We’ve steered the ZRV south. We’re just inside North Carolina, at a KOA campground in Enfield. By tonight, we’ll be back in Florida, preparing for a presentation at the Disney Entrepreneur Center on Thursday morning. A lot of reflection going on right about now. Eighteen days on the road, and as a family, we’re still talking. Equally important, as far as this “home business exercise” goes, my clients still seem to be talking to me.

How has this happened? Credit understanding by my family and clients, and the tools I’ve used. I’ve said that Home Office Highway was NOT about some fancy technology that created a whiz-bang workspace. It’s been all about off-the-shelf stuff, easily accessible and priced right for anyone, that creates a workspace that mimics the home office.

What stuff have I used? Let’s go by the numbers… Read More »

I spent some time with Ruth King with The Profitability Channel in Atlanta as part of Home Office Highway. We had a great chat about setting up your mobile home office, getting work done – and managing family expectations. See for yourself. The 30-minute show that aired on July 21.

To check it out, hit www.profitabilitychannel.com, click on Channel Calendar or Library, go to July 21, and look for Jeff Zbar on Biz Buzz. It will be available through mid-August.

Enjoy…

I’ve been a fan of Henry David Thoreau for more than a decade. Didn’t read him in grade school or college. I came across his works and thinking later in life, and found a piece of him in me. Equal parts poet, essayist, biologist, ecologist, transcendentalist, anarchist, abolitionist and a creator of civil disobediance whose writings later were followed by Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, I believe any free spirited thinker can say they feel his work.

So it was when we were driving down I-495 in Central Massachusetts this week and came across a sign for the Walden Pond State Reservation, I knew I just had to stop.

I knew it would be an idyllic place, this campsite and woods that Thoreau spent two years, two months and two days in the 1840s exploring, journaling, and living a solitary life. I’d read some of his works, and while the details were a bit fuzzy, the big picture revealed a place I had to be.

“You’re going to see a lot of ‘earthy’ people,” I forewarned Robbie. “People in Birkenstocks and women in peasant skirts who still follow his writings.”

So Robbie, Nicole and I went. And we parked in a lot with far too many vehicles to be just members of The Thoreau Society. Whatever. We were all on the same plane.

And as I rounded a corner from the parking lot, I saw it… Read More »

During our recent visit to Jacksonville, Fla., Home Office Highway was profiled by First Coast News. Workation, vocation and vacation were key concepts the producers lit upon to highlight how the mobile home office will find its place.

See the report below…

Every other week, I sit and chat with Small Business Advocate Jim Blasingame. This week, I was sitting in the driver’s chair of the Home Office Highway RV while tooling down the Garden State Parkway (hand-free wireless, I promise…). It was a lot of fun.

Give it a click if you’d like to learn how to home office from the road, too, good buddy. And check out my weekly spot on The Rich Roffman Show. Hosted by Miami media entrepreneur and publisher Rich Roffman, we’ve chronicled my trip up the Eastern Seaboard — including my drive through New York’s Hudson Valley. We’ve proven that my work — or that of any information peddler — can be done from anywhere.

This is the Chief Home Officer, I’m 10-10 on the side…

Two weeks in, and we’ve seen and done so much. I’ve logged early morning work sessions in the RV and in the woods, and watched as my family journaled about our adventures. I’ve shared times with new friends (“Hey Col. Sanders, I always imagined you a bit taller”), and discovered how productive you can be with a laptop, an internet connection and clients and family who get it.

One more week. Plenty of places to explore and experiences to be had…

A few days back while we were in Atlanta, I arranged an interview with Ruth King of On The Ribbon.com and the Profitability Channel online television network. Notwithstanding the ingenuity of creating a full-on TV network that runs over the Internet, we had a good chat about the powertools of the mobile home office.

Talk about preparation, Ruth had me prepare a pre-interview doc on the must-knows of our adventure. My list follows: Read More »

Today was my birthday. It’s the 19th such event enjoyed from a home office.

This time around, my home office was an RV, and my “cake” was ambrosia. I love that stuff — a Southern favorite made of mini marshmallows, mandarin oranges, shredded coconut and sour cream (among other ingredients, depending on the maker).

No candles were lit. No songs were sung (except for my sister-in-law and nephew, who sang it via cell). Just a plastic fork from Panda Express at Carowinds — the Carolinas theme park where we spent the day.

I haven’t had ambrosia in a dozen years — and certainly not as a birthday dish. But more to the point, I never would have enjoyed this delicacy if we hadn’t gotten off Interstate 85 to spend two nights at Paynes Creek Campground. Sure, there were a dozen RV parks we could have chosen along the interstate. But Paynes Creek seemed cool at the time. And it lived up to its billing. And then some… Read More »