As my business grew, so did the distribution of my business card, which contained my home phone number and address. I grew uncomfortable with the wide distribution of my personal contact information. I was surprised at how exposed this made me feel, especially my personal address being on the footer of my new newsletter that is now distributed to 1,000 people each week.

I decided to reclaim my personal privacy by moving my business’s location out of my home.

For my business, the perfect solution was the “business location service” offered by my coworking facility. Similar services are offered by many coworking operations. The service provides my company use of the facility’s mailing address, and also a dedicated toll-free number answered by the facility’s receptionist. Now callers will be greeted by the ever-cheerful Lateesha, instead of probably getting my personal answering machine.

Since I didn’t physically move locations, there were no boxes to pack. But as I have been discovering, even moving a business on paper is an involved process that has financial costs.

Just like when you move your home, there are many places to notify of your new address. Instead of their driver’s license, business owners have to change their business license. A business may have multiple licenses: state, county and city. You’ll need to check with each to find out how to change your address, and there may be fees involved. For instance, it cost me $25 to file my change with the State of Florida. To notify the U.S. Internal Revenue Service of your change of address, fill out form 8822 and mail it in.

Next up, you’ll need to change the address on your bank accounts, credit accounts, merchant accounts, and payment services such as Paypal or Square. Changing these addresses will cause some expense because you’ll need to re-order any supplies such as checks and deposit slips that have the address on them. Avoid using your bank to purchase these supplies, and use an outside printing service instead, such as Checks Unlimited, to save money. I saved 75 percent on my new banking supplies doing this. Make sure you change the addresses on the accounts before ordering the new supplies as the printer may verify the information with the bank.

After updating your financial accounts, you’ll need to change the billing address on any place where you are using that account (such as for auto-billing).

Two other groups will need to be notified of your “move”: vendors and clients. How you do this will depend on how many you have, and how you usually communicate with them. You can mail postcards (another expense), send emails, or attach notices to payments  bills you send. (If you use accounting software, don’t forget to update it to print your new address on forms.) Since your old address will continue to work, this can be done gradually.

Where else is your address hiding? It could be in your email signature, at your domain registrar, on your website, or in social media profiles. It’s likely on your business cards (and letterhead, if you use it), which is another expense. Inevitably, the address will pop up somewhere you’ve missed. It’s a big project, but I expect the result to be increased privacy and professionalism.

Do you use a business location service? Why?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Enabling the Web Work Revolution

My own choice of whether to go desktop or online was complicated by being a Mac user. The single Mac version of Quickbooks has been panned by reviewers. Accounting software was my “sticking point” last year when I went through the PC to Mac transition that Scott has been writing about.

I chose to run Quickbooks Premier under Parallels on my MacBook. This sufficed for a year, despite an underpowered machine and major inconvenience. Recently, I gave up on the desktop and transitioned onto Quickbooks Online. After a month of use, here’s what I’ve learned about the differences between Quickbooks on the desktop and online.

• Price: Quickbooks 2010 costs $300 (street price), while Quickbooks Online Plus is $35/month. Even if you upgrade your desktop software every year, you’ll pay more to be online.
• Accountant access: Providing access for my accountant is what prompted my switch to Quickbooks Online. With desktop Quickbooks, we’d have had to set up port access through our router’s firewall, and she’d have only had access when I had Parallels booted. If my laptop was away from home, she wouldn’t have had access at all. With Quickbooks Online, I simply authorized her, and she has access 24/7.
• Dashboard: The dashboard and status report screens are different between desktop and online Quickbooks. The desktop screens are packed with more information and options for navigating your data. The status report, called Company Snapshot, is highly customizable on the desktop, but not online. In this area, I definitely miss the desktop version, which gave me a better “at-a-glance” update on my company’s finances, without having to run reports.
• Security: While I backed up my desktop data, using a single storage location (my home office) for the files left me vulnerable. Quickbooks Online uses redundant back-up; for extra security I can download and store a copy locally as well. Since being online I don’t have to worry about my accounting data being compromised if my laptop is stolen; it’s no longer stored on the machine.
• General usability: The menu system is simpler and more logical in Quickbooks Online. Client and vendor summary screens are both more usable online, too. Although both the desktop and online versions of Quickbooks carry ads for Intuit’s premium services (like payroll and merchant accounts), the ads are less intrusive online. And being online is definitely more convenient than using Parallels. There are two features I find weak online. You can customize forms, but not as much as the desktop allows. Calling up lists as tables that can be bulk edited is very convenient on the desktop; it’s missing online.
• Bottom line: There’s a price to pay in cost and features for the convenience and data security of using Quickbooks Online, but I find it well worth paying.

