The Mobile Entrepreneur

Posted On: 2006-03-21
Length: 60:00

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Hi and welcome to the show! I'm Anita Campbell and I'm very glad you could join us today. Hey, we've got a great show lined up. It's called "The Mobile Entrepreneur, Equipping your Office for Maximum Mobility." Ramon Ray, who is a technology writer and publisher of smallbiztechnology.com, and himself someone with a hands-on background as a technology consultant, is going to be joining us to tell us exactly how to outfit ourselves to be mobile entrepreneurs so that we can all get out of the office, get some face time with clients and customers, and do some networking and make some contacts and generate some business.

But first, before we talk with Ramon, we have Today's Trend segment. And Today's Trend is about the rise of the cell phone as a major computing device. The cell phone, or mobile phone as it's called in most countries of the world outside the U.S., is creating new business opportunities for small businesses, even in underdeveloped parts of the world. It's also enabling businesses to operate faster and better. Let me give you a few quick examples.

Cell phones are relatively cheap and easy to carry, consequently, more business people are likely to have cell phones than laptop computers. Repair technicians, such as furnace repair and plumbers, carry picture phones. They email photographs of broken parts or products under warranty so that they can order new parts quickly. They also have a record of a condition of the unit they've repaired. Consultants and fellow business owners can literally work anywhere now. If you have your phone forwarded to your cell phone you can be out on the golf course and you can take calls from clients at the turn, if that's what you rally want to do.

In Africa small businesses advertise by putting a hand-written sign on a tree by the roadside listing the service they perform, and a cell phone number, and that's the full extent of their marketing plan. In Finland and Japan, cell phones are used to pay electronically for purchases, such as subway tickets and from vending machines. As more people get comfortable using their phones, there is a tendency to want to add more functionality, meaning people are increasingly using their phones to get email...

John Gregory said:

This podcast is amazing.