Think an RV is no space to set up an office? Put on your thinking cap and envision your ideal workspace from the road. For those accustomed to road-trippin’, moving the SOHO into a recreational vehicle isn’t impossible. It just requires a bit of thought, planning, preparation, ability to hit the curveballs, and a healthy spirit of adventure.

Check out this video. Envision this as your home office. Can you do it?

What do you think?

As I walked the aisle of my local Office Depot, I wondered what I would need for my home office road trip. Laptops and routers, storage devices (for paper, pixels and docs) and organizational stuff. Just like I worked from home, really.

But then I saw it, and knew I had to have it. Knew I’d be lost — or at least in an entangled mess — without it. Velcro cable straps and the Ativa Cable Burrito. Absolutely.

Yet my wife had other ideas. After asking her to peruse RV Vacations For Dummies, I inquired what the top three items she said were Must Bring accessories. Robbie whittled it down to one: rubber gloves. Anyone who’s seen RV with Robin Williams knows where Latex gloves would come in — though he needed a hazmat suit. (Robbie’s other two items were a broom and binoculars to spot low-cost fuel from a distance. One suggestion there: GasBuddy.com). Read More »

Home Office Highway isn’t the first to hit the road with a home office on wheels. The “Workamper” concept has been around for years.

Writing consultant and author Marcia Yudkin took a two-month sabbatical back in 2007 (albeit from the family sedan) — and her business never missed a step (check out her report).

The people at RV Sales of Broward travel the region and close deals from aboard the 42-foot Fleetwood Revolution RV-turned-mobile office pictured here. I just spoke with Marc Gilenson, who runs his mobile office-based consulting and business process re-engineering enterprise — and The Association of Entrepreneurs (MyBizUniverse.com) from his 32-foot Damon RV.

I’ve worked from the family minivan. And I’ll work from the ZRV — a 23-foot Fleetwood Jamboree. Check back soon for pix of an interior outfitted for business.

What does it take for you to work from the road? Some technology, the right mindset — and a free spirit. Have you got the right stuff?

Plates and utensils? Check. Bedding and toiletries? Check. Clothes, food and other necessities? Check, check, check. Once the mainstays of an RV trip have been bought, gathered and stored, then you turn to the office supplies.

When I leave on a business trip, I try to remember all the accessories and accoutrements I’ll need — lest I go without something or have to buy a replacement on the road. But what will I need for a three-week RV trip that seeks to truly replicate the office?

Let’s review the stuff… Read More »

If you live in Jacksonville, Fla., Union City, N.J., Glen Allen, Va., or Orlando, Fla., you’re in luck: Home Office Highway will be stopping by.

ZRV — the country’s first Home Office on Wheels — has set its tour dates. See below for locations, dates and times. In each market, we’ll showcase the technology and tips to creating a balanced workation. And every visitor will receive a copy of Home Office Highway: A Digital Adventure Where Vocation Meets Vacation on the Open Road, a free booklet on virtual officing courtesy Office Depot’s Design Print Ship Depot.

For aspiring business owners in Central Florida, we’ll also be presenting on “Managing the Home Office Experience” at the Disney Entrepreneur Center.

Monday, July 7 (Jacksonville, Fla.)
Office Depot No. 2744 (932 Dunn Ave. @ 8am)
Verizon Evolution (Location TBD, afternoon)

Thursday, July 17 (Union, N.J.)
Office Depot No. 2459 (1701 Morris Ave. @ 8am)

Sunday, July 20 (Glen Allen, Va.)
Office Depot No. 565 (9700 W. Broad St. @ 9am)

Thursday, July 24 (Orlando, Fla.)
The Disney Entrepreneur Center (315 E. Robinson St. @ 830am)

Attendees at the Disney Entrepreneur Center presentation also will receive a free copy of The Chief Home Officer’s Guide to Home Office Design & Set-Up.

Hope to see you at the stores — and on the road!

… you’ll know you’re coming up on Home Office Highway.com. Graphic designer Angela L. Moses at JMM Graphics in Parkland, Fla., worked with DigiGraphics in Dania Beach, Fla., to create the vehicle signage for the ZRV.

We’re on Turn Three of pulling the tour together. A few details left to iron out. Check back in a week for the FREE downloadable booklet, Home Office Highway: Where Vocation Meets Vacation on the Open Road. It’s packed with useful strategies and tips on the technology needed to work successfully from the road — and ways to keep your work schedule and client expectations in check.

Since I began working from home in 1989, I’ve worked from quite a few strange places — ferries crossing the Delaware Bay, minivans scurrying down the interstate, the outback of Papua, New Guinea.

Yet at right is a picture of me in one of my first “remote” offices.

I was covering Spring Break for Advertising Age magazine. I packed my Apple IIc and dot matrix printer in a plastic laundry basket, grabbed my Nikon F, and hit Daytona Beach with my relatively newly-wed wife, Robbie. What a blast!

Once my writing was finished, I went to the hotel lobby, faxed the copy to Chicago, and FedEx’d the slides of kids having fun on their parents’ tab. How times have changed. Today, I’d probably still write from the hotel room table (at little too distracting to write poolside at spring break). But with my wireless broadband aircard in place, I’d do my research and filing with ease.

As this grainy shot reveals, you can work from any office. It also shows how I’ve aged — and grown — in 20 years.

Celebrity RVer had a post recently on celebs who dig their RVs. According to the New York Post’s “Page Six” gossip column, Brad Pitt, Matthew McConaughey, Sean Penn and Colin Farrell all share a passion: trailers. Even Pamela Anderson is getting a custom Airstream trailer built (rumor has it it’ll be called the “Lovestream.” Hmmm).

What’s their trailers of choice? Brad Pitt sports a vintage Airstream 345 he calls the “Luv Sub.” The 35-foot RV was his shack after splitting with Jennifer Aniston. Matt McConaughey, recipient of the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association’s Spirit of America Award, owns an $80,000 International Ocean Breeze Airstream. Watch McConaughey’s acceptance speech and get the gist of why people RV. It offers “A new backyard every day…I feel like I can be at home wherever I go…”

Among other celebs with RVs? Colin Farrell, who sports a classic $120,000 Airstream on the set. Into The Wild director Sean Penn, who has a Safari Airstream. Then there’s the fair Ms. Anderson.

Then there’s the Zbar family — in our  vintage, 23-foot, 2005 Fleetwood Jamboree. Think Page Six will be writing about us soon…?