Would you feel comfortable doing your accounting in the cloud?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Report: The Real-Time Enterprise

iPass has just weighed in on which side of that debate its enterprise clients fall on. The enterprise mobility service just announced that it has added Aircell to its available network of services. This means that iPass Mobile Network users will be able to connect to Gogo in-flight Wi-Fi, while staying within the iPass network. Gogo in-flight Wi-Fi is available on all AirTran and Virgin America flights, and on limited American Airlines, Delta, US Airways, United and Air Canada flights. Customers will be charged $4.95 for flights less than 1.5 hours, $9.95 for flights 1.5 to three hours, and $12.95 for flights more than three hours long for using Gogo through iPass.

In the product announcement, iPass explained that this will benefit employees of iPass Mobile Network customers, as connecting to Gogo will be more convenient with iPass, since they will be able to avoid the multiple steps of paying via credit card and filing expense reports after the fact for reimbursement. For enterprises, it should simplify accounting, allow companies access to detailed reports on in-flight network usage, and allow enforcement of VPN and security policies.

For regular users of other airlines, iPass says it expects to add more in-flight Wi-Fi services to its offering in 2010.

iPass leaves no doubt in its announcement that mobile workers are now expected to be working constantly when traveling — even when they are at 30,000 feet:

“The age of inflight Internet connectivity is here and is a huge productivity win for business travelers who need to stay connected and work securely online while in the air,” said Evan Kaplan, president and CEO of iPass. “Airplanes have been the last bastion of mobile worker downtime and iPass and Gogo Inflight Internet provider Aircell are here to close this gap in a way that meets the simplicity, visibility and control requirements of the enterprise.”

Say goodbye to the days of settling back in your seat and watching a movie or reading a book and getting some recharging before that big meeting while you cruise at 30,000 feet. When enterprises consider in-flight Wi-Fi a needed function of their mobile networks, the writing is obviously on the wall (or in the clouds): your airplane seat is now an extension of your office.

Does in-flight Wi-Fi make you feel obligated to work? Would that change if it were part of your employer’s mobile network?

One major benefit of coworking is escaping the things in our home offices that make it difficult to work and be productive. The home environment, of course, is full of distractions and interruptions. We’re pulled by unfinished personal projects, interrupted by personal phone calls and knocks on the door, and tempted by many enjoyable ways to procrastinate.

But more than anywhere else, our most vulnerable moments occur at home. It’s where we worry that we aren’t doing the right things for our kids, and where we stare in the mirror and call ourselves ugly. It is where we open ourselves up the most. Consequently, home isn’t just where we live. It’s where our insecurities live, too.

Working from home often means not having someone right there with us to validate decisions or keep us and our business pointed in the right direction. We have to keep going, doing things while being confident from within ourselves that we are on the right path. That confidence, I’m finding, can be difficult to maintain when you work in a home office surrounded by reminders of your personal insecurities.

Leaving my home office to work seems to have the effect of putting away those insecurities. I literally just leave them at home. Putting on decent clothes to go to my coworking space is like putting on armor that keeps the insecurities at bay and lets me be at my professional best. Being around other people who treat me like the professional that I am reminds me to focus on my accomplishments, not my inner critic. In an outside office, I’m not surrounded by reminders that I’m a terrible housekeeper or of all my unfinished projects. Decisions are made faster and with more confidence. I can be more productive, and what I produce feels like better quality to me.

As Celine wrote a few months ago, some home office workers put on business clothes to work in their home offices to get a similar effect on their productivity. While I do find that dressing better to work at home helps a little, nothing has been as effective for me as getting out of my home office and seeking a new environment entirely.

We are all our own worst critics. When your only office mate is that critic, it’s easy to listen to that criticism and let it get to you.

Have you found any unexpected benefits from coworking?

Photo by iClipart.

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Enabling the Web Work Revolution

After iPad announcement day, I provoked a lot of controversy by writing that I felt that the iPad could serve as a travel computer for me. After handling it and trying out its features, I’m now even more convinced that is true.

