All wired up for a day on the hi-tech highway

By PAUL BRISLEN

Bill's a bit of a one-man band. He works from a home office, has clients all over the country and some on the far side of the world and has to be contactable any hour of the day or night. Bill is, to put it mildly, a live wire.

Bill's day starts early - he's on a 8am flight to Wellington for a presentation to a prospective client so he's up early to clear his email.

With a broadband connection to his home office, Bill's 70-odd email are instantly available, once his PC is booted up, of course.

Some anti-spam software cuts through much of the junk that fills his inbox.

While he has breakfast he goes over his to-do list. Nothing too urgent, nothing that needs dealing with straight away, but some that he'll need to follow-up on during the day. There are also some personal emails from friends overseas that he's going to save for a free moment.

He makes sure the latest version of his presentation is on his laptop, he's got his mobile data card ready to go, his batteries are charged. After synchronising his handheld PC he's away. Cellphone, laptop, handheld, papers, car keys and Bill's out the door.

After check-in, sitting in the Koru Lounge, Bill has almost an hour to go through his email again and have a look at those personal emails. His brother in Britain has sent photos of the family so Bill looks around, makes sure he's in the airport's wi-fi hotspot and downloads the file.

While his mobile card is fine for basic email and the odd bit of surfing, when he's in a wi-fi hotspot he switches over to the faster connection. Suddenly instead of kilobits per second of speed, Bill's able to get megabits per second and those bulky photo files are a breeze to download. Bill also takes the time to read his favourite online news site, and check out the trailer for a new movie he'd like to see.

The flight's called and for a few minutes Bill will be out of touch with the rest of the world. Phone and laptop are off, communications non-existent. This is the only time in the day he'll be out of reach.

The rental car is waiting at the airport and Bill clears his voicemail while the paperwork's being completed. Three new messages, one from a contact who wants to meet over lunch to discuss a business opportunity. Bill's happy to return that call and arrange to meet up later in the day.

His day is filling up and thankfully his handheld PC is up to the job of juggling appointment times. Once his presentation is over, Bill's going to spend the rest of the day meeting clients, both old and prospective.

The presentation goes well and the company seems keen on asking a lot of questions about Bill's business. He wirelessly connects to the company LAN to show them more information on his company website and to demonstrate a few of his company's capabilities. Having a wi-fi card built in means there's little hassle configuring the connection - he simply selects it, enters the password they give him and he's away. The ease with which Bill can pull up information and provide examples is impressive.

Running a little late, Bill dashes for the car through Wellington's rain and checks his voicemail again. New messages but nothing that can't wait. He has to ring around to re-book a couple of meetings but that's all fine and then he's off to see a client.

This client is, like Bill, a sole trader working from a home office, so the two meet on the waterfront for a coffee. Bob's brought his laptop and the two are soon engrossed with planning the upcoming quarter's purchases. They agree on quantity and price and Bob prints out an order form on his portable printer.

One latte later, Bill's on his way to his next meeting happy in the knowledge that this trip's been paid for already.

Lunch is a little way out of town and when Bill gets there he's a few minutes early. He takes the time to go through his email again, this time with his mobile data card connected to his laptop. There's an email that will need his full attention later on - a scheduling problem with his trip to London that might cause some trouble, so he forwards the email to his travel agent and asks if she can juggle his flights and then phones home to see how everyone is.

Lunch goes well despite the foul weather and Bill is soon talking about a new contract that will see him travelling through South-East Asia much of next year. It's a huge move for a one-man band and he might need to consider getting in someone to work on his existing client base in New Zealand.

All told though, it has great potential and he's really excited by the prospect. He fires off a quick email to his accountant about the costs and benefits of hiring staff and heads off to his next appointment.

At the end of the day Bill's meet with half a dozen contacts, two prospective clients and an old friend for an afternoon beer. He might expand his business and need to hire some help.

He's discussed the matter with his lawyer and accountant and has re-scheduled arrangements for an upcoming trip. Nobody need know Bill's out of the office for the day - the office has gone with him.

Special Report: Turbocharging Your Business

(to be continued throughout this week)