Toolie Business Travel Newsletter September 2009

In This Issue:

  • Toolie's Monthly Travel Tip: Is MagicJack for Business Travelers?
  • ToolieCoaching.com's Summer Sale Was a Great Success
  • Toolie's Travel Plans

Toolie's Monthly Travel Tip:
Is MagicJack for Business Travelers?

As a business traveler one of my primary concerns is staying connected with my clients, friends and family while on the road. A cell phone is the obvious choice, but not all cell plans work outside one's home country, so as I have described in past columns, I use Skype for my international calling while out of the country.

If you're a US resident, by now you have either heard of or seen advertising for a device called the MagicJack. While this is a device predominantly targeting the US market, the device is clever and the savings are appealing, and the idea may spread beyond US/Canadian borders.

McAlister Has a MagicJack

Our local telephone provider (which shall remain nameless) has been a constant source of frustration for my beloved McAlister. After months of talking about getting a MagicJack, he went ahead and got one to try it out for 30 days. It only took him a week to decide to get rid of local phone service because the call quality was so good.

MagicJack comes with free voicemail, free call waiting, free call forwarding, all the things you'd want out of a land line. And at just under $20 a YEAR the price is irresistible.

But Where Does MagicJack Live?

MagicJack plugs into the USB port of your computer, and then you use a standard wired phone to make your phone calls. The device does come with a software dial pad, so you can dial your phone from the software if you like. I think that the appeal of plugging in a standard phone makes it an easy device to hook up.

There are a couple of drawbacks to the device as of this writing:

  1. You can't port your current home phone number over to MagicJack. The website says that sometime in 2009 this will be possible, but not yet. Changing phone numbers can be appealing if you're tired of receiving dinner-time calls from organizations seeking donations, but like any phone number change, it takes a while for the word to get around to friends, family, and occasional callers. McAlister didn't worry about trying to have his phone number forwarded from the local provider. He just shut off his current service, and is handing out his number as desired.
  2. Your MagicJack connection is limited to one computer at a time. So far there isn't a way to use your existing house wiring to connect to that single MagicJack device. If you spend all your time at your computer anyway, it isn't a big deal. But if you have considerable floor space in your residence or it's on multiple levels like ours is, you're probably going to miss calls unless you're right near the computer. To make up for that, you can have your calls forwarded to another phone (in our case, our cell phones), which is what McAlister does when needed.

Have Jack Will Travel?

From a business traveler's perspective, it's not an obvious choice to use a MagicJack for connectivity on the road -- we're probably going to use our cell phones. In fact, I was inspired to run my own business FROM my cell phone because I saw my favorite airport limo company owner do business from HIS cell phone.

But if you are an entrepreneur working from home, and you planned to set up a land line as your business line, having a MagicJack as your business phone could be helpful. Wherever that MagicJack is, your business calls would be routed to that location. And since you "register" the device with the MagicJack software, you don't even have to have your own computer with you. You could plug into whatever broadband connection you need.

If you decided to use MagicJack as your business line, plugging into your laptop while on the road, you could disconnect the hotel phone and use it for your connection (depending on the type of phone they have). I would probably carry a small corded phone with me just to be sure that I had the connection. In fact, I found a darling little mini-phone that would pack easily in with my other travel gear:

http://www.order-bulk.com/Super-Mini-Phone.html

...so that's one possibility.

I keep thinking about speaking engagements with back-of-room sales. If you had a credit card terminal (which requires a phone line), you could be using that with a MagicJack to take credit cards immediately instead of having to have people fill out paper forms. So that idea has my attention. I'll let you know if I decide to go that route!

Got ideas about how to use a device like this in your business? Let me know, and I'll share it with my readers.

ToolieCoaching.com's Summer Sale Was a Great Success!

It's been a busy 2 months, but over a dozen people worked with me on everything from simple website changes to creating entirely new websites and blogs. It's been an inspiring interaction, seeing businesses expand because of an improved online presence. If you know of an entrepreneur or small business that would like assistance with their websites and blogs, do send them to my ToolieCoaching.com website for further information.

Toolie's Travel Plans

My next trip is in October 10th, where I'll be speaking to the New Orleans Chapter of the National Speakers Association. I'll speaking about websites and blogs in the first of what I expect to be regular speaking engagements on these topics. My physical product version of the online course I've been teaching is nearly finished. I'm looking forward to taking to the skies again, with fresh travel experiences to share.

Stop by my web site, http://www.tooliethetravelguide.com and say 'Hello,' especially if the Live Chat icon says I'm online. I love to hear from my subscribers anytime!

Toolie® the Travel Guide
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