I’m a writer, more specifically a professional blogger. I’m not doing heavyweight computer tasks when I travel. In fact, I’m usually not even writing when I’m on the road except for brief updates to my web sites. I’m answering email, conducting text-based research on the web, taking notes, and doing other lightweight tasks.

I’m not the only writer or blogger who thinks the iPad can help in their work. After a week with an iPad in hand, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Andy Ihnatko raved about how useful the gadget is for his workflow on TWIT last week. Mashable’s Ben Parr wrote one of his recent posts completely on the iPad, although he admitted that a few things were a pain, like working with images.

The only real processor- or software-heavy task that I did during my last extended business trip was edit photos in Adobe Lightroom on my return flight, which could easily have waited till I got home. It certainly wasn’t worth hauling around a computer that weighs three times as much as an iPad for almost a week just to get a two-hour head start on my photo processing.

The first thing I noticed when getting my hands on an iPad was how big it was. The size was surprising. I had expected the screen to feel smaller than it does. This was good news for its usability for many of the tasks that I do. Many of these tasks, such as web browsing, can also be done on my iPhone but the small screen makes them awkward. The iPad provides the screen real estate to take notes, browse and read without getting a headache from it.

Besides being large, the screen is also gorgeous. The resolution is wonderful and it is just a joy to look at. As spoiled as I am by using my iPhone screen on a daily basis, the iPad screen is even more beautiful, although it obviously gets streaky easily.

Another thing I noticed almost immediately was the speed of the device. It responds to commands lightning-fast compared to my iPhone. This kind of processor power raises interesting possibilities for what the iPad may be able to do in apps that the iPhone can’t, such as in the area of photo editing. There is already at least one photo editor out for the iPad, PhotoGene, that looks to be very robust.

A lot of commenters on my previous iPad article suggested that instead of an iPad I get a netbook for my travel needs. While there is a price penalty for buying the iPad over a netbook, I see the iPad as a better option for me for several reasons:

• Weight: The iPad is half the weight of most netbooks — an important carrying consideration for someone with arthritis in their back.
• Compatibility: Since I’m already heavily embedded in the Mac OS ecosystem (I use an iPhone and MacBook with iCal, Contacts and Mobile Me, for instance), all my data will sync natively very easily with another Apple device. I use the iWork suite, so having a device that can use those files is definitely a plus. I can design presentations at home in Keynote and then take them on the road using the iPad. I can take transfer text notes back and forth in Pages.
• Speed: The tablet format and quick-boot OS will make it much easier to do quickie tasks (such as making a short note in an application like Evernote) than a netbook. Juggling a netbook for such tasks while standing would be awkward at best, and I could be done and have the iPad put away again before the netbook would probably even be booted up.
• Connectivity: For me, the 3G iPad, with its no contract pay-as-you-go connectivity, is the one to have. To have cellular system access with a netbook, I’d have to pay for a connection device like a MiFi or wireless card, which means paying every month for an expensive service whether I really need it that month or not. With the iPad 3G plan, I can have (and pay for) connectivity only when I need it.
• Battery Life: Both the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg and Andy Ihnatko are on record as saying the iPad can get 11 hours or more of battery life using power saving settings. This far exceeds the average netbook and is just one more reason the iPad is a superior travel device.

So, how do I imagine utilizing the iPad on my next business trip?

First, I have to gear up. I’ll have an iPad with 3G. I’ll install the following apps: Evernote, iWork (Pages, Numbers and Keynote), Things and WordPress (please see disclosure at the bottom). I’ll take the camera connectivity kit and an external keyboard with me, but the keyboard can stay at the hotel during the day which means I save the weight of hauling it.

Some preparation at home will make my life easier on the road. I’ll add to the iPad’s onboard photo library any photos I think I may want to use from my archives while at the event. I can export my Notebooks from Circus Ponies’ Notebook program to view as web sites in Safari if I think I’ll need them. I’ll also prepare in advance blank draft blog posts that are pre-completed with thumbnail photos (for instance, the event logo) and any advertising banners I intend to use. This will save cutting & pasting and photo editing on the road, and will make posting faster in general. All I’ll have to do is write content and use the camera connection kit or my iPhone camera to add pictures to my posts.

Once on the road, I’ll use Evernote and Pages for taking notes, WordPress or Safari for doing my web posting, Things for editorial planning and Keynote for any presentations. Any contact or calendar changes that I make will be synced to Mobile Me for backup. I can store and pull files that I need from Mobile Me or Dropbox.

