working from home (on your boat)

[bugs]

Hi all,

I have seen quite a few people say they work from home on the canal, this is my aim. But what do you all do and what was the biggest problem you had to overcome, and did you take the business with you or set up when you started life afloat? Interesting to hear from CC'c and residential moorers if possible please. I am looking at H&S consultancy or something web based as a continuous cruiser.

[Roger Gunkel]

Hi all,

I have seen quite a few people say they work from home on the canal, this is my aim. But what do you all do and what was the biggest problem you had to overcome, and did you take the business with you or set up when you started life afloat? Interesting to hear from CC'c and residential moorers if possible please. I am looking at H&S consultancy or something web based as a continuous cruiser.

 

Hi Bugs,

I run my small video production business from my boat which is on a residential mooring. I transferred the business to the boat when we moved onboard.The most important things for me were a permanent address, Mains power, BT telephone line and reliable internet access.

 

Being a residential mooring, the permanent address is fine. I find that people are very suspicious of a mobile number only for a business and rightly so. I persuaded BT to provide a line at the normal installation cost, with the box attached to a tree alongside my boat. It took a lot of phone calls and threats, but was successful in the end. I had dial up internet access at first, and now have a private wireless broadband system. For me, reasonably fast and unlimited access is essential, to maintain websites, email, order supplies and sit for hours on this forum! A mobile internet service would be prohibatively expensive for me to maintain.

 

I also use a pair of PCs for video editing, so need a reliable mains power supply.

 

There is no way I could run a credible business as a CCer, but thats not to say others can't.

 

Good luck,

Roger

[Lady Muck]

My partner and I do. We are freelance designers, him mainly web design, me mainly shoe design. We manage without mains or a phoneline. We use 3G datacards, but we are lucky that where our home mooring is situated the signal strength is really good and download/upload speeds are comparable with the broadband we used to have in a house. We both have Blackberrys too and send and recieve most of our email from these. blackberry website

 

Working onboard wasn't without it's own challenges - mains power is supposed to be arriving soon, we are looking forward to this. The boat has a big wind genny and two large, efficient, solar panels, (inherited from the green issues conscious previous owner), in the summer this is sufficient to run the laptops, but in the winter we have to run the engine every third day. We only tend to use an invertor when we are printing, and run the laptops and Blackberrys from 12v adaptors which can be bought from Maplin for about £30.

 

Post is another one - we arranged for online billing for the bank and phone and other post goes to a relatives as the post is far too unreliable where the mooring is, plus when we cruise it needs to be kept somewhere safe.

 

Most of our clients have no idea we are working from a boat - probably because we have the Blackberrys we reply to our emails soon as they arrive, plus in my trade everyone uses mobile numbers not landline numbers to contact people as they are always travelling, so a landline wasn't missed most of the time. I have to have an arrangement with a relative though, to recieve faxes as my contracts have to be faxed through.

 

Lack of space can be an issue. All my tax/accounts archive files are kept at a relatives house along with our stationery, (I only keep a small amount onboard, but I buy it in bulk to save money). I tend to keep my other archives on disc and only print off work if I really need to. Make sure you do an off-site back up. We keep a hard drive off-site and back up onto it roughly every month.

 

Make sure that you consider health and safety. It's tempting to work from a laptop on any old chair you can fit in the cabin, but you'll end up with back pain or rsi. Make sure you get a monitor or one of those shelfy things to raise the screen up and a decent chair and check that everything is set up as it would be on land.

 

Condensation is something you have to be aware of, we have a sprayfoamed boat, it's under 5 y.o., but still, we found if you stack things up in a certain way, in certain cabins, condensation can form. Desktop p.c.s and printers and printer paper really do not like this. We are careful to allow air circulation around our precious equipment and I also got anti damp bags from Halfords (you can re-charge them in an oven) and tuck them into areas where I think condensation might be a problem.

 

Theres no room for meetings either - I have a new client and I had to explain why exactly he couldn't send his designer to work with me in my office! We do have an office cabin, but it's certainly not big enough for meetings!

