Page 130 - The UnCaptive Agent

TOOLS YOU’LL NEED AND WHEN YOU’LL NEED THEM 103

Laptops give you the ultimate flexibility to work not only
in your office but also from home (or anywhere else you
happen to be). This flexibility at the beginning of your
business, when you have few or no employees, can be very
important. Later, as you begin to add service people and
other producers to your organization, laptops give you
the flexibility to allow people to work from home during
periods of inclement weather or natural disasters. Because
most software systems you will use are cloud-based, your
agency will be able to function normally from anywhere.
For the same reason, I would strongly recommend
that you base everything in the cloud. Not only is this
less expensive from a capital point of view (because
you’re not required to buy servers), it’s also less expensive
from a maintenance perspective. As with laptops, the
cloud gives you ultimate flexibility. One other consider-
ation which you may already be familiar with from your
current job is the real necessity for at least two monitors
for each computer (which, in turn, will require a docking
station for the laptops). Having multiple monitors allows
you to work from your client relationship management
system, word processor, or email system while working
from your agency automation system at the same time.
It makes multitasking, which will certainly be your life,
not only possible, but also practical.
We have a great member of OAA who is very techni-
cally savvy, and he works from a desk with six monitors!
His office looks a bit like mission control, but he insists
that it allows him to monitor and manage his business
in a way he could not with only two. Even his Client
Service Advocates use three monitors. How many mon-
itors are appropriate in your agency should be decided
based on workflow efficiency.
Another computer-based system you will need to
purchase is a telephone system. There are many small