I am really looking forward to the day that I can leave my laptop at home when I pack my suitcase.

Disclosure: Automattic, maker of WordPress.com, is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.

CoLab Orlando is located in the historic Angebilt building in downtown Orlando, Fla. Originally occupying part of the sixth floor when it opened, CoLab expanded last year to include half of the eighth floor as well by taking over space previously occupied by a local university business incubator that had lost its funding. CoLab is now in the process of expanding again, by adding space on the building’s ninth floor in the near future.

Two distinctly different types of membership are offered at CoLab Orlando. First there are more traditional coworking membership arrangements, where members pay to have access for a certain amount of time during the month to CoLab’s common work area, conference rooms and business equipment. These members also get the use of CoLab’s address for their business. Prices for these memberships start at $50 per month for four visits, and go up to $199 for a full-time membership.

The second type of membership at CoLab involves full-time dedicated suite rentals. Prices for these memberships depends on the size and type of suite included in them (corner suites with more windows cost extra, for instance). Dedicated suite prices start at $375 per month for a 10ft x 14ft suite and go to $1500 per month for a 500 sq. ft. suite.

All CoLab members get access to the facility’s high-speed Internet service, printer/fax/ copier/scanner, conference rooms and coffee facilities. CoLab also hosts one or two free events per month for its members, along with a “Free Friday” coworking event for non-members.

The coworking common area at CoLab is definitely underutilized. It was virtually deserted on the Monday afternoon that I visited, although I was told a few members use it on a regular basis. This is likely because CoLab’s suites are so affordable that they are packed to the rafters with small businesses. If you have someone to share a suite with you can have dedicated space for around the same cost as using the common area full-time.

Not unexpectedly, most of the companies occupying suite space at CoLab Orlando seem to be tech companies. I visited with developers at Envy Labs and with Internet advertising specialists Enjoy Taste. The suites I toured were all occupied by multiple people. Despite the full-time suite rentals, CoLab’s population shifts on a daily basis. Many suite occupants said they work from home some days and come to the office when they need to collaborate with others or meet with clients.

The prevalent decor aesthetic in the facility’s suites seems to be Ikea furniture and bright color. Unlike in many office rentals, personalizing suite spaces through the use of paint and decor is encouraged. The results are far-from-usual office spaces with lots of evident personality. For instance, when I visited the suite of Envy Labs, I was treated to their collection of handmade robots.

Overall, CoLab’s suites — and the people in them — give an impression of being bright, welcoming and fun. The feeling of positive energy in CoLab was palpable, and co-founder John Todero stressed, “Energy is what sells the place.” Doors of many of the occupied suites were open as I walked around, inviting contact with other residents. Many of the resident companies, I was told, work with each other on projects.

Because so many of the residents aren’t solo coworkers, but are instead small start-up companies, CoLab is almost more of a business incubator than a coworking space. Whatever you want to call it, the energy and enthusiasm within its walls is contagious.

Does the idea of an incubator-style suite appeal to you more than traditional office space might?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Enabling the Web Work Revolution

On Friday, reMail founder Gabor Cselle made a second announcement with some good news for reMail’s fans: reMail’s code is being made open source. It’s being distributed under an Apache 2.0 license via Google Code.

Cselle indicated in the announcement that he hopes reMail’s code can serve as a building block for other mobile email apps. He also indicated that he has provided some documentation of the code and started a Google Group to encourage development of projects using the code.

But even the best OCR business card reader technology has limitations. And while adding over 100 business cards to my contact files this week using my NeatReceipts for Mac, I discovered many of them. Cards with certain design features simply didn’t scan well. And as scanning becomes more common, this is something that business card designers should keep in mind. That contact was important enough for you to give your business card to; you need to make sure you make it easy for them to accurately add you to their contacts list — or you risk your card ending up in the trash.

Here’s my list of do’s and don’ts for creating a scannable business card.

Don’t:

• Use fancy fonts. These easily confuse OCR software, especially on letters like “c” and “e”. A clean font like Helvetica may seem boring, but it is easy for OCR to translate.
• Combine your name and title. Names and titles separated by a comma on a single line (such as “Nancy Nally, Editor”) didn’t translate correctly in the OCR I was using.
• Overlay text on a pattern. This is too confusing for OCR.
• Angle text. My scanner’s OCR couldn’t translate text that wasn’t parallel to the edges of the card.
• Mix orientations. Keep all the text oriented in the same direction (preferably horizontally, since my scanner had trouble reading vertically-oriented cards).

