A Collection Of Tools You May Need When Looking At The Feasibility Of Mobile Working
Mobile working has undergone massive upheavals in the last few years. It’s just to say that the population generally is more inclined to be on the move as a result of their day job than at any time in the past. Our overstretched transport system bears witness to this.
With this has come a new generation of tools. The most all pervading is the mobile phone. Nowadays all but the most stubborn luddites have one of these and for most people it’s hard to do without one. The first mobile phones, carphones in fact, were anything but mobile. They looked like a large brick , battery life was counted in minutes and cost an arm and a leg. A long way from our recent generation of mobiles. Naturally a mobile phone is no more just a mobile phone. It’s a video camera, office organiser, image editor, well , the list just goes on and on.
GPS based Sat Nav systems are a more and more common tool and, whilst they may not constantly give perfect directions, they can be invaluable if you’re going by car to an unknown location. Or even if you’re going to a place on foot as there an “App” installed on more modern mobile phones that can guide you almost step by step.
Laptops and tablet PCs are now far more commonplace that they used to be with many households doing away with the traditional desktop PC in favour of a spanking new netbook. As these are now being given away if you sign a contract for mobile phone or broadband services it can be seen that the providers of mobile services recognise the relation between the computer and the mobile phone and their importance to the increasingly mobile businessman.
It’s not unfair these days to assume that the traveller may well care to count his travelling time as part of the work time and if possible maybe get a bit of work done on the move so a collection of all the above plus the addition of mobile mobile broadband means that it’s possible to provide complete office services in a tiny laptop bag.
Another aspect of mobile working is a where a worker is always on the move as part of the job, rather than just travelling to a destination. Traditional man and van type of working has been revolutionised by the mobile working boom and a variety of tools exist to assist the mobile worker. Many of us, myself included, have been surprised when the local utilities meter reader has whipped out a PDA type device which takes his reading, and even your signature if its required.
There are a also number of Home Based Franchise opportunities in the UK tha provide you with another way of working whist on the move. Franchises such as Café2U , a Mobile Coffee vending Franchise For Sale in the UK provides you with a Mercedes Vito van and all the tools you need to service the business industries that may not have access to traditional coffee shops. It’s easy to see how Franchises of this sort are going to require quite clever mobile working tools, such as mobile communications , Sat Nav and quite likely mobile internet. This is an example of a Home Based Franchise where you don’t really spend too much time really being at home!
Another example would be mobile tyre fitting Franchises of which there are a few. Whilst this classes as a Home Based Franchise , once again most of the time is spent out on the road servicing clients needs. It’s clear that tools such as Sat Nav, and one or more mobile phones would go well here as would a basis of collecting payment from credit cards as tyres are these days high value items and it’s unlikely that the customer could be expected to carry that much cash.
One of the more surprising examples of a Franchise For Sale is the O2 mobile communications franchise. This is an example of how a businessman can get into the rapidly expanding mobile comms market and while this not a Home Based Franchise, you will need retail premises, it’s definitely going to require an understanding of the mobile workers needs and business requirements as these will be your primary business customers. The mobile communications industry is constantly developing and the competition between the various mobile comms providers reflects this.
Mobile broadband seems to be the latest boom area with the prices of mobile USB devices coming down all the time. There is even talk of mobile broadband replacing conventional landline based broadband in the next couple of years. And why not indeed? All that is really needed is for the speed to come up a bit, the coverage to be a bit better and the download limits to be upped a bit and then there really would be no need for a landline based broadband service. Well maybe that’s being a little futuristic but who knows? It must have the traditional landline based ISPs worried that their business is suddenly subsumed by the mobile phone operators.
Looking into the future it’s obvious that we will be getting increasingly more inclined to do our work on the move. The myriads of mobile devices and the increasing sophistication of these may well mean the end of the traditional office.

