Freelance Writing – ArcticLlama

Unfortunately, this seems like an odd juncture for cell phones and mobile phone companies. Now that I can get current cell phone releases on the best cell phone plan for business owners, it would seem that all I need do is pick one that would be the best cell phone for a freelance writer. Too bad it isn’t that easy.

The latest and greatest cell phones like the HTC EVO 4G and the Samsung Epic 4G are, not surprisingly, 4G phones and thus come with an unacceptable $10 per month premium. (That’s $120 per year extra per line, or $240 per year for our home business.)

The tricky part is that the older phones are not necessarily that much cheaper than the top-of the line mobile phones which makes it less appealing to take their “last-year’s model” status as a good thing. And, with Microsoft rolling out both Office 2010 Mobile and Office Web Apps, there is always the possibility that, as a professional writer, what doesn’t matter to me today, might be a critical issue in a year or two when clients start requesting me to do the kinds of things that are only possible using those tools and a nice speedy 4G network.

Lastly, while technology writers are quick to criticize Microsoft’s late arrival to the power cell phone movement with Windows Mobile 7, the truth is that I haven’t needed an upgrade to my WinMo 6.1 operating system and therefore can’t wonder how “late” WinMo7 really is. But, that means waiting another six months, and as everyone who has experience in technology knows, you never buy version 1.0 of a Microsoft product. And yes, the upgrade to Windows Mobile 7 is so substantial that the rule applies.

Right now, the options are not appealing, which is why I am investigating the alternative on a Sunday afternoon instead of working on building my freelance writing business pipeline.

There are mobile phone forums out there where savvy cell phone users create custom ROMs which are basically user created upgrades to the software that comes standard on cell phones from the manufacturer. These custom operating systems for mobile phones can enable new features, make older phones compatible with newer software, and even offer upgrades that the companies won’t release at all. For example, Microsoft is not offering, and does not plan to offer, upgrades to Windows Mobile 6.1 to Windows Mobile 6.5 (and probably not to Windows Mobile 7) for existing phone owners, and since some software will only run on WinMo 6.5 or — eventually — WinMo 7 that can be a show stopper. But, there are TONS of custom ROMs out there for the HTC Touch and other phones that will make them Windows Mobile 6.5 and more.

The catch is that installing them is not a simple process. It requires flashing the ROM in the phone, which is similar in concept to upgrading the firmware of something if you are familiar with that process. If you do it wrong, it can mess up your phone. They call it “bricking,” an allusion to the fact that if you ruin your phone’s system badly enough, it won’t be able to do anything, rendering a nice, rounded, rubberized brick.

What’s a small business owner to do?

What is your small business doing? Are the programs or applications running on your cell phone today so indispensable for your business success that you would gladly pay for 4G or more?

Let me know.  (Relevant, useful, helpful, comments will be given links that have following on them. Others will be trashed or marked spam.)

Further complicating things in my search for the best cell phone for freelance writers is the fact that a few years ago I managed to snag a really great deal on a mobile phone plan. Sprint had an offer called SERO, which I think stands for Sprint Employee Referral Offer, or something similar. The original deal had a couple of options, one of which was 500 anytime minutes plus unlimited data and unlimited text, all for $30 per month. They adjusted it later to something less generous and then started doing something else altogether, but if you already have it, you can keep it.

Low Business Expenses!

It was an awesome deal back then, and it’s one of the very best cell phone plans you can have today, although you can’t sign up for it any more. For a while, Sprint wouldn’t let you use any of the newer phones with the original SERO plan. The idea was that eventually everyone would upgrade and then there would be no more SERO customers getting unlimited data for the price of just regular voice service. As I’ve said on many cell phone discussion forums, they can have my SERO data plan from me when they pry it from my cold dead fingers. Keeping business expenses low is key to entrepreneurial survival. I’ll use a tin can and a string before I pay anything near $100 for my cell phone service.

Information about small business tax deductions including the Section 179 deduction.

They changed their mind in October and now I can get any of Sprint’s phones and keep my SERO service. The catch is that I have to pay a $10 per month surcharge for a “premium” phone. I guess I can live with that, although I am looking into ways around it. (Keep reading to see what I’m talking about.)

The double catch is that for any of the so-called 4G phones, you have to pay another $10 per month surcharge on top of the first fee. That turns my drool inducing $30 per month phone plus data deal of the decade plan into a not so specially $50 per month phone and data deal. (It isn’t terrible, but it isn’t phenomenal either.)

As I mentioned above, I’m not really looking for a power surfing internet experience on my mobile phone and I don’t watch too much in the way of videos or other multimedia on my desktop computer, let alone on my cell phone. In other words, I don’t need 4G. My HTC Touch is 3G and it’s fast enough for almost anything I try and do online with my phone whether for my freelance writing business or for checking sunset times before taking kids to the playground.

In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that the power / standby button was starting to break and that the screen was a few months away from becoming truly hard to read, I would probably just keep it. After all, I already know how it works.

However, I will probably need to get a new cell phone soon. My wife already is in need of a new mobile phone because her screen has a black spot that looks like an ink stain right over where the lower-right menu button always is. She also is not a mobile power-surfer, although she would love to be able to respond better and faster to emails. She never really go the hang of the touch-screen and still uses her stylus to type on it, no matter which keyboard I load for her.

It seems that the answer might just be making a custom cell phone for my small business.

With all of the hoopla surrounding the iPhone and all of the breathless worship of Android, a lot of entrepreneurs and their small businesses have been left shrugging their shoulders. As a professional freelance writer and owner of a small business, I don’t need to be able to play “Angry Birds” nor do I need any “fart apps” (??????) on my cell phone.

What I do need is a way to check my email from anywhere, and when necessary, fire off a quick reply, usually something along the lines of “I’ll get back to you this afternoon.” I also need to get voicemails as well as make and receive phone calls. It’s nice to be able to use the Internet, but I’m not looking to surf around the web on my phone. I have more computers than any one person should for that kind of thing.

That being said, mobile maps along with GPS positioning is a godsend for finding client’s offices and remote work site locations. When I have dabbled in office sharing or using virtual offices for business, locating those has been much easier with a map and a blue dot showing my current location.

Even more critical is the ability to use my mobile phone to get online and find configuration settings or technology guides for use in setting up my laptop or writing netbook, because something (usually the DNS server settings) always seems to not function properly when I connect to someone else’s network. Whether it’s trouble getting past the firewall or some random wireless network disconnect issue, it’s nice to know that in a pinch I can use my phone to get some answers online.

Looking up a phone number for a business or finding the nearest donut shop are also features that I love. Although Google has some major improvements to make on this front. If the place doesn’t have “donuts” in the business name it isn’t going to show up when I search for donuts, which is a big inconvenience since everyone knows that some of the really great donuts come from places with names like “Frank’s” or “Roadside Grub.”

I will also admit that it is very satisfying to be sitting a bar drinking a beer and Google “Roman god of underworld” in order to settle an argument about whether it’s Hades or Pluto. (It’s Pluto. Hades is the GREEK god of the underworld.)

Finally, having a camera on my cell phone, no matter how basic, has been wonderful. I have children who do amazing things at any time of day and capturing them in any manner at all is a treasure. (So, I really would like the state of the art, top-of-the-line camera on my phone, although I have no desire to video call with it.)

After that, however, I don’t really NEED my cell phone to do too much more other than work all of the time.

What I do need is a good cell phone for small business owners. Unfortunately, it might take a customized small business mobile phone to make it all happen.