 

I reckon we could manage this as c.c.ers - we are certainly capeable of working on the move, we have done this before. But if you need a constant and reliable internet connection, it could be more tricky - the signal is not fantastic everywhere you go on the system. Thats why the blackberrys are so good for us - they use gprs to send and recieve email, I've never encountered any problems recieving it and its very quick.

 

I certainly wouldn't change things - I'm sitting here at the laptop, our two 'pet' geese are wating outside the window for their breakfast and it's lovely, tranquil and quiet.

 

And finally (I keept thinking of more advice) remember that a boat requiresfar more maintenance than a house. We are pretty busy (work-wise) at the moment, but yesterday the entire day was used up on boat maintenence type things, oil change, filling up with water etc. You have to be aware of this coz it can easily eat into your work time. You have to plan more. I got up at 6 to finish work for a deadline today, that meant checking we have sufficient power, plus also cleaning the stove out and getting it going first of all.

Edited February 20, 2007 by Lady Muck

[ChrisPy]

I find that people are very suspicious of a mobile number only for a business and rightly so. I persuaded BT to provide a line at the normal installation cost, with the box attached to a tree alongside my boat. It took a lot of phone calls and threats, but was successful in the end.

 

I s'pose you could rent a phone line from a business agency or a friend, and have all calls diverted to your mobile.

[StoneHenge]

Don't some busineses require a licence for you to work from your boat as well? I read this somewhere, but not being in the no, I have no idea of the in's and out's.

 

I am employed but enjoy the benefit of being able to work from home on a wireless laptop, which is nice. I have a gateleg table which I set up for the PC, and a 3G datacard which works pretty well if you catch it on a good day. I remote connect to work then through a secure connection, and it works really well.

 

I've heard of a few people who have run a business from boat as it were. Although I would say a few I've spoken to tend to do traditional things like rose and castle painting, and making fenders and the like.

 

Good luck with what you do though. Sounds like a good idea to me. Very relaxing!

[bugs]

Thanks folks; i find it heartening that canals were built for working boats and now people are adapting work to their boats using new tech.

I take on board everything you have said and there are some interesting points made. email will be essential. I may be able to upload once a month for the web site rather than needing constant connection, there are other land based solutions in this for me i think. Address might be a problem, but everything has a solution.

I have the philosophy that my life will be adapted to the boat rather than depending on the other way around. And comments on here will help to ensure that happens. But the vision of the geese outside the window sums up how i want to work. I often see boats at the end of my garden with the laptops in place and wonder what people do.

I dont see it as an easier life just one that suits my personality. Long hours and maintainance no problem that is my back ground (buildings not boats though).

 

Anyone else have any views and pitfalls to avoid?

[StoneHenge]

Some local post offices will hold your mail for you. Ours does which really helps as it counts as a land address for your bank etc.

 

Where there's a will and all that....

[Spencer]

I work from my boat and we are CC'ers. Both sides of my business work fine from here, although I did establish my main clients before I moved, and the need for a landline and a postbox are irrelevant to me as everything can be managed electronically. As a management consultant I work wherever I am needed, and from the boat as much as possible. As a cartoonist I can again work from the boat and email my cartoons to the Editors once I am finished.

 

There are two main considerations for me; Phone / Internet Signal and Time. The signal issue has been resolved. I use a 3G datacard which now provides a perfect signal wherever I moor (and we favour middle-of-nowhere spots rather than anywhere near civilisation) with the purchase of a little antennae which sticks onto the inside of the porthole and turns the boat shell into a groundplane. The phones work great by the porthole so I simply pair up a bluetooth headset and I can sit at my desk with a perfect signal rather than having my cheek pressed against the glass!

 

I agree that Time is the other drawback. The responsibilities of living aboard must be addressed, emptying my buckets and refilling my water tank are therefore built into my schedule. I simply work my deadlines around these events and the client does not need to know why I need an extra couple of days to deliver.

 

It can be done though, and I am sitting typing this in a beautiful spot on the Shroppie with a cartoon deadline approaching and several weeks of consultancy work scheduled completing some analysis from the boat. Life is sweet!

