For nine years, I’ve worked from a home office using web-based email. That means that, for nine years, I’ve been able to conduct business quite seamlessly even when traveling, as long as I have an Internet connection and needed files with me on a key drive. (As a matter of fact, there was a healthy number of years I didn’t have a laptop and just finagled as I could in hotel business offices, the occasional Kinko’s and such. Now with my beloved 8” netbook and wireless USB modem, I’m a force to be reckoned with!)
Eventually, my email service came to offer limitless storage, so I save nearly all messages (sent and received), which gives me access to attached documents any time, anywhere. Before trips, I’ll often email myself items that I’m working on, just so I’ve got ‘em if I need ‘em. Every computer has some kind of word processor loaded to allow me to edit basic documents, or there’s the oh-so handy Google Docs for online creation. And in many instances (particularly for my copywriting business), I simply create text in an email and simply hit “send” when done. Pretty cool.
This modus operandi was my inadvertent introduction to cloud computing. Have Internet connection, will travel…and get my work done while I’m at it! Nearly all I’ve needed to be fully productive has been in the clouds. It’s nice in the clouds, and even as more small business people and solo acts like me move in up here, there’s still plenty of space to spare!
Of course, I feel like the world is just now catching up with what I’ve known for nearly a decade, as cloud computing becomes more prevalent. I’m seeing it all the time. Companies that once made their money by selling installed software and onsite tech support are now offering “software as a service” (SaaS) and virtual support. Web-based systems are more fluid and yet more secure than ever before, and businesses of vastly larger and larger scales are benefitting from the need for less on site equipment and storage, less stuff in general. With SaaS and cloud computing, systems are monitored more efficiently, there’s less down time and operations are far more flexible and less constrained by location or accoutrements.
Another great development up in the clouds? Virtual office support. Even as the work-a-day world taps into online—cloud—resources more adeptly and frequently, the human touch need not be lost. The virtual staffing and virtual office solutions industry is burgeoning, as more business people are finding less need to be confined by physical locations or traditional staffing configurations. A business person who works solitarily from home in small town USA can reserve a meeting room in LA or London or Liberia as needed, have a virtual receptionist take calls and field customer inquiries and never miss a beat. And these responsive, as-needed resources are phenomenally more affordable than leased office space and full-time staffers. Not to mention, the virtual receptionist is also using SaaS to keep calls and contacts organized and easily accessible online!
Any of this sound appealing? There’s room in the clouds for you! If you’re interested in taking your business to the next level—the cloud—start by logging on to the Davinci Virtual. This innovative business is a leader in (not just a product of) the move to virtual functionality. They have great ideas to get you started in the move forward—and upward—in your business.
