Digital Business

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Getting to work is one of the most competitive things many of us do each day. Firstly, we compete with ourselves to make sure we get out of the door at the right time to catch the bus, train, tube or even to miss the squeeze on the road while we drive to work. To get out on time, we get up with our alarms, drop into our routines of cleaning, eating, dressing, waking up the kids and getting ready.

Once we have left our homes, we then move into the ‘stream’ of other commuters and become beholden to the speed at which the majority is driving, or the speed of the train. We have little control over how much faster we can go because of the restrictions faced by us, including speed limits, road widths, traffic controls and the speed of someone ahead of us.

We become frustrated. We are delayed for meetings. We get overheated in our cars and in our minds. We become irrational and enraged when someone crosses our paths or blocks our way or creates a delay.

Our commute to work is similar to the challenges we face at work. We rely on each other at work and in our roles. Frustrations come to the surface in the form of bad politics and irrational behaviour and emotions.

And that’s why people start businesses because they see a way of improving on something we do everyday or which is unreachable where we work as employees.

To return to the commuting analogy, getting to work (when I am not working from home) is on two wheels. A motorbike, in fact. At this point, in many conversations I have had when planning to get a motorbike, people have been very negative about my decision. “They’re dangerous”. “It’s cold in winter”. “You’re mad”. “Don’t do it. I know someone who was killed on a motorbike”.

Many people have tried to dissuade me from it but I went ahead anyway. And people will try to dissuade you from starting a business, or pursuing an idea usually because of something they have experienced secondhand or because of a lack of knowledge and experience about it. People are conservative and mistake risk and danger with opportunity.

The things is, you get well trained to ride a motorbike in the UK these days. And, when you have driven for a few years in a car, riding a motorbike is less worrying than you might think. You are trained to be highly observant on a motorbike. ‘Ride with calm confidence’ is the adage. And it works. Don’t let yourself get wound up. Watch what’s going on. Let people know what you are about to do. Anticipate trouble. Planning.

Riding a motorbike in the UK is a highly efficient way to commute to work. With care, you can filter through four-wheeled traffic easily. You can park for free at railway stations. You don’t pay a congestion charge. Running costs are low. Road tax is cheap. On a motorbike, you get there quicker, cheaper and less stressed than in your own car or public transport.

The key advantages of a motorbike are small size and great acceleration. Yes, motorbikes an be fast but speed is not their main advantage which is the main misconception about them because people see nutters zooming past them at the weekend.

So, to apply this being competitive and finding better ways to do things, riding a motorbike is a good way to think about  how to improve on something which other people do or use regularly. People riding a motorbike to work are in the minority because most people don’t want to try it. Most people are happy to sit in the mainstream. Entrepreneurs realise that the mainstream will provide them with an opportunity to provide new products and services to them to change habits.

But motorbikes are not for everyone. In winter, it can get chilly. You can’t cart large amounts of stuff around on them. Being an entrepreneur is not for everyone either. But, the freedom that running your own business can bring feels like the freedom that a motorbike provides when competing with everyone else commuting to work. And it does not feel like you are competing either. You have just found a better way.

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WiFi at home and at work is a great innovation which helps to make sure that whenever we are in our home or office, we are always connected to ‘the network’. Wifi has also been a great benefit for companies who struggle to provide enough meeting rooms for their employees (especially when they spend more time meeting than doing) by enabling them to meet anywhere in their offices and still be connected to the web.

If your job relies on access to the network and the internet, then you have probably fallen into the way of thinking that being unconnected feels odd. You have got used to being able to look up directions on Google Maps on your smart-phone to the meeting in town. You have probably got used to working from home and accessing your documents and intranet pages at the same speed as when you are in the office. You have become used to checking emails anywhere.

But, there was a gap in being connected to the internet when you stepped out of your home, office or the coffee shop. If you were at the train station, at a conference or at the airport, getting internet access for your laptop was a challenge. 3G phones came along and you could get high speed access through that but getting access through your laptop was not that easy.

Soon, 3G data cards came along which you slotted into your laptop, yet another dongle or device to plug in. Recently, however, 3G access has become a lot more flexible when 3 Mobile introduced their Huawei E5830 3G Wifi hub. It’s a device which you can carry around in your pocket and connect most devices which have WiFi capabilities.

I pay £11 per month for this device for 1GB of download capacity. It’s really useful when you are out and about. Some people use them in conjunction with their iPod Touch. I imagine it will useful for anyone who has an iPad but does not want to buy a 3G version of it. More often, however, I use it at home when my BT Broadband becomes slow when everyone in town is online.

Another great thing about this device is the ‘off’ button. Just like my Blackberry and mobile phone, you can switch it off! I don’t miss the internet that much.

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