Category Archives: Business

Working Remotely: Choosing a Laptop

Working remotely can be a blessing and a curse. Many of the factors depend upon how well you are prepared for it. There are several critical elements which one must acquire in order to establish a good working environment for oneself;

Have the right equipment.
Ensure that you can work from anywhere.
Find a corner or two which you can concentrate from.
Ask yourself whether it is right for you.

Today we’ll cover point 1. Having the right equipment. It is critical that when we do decide to work remotely, we acquire the right type of hardware. Like a circuit driver needs a good reliable car, a business professional requires the right laptop. How do we determine what’s right and what’s wrong. Here’s a simple but effective list to review.

How much information do I need to store?
Today it is easy to find a laptop with a 750GB hard drive or even 1TB. Having that much space usually means you are storing very large files, such as music or movies. If however, like most professionals, you are working with mostly word documents and presentation, the only thing you really have to worry about, is how large your Outlook pst file will get.

With the introduction of Office 2007, Microsoft went the extra mile and introduced a refined file system which compresses its files better than any previous version of Office. You can take a traditional Office 2003 Word document, which sits at say 500kb, convert it into Word 2007 file, and save yourself up to 30% over the previous file format. This small yet unappreciated feature may not seem like much, but your hard drive and your wallet will appreciate it.

Staying on the subject of hard drives, the best way to determine how much space you’ll need is as follows;

Do I need to store media files such as music, movies or photo’s? If yes, then you most likely need something above 640GB. If not however, then you’ll do with anything around 128GB to 256GB.
Do I want faster performance? If yes, consider investing into something with a Solid State Drive (SSD). They’re capacity ranges between 128GB to 512GB, depending on how deep your pockets go, but more importantly the speed at which the drive reads and writes is night and day between a traditional spinning hard disk and a solid state drive.

What else do I need from my laptop?
The next few considerations are also very important and will help steer you towards the right group of laptops;

Do I want solid battery life? Normally the answer is yes, and there are two ways of accomplishing this. Larger battery size or lower performance. For most individuals a low performance laptop is really all they need. As long as they have the ability to do what they need without compromising on speed. An efficient Intel chip with a mobile video card and a SSD will give you both visibly improved speed when working with your files but also good battery life.
Am I in need of a graphics card? Unlike desktop PC’s, laptops do not have the capability of upgrading their graphics cards (GPU’s). If you’re looking to edit photo’s, play games and render video’s, you’ll need a dedicated GPU rather than the mobile chip. A dedicated chip will not pull its RAM requirements from the board but has it already built-in. Increasing your performance drastically.
Am I going to be carrying the laptop around a lot? Normally many of us will carry our laptops to and from the office and on occasion to the local coffee shop. Having a portable unit that doesn’t weigh as much as a chunk of concrete, is probably best. A 13″ or 14″ laptop is enough for you to do what you need without straining your eyes.
What will I need to connect it to? This question is for those who need to do presentations from it or perhaps want to connect it to an external display. Many business centric laptops still have VGA output. More consumer laptops are now available with HDMI or mini HDMI. Determine what you’ll be connected to in order to make sure you’ve got the right connectors. (Most projectors are still only hooked in through VGA.)

Asking yourself these simple questions will help you narrow down the laptop you want. It is important to note that best practice suggests also going out and testing various different laptops on your own. Don’t ask for help from any sales guy (or gal) and just play around with it. Open up Microsoft Office and browse the internet. If a store doesn’t let you take a laptop for a “test drive” don’t invest your money there. You need to take a feel for one to ensure you’re buying what you want. Like test driving a car.

Laptop Categories
There are generally four categories of laptops one can look at. Ultrabooks, consumer laptops, business laptops and gaming laptops. Each has its own set of pluses and minuses, depending upon what you’re looking for.

Ultrabooks
These laptops are the ones we see that look like you could normally break them by just typing on it. They’re underpowered, run typically Windows XP and I would never recommend one. There is nothing attractive about these laptops and they are truly a humiliation to the entire laptop world. That’s that. Brands that carry these are almost anyone these days.

Consumer Laptops
These laptops are typically what any family normally goes for. They usually go on sale and are an all around good unit. They range in various storage sizes (between 500GB to upwards of 1TB), can do most things that a normal individual who isn’t a creative needs, can handle moderate games but nothing too graphic intensive, fairly portable but mostly on the bulky side and have an average battery life. These computers are (in my opinion) designed for students, homes or individuals who need to do a bit more but don’t spend much more than 10 to 15 hours a week on one. More popular brands are HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo and Sony just to name a few.

Business Laptops

Business laptops are usually the units which are boasting great performance, ultimate battery life, portability and functionality. These laptops are normally outside of the average consumers price range as well but are packed with goodies that people on the go love. Long battery lives, normally between 6 to 8 hours, performance and speed as well as ultra portability. Laptops such as these will normally be built with SSD’s, good dual or quad-core processors and housed in a sleek slim design. Most companies will have a product line of “business” laptops, however these few are elite in my eyes; Lenovo, Apple and Samsung.

