I’m on day 2 of my switch from my Kyocera 7135 (he’s dead, Jim) to the Samsung U740 Black Phone (Verizon Wireless). Let me say that, for its size, it is packed with features. Pros The phone works in two orientations–portrait for phone features and landscape for email, text and other writing-intensive features. The keyboard is much easier to use than I’d thought. As a former Palm graffitist, I thought their funky...

Note: impending song of woe. My cellphone died. My printer (an HP 3100 laser jet that’s older than your kindergartner) is wobbling down the road to oblivion. My laptop is still blinky and on its way back to the HP Mothership for repair. Oh, and my favorite watch stopped. (sigh) Now, for the good stuff (there is good stuff). Promise. My new cellphone is on the way (a Samsung u740) and I’ve figured out which aircard and...

We’re not in business the same way we were in the PE (pre-email) days before 1987. Small businesses are proliferating in a curious way. Non-micro enterprise businesses with between 11 and 499 staffers have declined from 12% in 1997 to 9%. Micro enterprise business, however, has grown by 95%, with 76% of that growth coming from firms with no employees at all. Over half of those new businesses are being operated out of people’s...

I was reading this Workforce Magazine online Quick Take on the purported demise of the 40 hour workweek and it got me thinking. As a long-time business owner, I often work more than 40 hours a week to get all of the customer, administration, marketing, service development and other tasks taken care of. Now, before the “work-life balance” wonks get themselves into a lather, it’s about choice and what works rather than...

I’ve been here and there with regard to VOIP/Internet telephony. At one time, thinking that it was very very cool (read: inexpensive) thing, I signed right up. And then the worries began. Mostly, my issue was bandwidth: I was using Vonage on a Comcast Cable Internet line. Late in the afternoon and on weekends, there would be periods of low service–kids were getting home from school or waking up on the weekends to use the...

Do you have a disaster plan? Given that we in the Northern Hemisphere are just entering hurricane and tornado season, we would do well to know what to do. Write a brief (you know how much I love working from one page) plan, including medical other disasters, give it to a trusted party and then practice. However, there are those disasters that are entirely personal, like a very sick parent, partner or child. Do you know how to keep your...