Do:

• Keep it big. If you get squinty looking at your card, so will OCR software.
• Give text breathing room. Keep letters nicely spaced so that the OCR can distinguish them easily from each other.
• Keep it light. Cards with dark backgrounds seem impossible to scan (even those with high-contrast white text).
• Put your company name somewhere in text. OCR can’t translate stylized logos, so make sure the company’s name is in text somewhere too.
• Keep it on one side. Scanners only read one side of a card, so keep all the critical contact information on one side.

This last issue was a very common problem with the batch of cards I just scanned. Double-sided printing is becoming very affordable so more people are creating business cards that are printed on both sides. This creates the temptation to spread the critical contact information on both sides of the card, which makes it inaccessible to card reading technology. Ideally, you should have contact information on only one side of the card, and then use the other side for a logo or mini sales brochure. A printer like Moo.com, with its ability to print a different back on each card in a set, offers the ability to get very creative with a card back’s promotional uses. Meanwhile, the front of the card can hold all of the traditional contact information in a clean and simple (scannable) format.

Do you scan business cards? What problems have you come up against?

Google (GigaOM Pro profile) has a long history of buying companies for their talent, and that appears to be the case here. reMail’s founder and CEO Gabor Cselle will now become a product manager for Gmail. Unfortunately for reMail’s fans, that means that the app is being retired; it’s no longer available in the App Store, and after the end of the March there will be no support for it. Until then, the company is making all of the app’s paid features available to all of its users.

The company stressed in its announcement that it has no private customer data for users to be concerned about the retention of, since email downloads used in the app are transferred directly from the service provider to the customer’s phone.

Will you miss reMail?

However, at some point, a business gets too big (hopefully) for one person to do it all. Choices have to be made about starting to delegate tasks to other people. Which areas of responsibility should an entrepreneur hand over to others, and at what point in their business’s growth? Those can be hard calls to make.

I’m currently at the point of having to make some of those decisions myself. My business, which up until recently I’ve been running basically by myself, has grown exponentially in the past 12 months. I have come to the reluctant conclusion that I need help, but I’ve been struggling with how to best go about getting it.

I did make one recent change, which means I’m not doing absolutely everything myself. I brought a contributing writer onto my web site to help me produce content. But that decision was more the result of happening upon the perfect opportunity than of strategic planning, and now I need to figure out how to move forward with more delegating of responsibilities.

As I’ve weighed how to go about this, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are several prime factors to consider in deciding what tasks to offload and how to do it.

• Know your value. Remember to focus on what your true value is to the company. In my company’s case, my personal brand is closely tied to the brand of my company. Readers equate me with Scrapbook Update. It would be counter-productive to the success of the company for me to hire writers to be the visible face of the company while retiring into a behind-the-scenes editorial role. (The writer I recently added expanded the site’s offerings rather than taking burden off of me.)
• Know the true cost. Some types of help will cost more to bring in than others. But these costs must be weighed in relation to how much time will be freed up for you to expend on income-producing activities. Help that seems expensive but which provides you a lot more income-producing time that you are able to take full advantage of may actually be very cost-effective. Also, don’t forget that paying for an expert to take on certain responsibilities could lead to those tasks being done in a way that saves the company money (for instance, an accountant might be able to find tax savings for the company that would offset the costs of accounting services).
• Know your abilities. As our businesses grow, some of our company’s functions may get complex enough that we really have no choice as a smart business person but to call in experts to perform them. There might be other tasks that you could more cost-effectively outsource, but if your needs in a certain area are getting too complex for your DIY skills, then you need to make getting help in that area a priority. Experts that you may need to hand off responsibilities to might include accountants, lawyers, web designers and sales people.

Don’t forget to factor personal tasks in your evaluation as well. There are only 24 hours in a day. Since time spent on non-work related tasks can’t be spent elsewhere, examine everywhere that you are spending your time and consider whether responsibilities can be delegated. Perhaps it would be cost-effective to outsource cleaning your house, or mowing your lawn. (And I’ll bet you wouldn’t miss doing those tasks, either.)

At some point, we have to admit we can’t run every function of our business ourselves. Even a control freak like Steve Jobs has help. Admit you need help, then go about getting the right help for you and your company.

What responsibilities would it be a good idea for you to delegate?

Photo by Flickr user ralphbijker, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.