Gaming Laptops
No introduction is necessary I think. These laptops are designed with power-hungry video cards and processors, suck power like your Mercedes ML550 but produce performance like a Ferrari. The gaming elite in this area is AlienWare. The configurations you could come up with are astonishingly fast but costly. Gaming laptops are for those individuals who don’t want a console or a large tower but still love the gaming world.

The laptops mentioned above are generalized mostly. Many companies now offer BTO (build-to-order) units which can be customized to a users specific needs. Having the properly built laptop that will handle and do everything you need it to though is important.

As a professional looking to working remotely or from home, the following generalized configuration would be best;

Slim design and portable. Don’t get into a 15″ laptop unless you are okay with the weight. The screen size is a big plus, however carrying that things to client meetings or to your work area may become tiresome. Instead, invest the money you would have spent on the larger unit into a good monitor and use that as the disk play when you’re at home.
SSD for improved speed. The SSD although more expensive is worth the extra investment. First there are no moving parts which reduces the risk of the hard disks going bad on you and the speed boost you see is tremendous.
Intel based. Although I hate to admit it (I used to be a die-hard AMD guy) Intel has surpassed AMD in the processor market. It’s more efficient and better equipped in my opinion to handle what you’ll need.
Roughly 6 hour battery life. In combination of a Intel processor and a SSD the battery on a unit you choose should be somewhere around 6 hours with normal use. That’s not to say that it will last that long all the time. Running something in the background, using Bluetooth and streaming will kill the battery.

Overall the choice is really yours. My recommendations stem from personal experience using a variety of laptops for work. Currently I’m utilizing a Dell which is decent and compact but the battery life is horrible. Despite being a less powerful and smaller unit then my tripped out 15″ MacBook Pro, it get’s 40% of the life out of a single charge then its heavier cousin.

Moral of this post is that you need to determine concretely what your needs are and what you are willing to sacrifice. When focusing on working remotely, you really don’t need a ton of room on your drive for things you wont need. Keep the basics without sacrificing speed or performance were needed the most.

Next week we’ll focus on finding the right mobile phone. With so many options and future predictions, it’s not easy deciphering what one needs and doesn’t.

New Mini Series … “Working Remotely”

Transit Etiquette

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Being a daily user of public transit I have come to appreciate not having to put myself through the pains of driving into the downtown core and yet, I find at times I am stressed after getting off my train regardless. I have recently began publicly pointing out rude behaviour which really push my buttons, but more recently, the crap that I see and hear during my trips to and from work, require a little lesson in etiquette … from me.

For those who frequently commute on the train, specifically the Milton GO line, you are all aware that we have to deal with rude, sometime obnoxious individuals who believe that we like hearing about their problems in the early morning or late at night. Who think they are privileged simply because they are taking the train downtown. It has become truly disgusting.

Lesson 1: No, We Don’t Want to Hear About Your Drunk Sister
One conversation which I had the honour of hearing, seven seats back, was of an Asian women complaining to some guy on the phone about how stupid her sister was and how she always came home drunk. (Now, I know that calling out her race may be inappropriate, but I have to in order to set this up in your minds. Think, Asian women, who does not speaks proper English yelling into her iPhone. Please feel free to tell me off in the comments.) This may have been intended as a cry for help from her friend, however it hardly seemed appropriate to be discussed in such a public place.

When it comes to conversations of any kind over the phone, (especially that one), they are best done through either email or text, never a call. Yes mobile phones were designed to have conversations “on the go”, but let us be honest, no one wants to know your personal business.

Two types of conversations you should never have on cramped transit;

anything personal about yourself, a partner or anything that could be considered gossip
anything in respect to business.

I cannot stress the importance of the second point. You never really know who you’re sitting beside or is near you. I have personally heard a horror story where an individual unintentionally discussed confidential business matters about a vendor over the phone, only to later learn an employee from that vendor was the gentlemen sitting beside her. Issues or topics which can put you into a negative light or present you as someone you are not, should never be discussed in public. Such things are left to secure email or private conversations back at your office, behind closed doors.

This also applies to writing sensitive emails in public. I have forged a habit where I do not reply to or write business emails if I am sitting beside someone or someone is standing near me (and I am sitting). Despite our best intentions, our eyes wonder. We get curious, and we never know who could be reading what over your shoulder. Don’t do it. You just never know, again, who might be snooping unintentionally.

I have to applaud those few who when they do receive a call, they excuse themselves and let the individual calling know they’ll call them back. “Hey, I’m on the train right now, let me call you back in xx minutes” is never wrong to say.

Lesson 2: Keep Your Voices Down
Being able to commute with a friend or co-worker is great. You have time in the morning and or on the way home to discuss what happened the night before, or how amazed you were by the results of the polls on American Idol. One request the rest of us have, don’t shout it so we all have to hear. Yes trains can be loud, but when you’re sitting beside each other there is no need for it.

In line with Lesson 1, we don’t want to hear it. For those of us who are unlucky to commute alone, we like to read, listen to music or perhaps nap before we arrive at our destinations. You are sitting next to each other so why not lean in a bit and discuss things using a quieter level of voice. You yelling or raising your voice to tell your friend how wonderful a night you had with that guy you met the weekend before only makes you look like an idiot. Or makes us think you’re deaf.