 

Spencer

[Carrie]

I've had problems when my scanner stopped working and I was supposed to send stuff off and was in the middle of nowhere, but I don't do cartoon work so my deadlines tend to be a lot longer. One other problem I've noticed is of my own making. I don't 'tout' my work directly anymore because I hate leaving the boat to meet someone on the offchance of getting a commission. I need to set up a website - so far my projects have been from old clients and their contacts and I can see that drying up if I'm not careful.

Otherwise, I think you can CC and work from your boat with a good Internet connection as has already been said.

[Spencer]

One other problem I've noticed is of my own making. I don't 'tout' my work directly anymore because I hate leaving the boat to meet someone on the offchance of getting a commission. I need to set up a website - so far my projects have been from old clients and their contacts and I can see that drying up if I'm not careful.

 

I agree with Carrie. A website is a good way to keep in touch with / attract clients, and you can do this from the boat or become a bandwidth bandit and use a local library whenever you are near one with internet capability.

 

Spencer

[Lady Muck]

I just thought of somwthing else. Before you start working from your boat, make sure you practise working wirelessly. I had the datacard (and practised working with it) a year before I worked on the boat. During the transistion period we rented an offce. Its worth being cautious, if its your sole income you need the transistion to be as smooth as possible. I reckon it took us about three months before we were confident with our boat electrics and new way of working. As Carrie says if something breaks it can be hard if you are miles from anywhere. That's why we now have a spare 12v adaptor for the laptop! We also have somewhere else we can stay and work away from the boat. You have to think what you might do if you have to do any major repair or maintenance work on your boat.

[Jason King]

I'm a continuous cruiser and freelancing web designer who works on a boat.

 

I need the Internet and recently I've struggled because on some days I just couldn't get connected. It used to be that you'd pick up one or two wifi signals and one would be unpassworded; nowadays there are loads of signals but most are secured. Good news for security, not so good for visiting freeloaders. So I end up spending money in Internet cafes. A tip: don't use cafes' computers because they're often rife with keylogging software; take your own laptop in and connect by wifi instead.

 

Last time I looked at a 3g card it was very expensive. Vodafone charges £25 a month for a monthly limit of 250mb a month - I can easily use that up in a single day! T-Mobile offers a more reasonable 3gb per month for £29.

 

I don't quite have the battery capacity I need to run a laptop and printer for hour after hour: ideally I'd have four leisure batteries instead of two. When I make visits to clients I always charge my laptop up while I'm there!

 

I make a point of telling potential clients that I live on a boat. I only work with small-to-medium-sized charities and by and large they're unfazed by ad-hoc ways of working.

[anthony]

Just an idea.

You can have a land line number via tesco internet phone and it has voice mail.

So you just log on once a day get your messages and call back on a mobile.

If you have a decent wireless connection you can always use the internet phone to make local rate calls too.

[bugs]

3G seems to be the way forward and I am looking into this. It can be combined with land facilities and managing the 'risk' of down time / boat repairs is a very good point. Some excellent points coming out here. What do the CC'ers do re transport and have you come across any legal issues re working from the boat? inland rev etc, or does the land address overcome all of these.

CC is my future and the possibility of taking the boat and business to Europe in 5 years with a fully established web site in place. I am not keen to adapt to marina living and then go to CC but take on board the adjustment comments. I would prefer to make the leap of faith, but slightly reduce the problems by starting in the autumn this year with towpath moorings at crick until March. The boat will be a sailaway as I have a specific layout I want and certain types of finishes. So all these points will help as the research has started and I want to get it as close to right as I can in the early stages and then just adjust as things go along.

Thanks everyone

[Lady Muck]

Just one more thing to add - on the recommendation of another user on this forum, we just bought a magnetic 3G ariel from boaters phone company (www.boatersphone.co.uk) - I can't recommend them enough. Whereas we used to have an intermittent 3G signal which dropped in and out of 3G and into gprs, causing our uploads to fail on a regular (frustrating) basis, we now have a constant good strong signal. Really worth the sixty quid (ish) it cost us.

[Phobus]

Hello all, been lurking a while and thought I should join in.

 

Just a tip for those who work from home and use 3G. If you know anyone that works for T mobile, or even a friend of a friend that does, they operate a Friends and family scheme where anyone working for the company can get you on that list. That gives you a 50% reduction in your monthly bills for life.

Well worth knowing!