. Turns out the Property Developers had some issues on the Web site I was developing, so I spent a few minutes eating Cheesy Tots and debugging my HTML. Oh, how I love New York. I uploaded the changes, checked everything out and sent a note to the whole team to go ahead and look everything over, the site was up and I was sure it was nearly ready to go live. (Make a note of that "sure" as well, we'll get back to that in a minute.)

I had a few hours before my dinner date with friends, so I spent it shopping and wandering around. And fielding a phone call from the Property Developers, who, as requested had been doing a nice little pre-launch check of their new website, and they wanted to know why there was no background color, all the fonts were wrong, and everything was left justified. Oopsie. Well, that would be because your Web designer deleted two CSS files and only uploaded one, I'm guessing. Yes, that's a pretty silly oversight. Um, I'll just go find me an Internet connection and get that straightened out right away, okay? Okay. Bye now.

Note that I've been able to find free Internet connections any time I needed one to screw something up. As far as getting a highly embarrassing error fixed, on the other hand, the best I could do was a Starbucks and $9.99 for 10 minutes of connectivity to upload one stupid file. Thanks a lot, T Mobile.

Chinese food for dinner and some of the best gelato I've ever had went far to repairing my mood, and I had a most entertaining evening with my friends. Then I was off for the 11pm bus. I sure hope I don't have any deadlines tomorrow.

Hectic Red Employee Handbook: Travel - Lodging

Preferred Hotels

While Hectic Red, in principle, disapproves of putting one single additional nickel in Paris' pocket, the Hampton Inn is the preferred hotel for business travel. We're especially fond of the one at the Syracuse airport (North St. in Liverpool), where the night staff is known to be nice to you even when you show up late at night, sleep deprived, super stressed and somewhat irrational, two times for two different stays over a three day period. Thanks, guys.

A Different Kind Of Business Trip

This is the house that your parents hoped you ended up in if you ever ran away from home. These are the older, wiser friends they hoped you asked for advice when you couldn't come to them. This is a view into growing up in a small town, and some of what we're missing in our fast lives, insular habits and technocratic culture.

This trip took me to upstate New York for a press check for Hectic's biggest project yet. The first run of the project didn't quite hit specifications so I'm on press to make sure that version 2 comes out better. It's been a long and painful day during which I've been an extremely difficult client to my vendor, but we came out of it with about half the job done.

My print vendor, a broker from NJ, actually grew up in this town and has friends here. I've been invited to stay overnight in an old farmhouse with his friends, his wife and kids, and a very, very large black dog. The house dates to the 1800s and is beautiful. Some of the original decorative woodwork survives, covered by layers of paint. Ginny pointed it out to me when she took me on a tour of the house and the gardens, and detailed plans to restore more of the home.

Did I mention Ginny must be in her 80s? But she manages her enormous farmhouse, her dog the size of a Shetland pony, her garden and her life with admirable energy. Charlie is a fascinating guy with a wealth of stories to tell. He moves more slowly, but gives the impression that he's simply taking his time - he doesn't want to miss anything.

The vendor brought his family and I've really just been wishing for a chance to play with the baby, but instead have retired to what must have once been a sitting room to try and catch up on work. The walls of the house are creaking a bit as it goes though its daily routine of cooling down for the night.

When I'm in a hotel or traveling to a bad meeting or stuck in a terminal somewhere or enduring any of the many things that can go wrong on a business trip, I hope I can remember my bedroom in this house and how I was adopted into this world, if only for a day.

Client Acquisition

The client was kind enough to hire a car service to take me to the airport for my trip to upstate NY for the press check. I got to talking with the driver who, when he found out what I do for a living, wondered if I might be interested in making some posters and flyers to promote his business.

I'm pretty sure prospective clients don't usually show up at your house and drive you places, but it's pretty cool.

Don't Try This At Home, Folks

As of the end of the 2007, the future was bright. I had a great job at a tiny little investment bank that was poised for much bigger things. I was designing logos, creating websites, naming companies, filing trademark applications, and all kinds of fun things.

And then came the financial industry crisis, and the beginnings of some of the worst economic conditions I hope I'll ever see in my lifetime. As of January 28, I was unemployed.

What's a marketing manager, webmaster and graphic designer to do at that point? Freelance, of course!

It's important to note that I'm completely making this up as I go along. But for all the time I've spent complaining about how the Powers That Be at various jobs have seen fit to run their business, well, let's see how I can do with only one (admittedly somewhat unruly) employee.

So if you're here looking for wise and helpful advice about how to run a small business, please stop reading now. Or, keep reading and make notes about every decision I make, and know that you've ruled out at least one option if a similar situation ever comes up!

I'm swimming with the sharks, jumping in at the deep end, and all other kinds of business euphemisms for being in really deep #&!*. Sink or swim, this is sure to be a heck of a ride. Someday, I'll probably find this amusing, so I'm going to try to keep track of it all. Enjoy!