Chat, but do it quietly and respectfully. If its 7:00 pm and I’m on my way home, I’ve had a long 14 hour day already (considering I am up at 5:00 am most days). I want to take a nap, please don’t be rude in spoiling that blissful 30 minutes for me.

Lesson 3: One Seat Only
This one’s a given, yet so many people still disrespect this rule. When we get on a train (or bus or subway), we are sometimes fortunate enough to find seating with no one else around. Our instinct is to take up more then a single seat and I’ve caught myself even doing this. It’s convenient. We can place our bags on the seat beside us, place our feet up on the opposite seat and get comfortable for the commute to or from work. Here are two reasons why this is wrong.

You putting your bag onto the seat next or across from you disables someone else to sit there. We don’t notice it but as soon as we see a bag or coat on a seat we ignore it and attempt to find another. The number of people whom I’ve seen actually ask for the item to be moved is less then 1%. It’s awkward and most people feel they may make the other feel confrontational or yield some snobby remarks. Avoid putting anything on another seat. You have room on your lap for your things. If you need to work however, then place your bag on the floor under your feet.

Speaking of feet, putting yours up on a seat is never okay. Not only does this disables someone from using it, but also potentially makes it dirty. Have you ever sat down only to realized later you sat in something. It’s embarrassing and a big inconvenience. For those individuals (youth and adults alike) who like to spread across three seats on a bus or place their feet up on the seat across from them, don’t do it. If you’re lucky you won’t need to be told to take your feet down, if you’re unlucky, you’ll get a lesson from an old grump who will let you have it (I’d love to see that.) I especially employ those who find it necessary to also remove their shoes as they do this, your feet no matter what, smell even a little. Do not air them out. Wait to get home to do that.

Lesson 4: Be Attentive to the Needs of Others
If we’re lucky to get a seat and not have to sit during the entire commute, we usually don’t care about anything else. We got our seat, we can now work, read or do something else. That’s not necessarily right.

Now I may be a bit old fashioned but I find it more and more disturbing of how inconsiderate people can be towards one another. I’ve often found people ignore what’s going on around them, focusing only on either getting to their destination or something in front of them. When you (a younger, healthier individual) see an older man, women or heaven forbid a pregnant women, get up and give them your seat. It may be wrong in thinking that everyone who looks older needs a seat or that they cannot hold their own, but its polite. I have personally offered my seat to anyone that I deem needed one. Whether it be someone older, pregnant or simply someone who looks like they’re having a tough time standing, I’ve given my seat to them. Most people will decline, heck, almost everyone I’ve offered always does, but stand your ground. Some will see you as the “sucker who was stupid enough to give up their seat for the 30 minute commute”, but to that individual and those who still have a sense of politeness, you will be regarded as a gentlemen or a lady.

Needless to say we’ve come a long way, the wrong way, when it comes to etiquette on public transit. It’s disappointing that common sense and manners have gone with the past. I hope that we can all start to begin to look at making all our commutes a little easier by following some of the simple suggestions in this post. Let me know in the comments, what you’ve encountered or seen while commuting around town.

Until next time …

Voicemail Etiquette

Most often we will email, send a text or tweet the individual we need to speak with. This form of communication is only really appropriate with people whom we are close with or well associated. There are times however, when it is more appropriate to just call. Unfortunately more often than not, our calls get screened to voicemail or genuinely missed and we are left with the request to leave a voicemail. No biggie right? So we’d think.

There is the right way of going about leaving a voicemail and there is the wrong way.

Depending upon who the voicemail is intended for, some adjustments will be needed. If for example we are leaving a voicemail for a friend, it can be more casual. However, there are still some things to remember and include when possible.

Leave your name, even though they may know who called, just mention it: “Hey its Marc …”
Let them know why you are calling.
Inform them whether they should call you or get back to you in another form; text, email, twitter.
Keep it short.

The message should not be any longer then 45 seconds but 60 seconds seems to be the acceptable maximum.

Generally the same rules apply to leaving a voicemail for someone you do not know or perhaps a business professional whom you are leaving a message for. Always include these few things in the message, and attempt to keep it under a minute;

Leave your full name. First and Last.
Give a brief summery about the purpose of your call. (Do not go into great length of detail. If you’re looking to speak to them about something specific, mention just that and leave it there. Makes sure though also not to leave them anticipating, as this may drive some up a wall.)
Let them know whether you will call back later and specify a time or request that they get a hold of you.
Leave your direct contact (like a cell phone number) and email. At times individuals may be tied up all day in meetings or travelling and calling back may not be the best option for them.
Let them know you look forward to hearing from them at their earliest convenience, IF you wont be calling back again.
Keep it under 60 seconds.

Some will argue that leaving too little information is wrong. Explaining the purpose of your call is easier or more “efficient”. I would like to disagree as it defeats the purpose of a call back or getting the person to discuss with you directly what you originally called for. Remember that calling someone is a more personal approach to communication. Leaving a lengthy voicemail defeats this purpose and forces someone to listen to you ramble for who knows how long.

Just remember, in today’s high-tech world, it is good to occasionally go old school.