For the past week, I have been on vacation with my family on Cape Cod. I had a great time, and I was even able to get some work done in the evenings after the kids were in bed. Taking my home – based businesses on the go has always been fairly easy. For the law office, I take my smartphone, laptop, and whatever files I need. For my freelance writing business, all I need is my laptop and my day planner. All of these things fit neatly into one bag.
Of course, one other thing that I need for both of my home – based businesses is the internet. Fortunately, I can fit that into my bag of work stuff too. Since no reasonably priced internet service is available at our house, my husband and I have enabled mobile broadband on my smartphone. In other words, my cell phone can function as a mobile wireless internet hotspot. We can connect up to five computers to it at once, and we can use it anywhere that Verizon has service.
We use my smartphone as our internet connection at home, and when we are on the go. Many times when we stay at a hotel, the hotel has free wireless internet so we do not need to use the smartphone to connect to the internet. Last week, however, I was surprised to find that our hotel did not have free wireless internet. There was wireless internet service available in the rooms, but there was a fee to access it.
While my ability to work online was not affected by the lack of free wireless at the hotel because I was able to use my smartphone as a mobile hotspot to connect to the internet, I wonder if anyone else at the hotel is disappointed by the lack of free wireless internet. In all fairness, it is a resort hotel on Cape Cod, so perhaps the management feels that they do not have to offer that amenity to their guests because almost all of the guests are there for leisure and not for work. That said, many people do need to check email or do a few little things for work online even when they are on vacation.
If you have a home – based business that requires you to be able to go online during your vacation, be sure to call ahead to see what your hotel offers as far as internet service. If you travel a lot and are finding that you stay at a lot of places that do not have free wireless internet, you may want to look into getting a smartphone that you can use as a mobile hotspot so that internet access is always close at hand.
Photo by anendel on morguefile.com.