Insight for Freelancers & Teleworkers

This is a completely random post, but I was just getting ready for bed and happened to notice the specific items I had set out on my nightstand. Sometimes these things tell the story of our day or even our life. Here’s a shot of my nightstand as it looks at this very moment, and a description of the items:

A – My iPod Touch and clock/charger base. The Touch is a truly useful Anywhere tool and the base was a great Father’s Day present from my girls this past year. Waking up to something like U2’s “Beautiful Day” is much better than a standard alarm.

B – USB flash drive – A nice little metal 2GB drive from BizConf.

C – Glass of wine – I’ve earned this today. I will be sleeping well tonight.

D – LED head lamp – I use this thing all the time! Comes in expecially handy for catching nightcrawlers in the summertime.

E – Batman Begins DVD – Not sure why this was on my nightstand, but is that a great movie or what?!

F – Cub Scouts Magic book – So I was visiting my parents last weekend and my mom brought this out to me. When I was a kid I was really into magic tricks and this was one of my books of tricks. I guess she wants me to get back into doing those or something.

G – Latest issue of Entrepreneur Magazine – Probably my favorite magazine. They always have great articles applicable to both my field (tech) and my status as a small business owner.

H – In-Fisherman Walleye guide – Yeah I’ve read this a few times. I still can’t catch walleyes.

I – My change jar – I think I counted close to 50 pennies in there with not a hint of silver to be seen. My girls are thieves.

What’s on your nightstand? What story does that collection of items tell about you?

Yeah, that’s me at age 20 or 21 living the rock and roll lifestyle. I’m not sure if anybody actually attended that show.

In my previous post I mentioned a book I’ve been reading by Tina Seelig called “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20.” Tina, who has a Ph. D. in neuroscience, is the executive director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. She teaches courses on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Today I want to give you a little more info on that book since I really enjoyed it and took a lot of good knowledge from it. I think a lot of the topics it covers are incredibly relevant to us who are running our own freelance businesses.

The underlying theme I took from this book was the idea of challenging assumptions. Why do we do the things we do? Why not try something outside of the box? If you pay attention to successful entrepreneurs, you’ll notice a tendency to look at things from different angles and often trying different approaches to various problems. Throughout the book she gives some really creative examples of this type of approach in action.

Other notable themes: Failure is okay. Be fabulous. Be thankful. And more…I don’t want to give away the whole book because it’s definitely worth your time to read it. It’s a quick read and Tina did a great job conveying innovative ways to approach both your life and career.

As an additional teaser, here is an excellent video of Tina talking about some of the central ideas in her book:

More book reviews coming in the near future. I’ve been reading some good stuff lately!

On Twitter, everybody’s trying to get more followers, get re-tweeted, get responses from famous or semi-famous people, launch marketing campaigns…but is that what it’s all about? What if nobody really is listening to you? Does that even matter?

Nope. I think the important thing is that YOU are listening to THEM. I think Twitter is a lot more useful as a listening tool than a broadcast tool, and I discuss that in today’s video.

Thanks to Jeremy Lattimore for asking the question.

I first set up AnywhereMan a little over a year ago and didn’t put a ton of thought into my slogan. Now that the site/concept has had some time to develop, I am realizing I need a new one.

Right now the slogan is “Insight for Freelancers and Teleworkers.” Blah. That kind of represents what this blog is about, but I’m going to try to go more of a fun, entertaining, reality-blog direction. The current slogan sounds more like a “how-to” blog rather than what I intend it to be: a blog where I talk about the ups and downs of working from anywhere, initiate conversations with others in the same boat as me, and generally just make a fool of myself in videos, all centering around the fact that I work from wherever I want.

If AnywhereMan.com was a mullet, I want it to be the party in back; not necessarily the business in front.

So HELP me come up with a new slogan. I’d like it to be short and to the point and somewhat funny. A few people gave me some suggestions on Twitter already that involved the “pants-optional” concept. That always cracks me up, but I’d like the slogan to focus on the flexibility on where and when many of us are able to work.

The winner will receive the grand prize of having me use their slogan. Okay okay, maybe I’ll add something to sweeten that a bit. If you’re a fellow Anywhere person I can do a profile/interview of you as well. Maybe I’ll throw in some free pens and candy, too.

Leave your ideas in the comments if you’d like. Thanks for the help everyone!

Today Apple announced it’s newest product line: the iPad. I normally don’t write about announcements and hype, but from an Anywhere perspective, the iPad looks to be a useful device.

People have been touting the Apple tablet as a hybrid between the iPhone and the Macbook Pro, and that’s exactly how Steve Jobs presented the device. He dismissed the idea of “netbooks” as PC notebooks don’t do anything better other than save you money on a portable, stripped-down PC.

The touch-enabled iPad does a lot of things better in his opinion: battery life (10 hours of use, up to a month on standby), browsing experience, display, and more. Certain models have integrated 3G capability and you can purchase coverage from AT&T directly from the device. All models include WiFi and Bluetooth capability.

And price? It starts at just $499 (nice) for the 16GB model, $629 for a 16 GB 3G-enabled model, and a 250MB plan from AT&T is $14.99/month while an unlimited data plan is just $29.99/month. No contract required – it’s all month-to-month with no voice requirement. That’s pretty sweet, actually.

It sounds like a lot of people are unimpressed with the unveiling of the iPad, but my approach is to give it some time. I’d have to say that given the choice between an Amazon Kindle or an iPad, I’d definitely lean towards all the extended functionality of the iPad.

The web browsing experience looks awesome, and I’d be able to do a lot of my job-related activities directly on this device. Blogging would be a cinch. From a design point-of-view, having the ability to sketch out layouts using a touch screen gets me super excited.

It’s still not near as powerful as my Macbook Pro but the 3G coverage/portability would mean I could use it from the comfort of my fishing boat (FTW).

For complete specs of the iPad, visit the Apple website. For a nice summary of Jobs’ presentation, check out the live blogging on engadget.

My question is this: Why not create an iPod Touch with integrated 3G capability and allow for use of the special AT&T pricing as well? Maybe that’s coming but I’m sure I’m not the only one that will raise that question. Maybe there’s an iPad Nano in store.

What do you think of the iPad? Terrible name? Sweet looking device? Is it just me or is this miles beyond a standard netbook and a truly useful piece of equipment in the Anywhere lifestyle?

Also, the first person that buys me a 3G-enabled iPad will own the top banner position on AnywhereMan for the next 365 days (currently occupied by Wirefly). Seriously.

My accounting process is kind of a mess right now. It used to be awesome, not to mention effortless. I was using Quicken Home & Business which worked great for a single-member LLC like mine. Importing data from my bank was seamless. But then the Quicken software started to get super buggy and I couldn’t even open it without it crashing. This may have been a Windows issue or a Quicken issue. Either way, this is not good, especially when tax time rolls around. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

I’ve decided that I want to look at something else for my 2010 bookkeeping. I’d prefer to stay away from any of the Intuit products including Quicken, QuickBooks, etc. Even Intuit’s TurboTax gave me problems last year as the website crashed the day I had a payment due (though I’ll still probably use it this year and hopefully they can avoid that situation).

My other problem with Quicken is that it sits on one PC. I’d love to find a good web-based system, but at the very least I’d like a Mac-based option. I’ve got that thing with me at all times.

So today I’d like some advice. What would you recommend? How do you keep your books up-to-date? Share your tips with us. I have nothing to offer here, but I need some help!