How to Create a Portable Office

Written by Elizabeth Wilson of Entrepreneur.com

With more and more people working from home, Jeff Zbar spotted a potential new trend: The portable office. A Florida writer who loves travel, Zbar says every entrepreneur should find time to set off on the open road with family in tow.

But must business skid to a halt the second the door of the RV slams shut? Not when most of what can be done in a home office can easily adapt to the highway.

"I'm taking my office with me in an 18-inch-by-18-inch cube," Zbar, 43, says. "It's not about replicating your regular office -- you can't sell it as a vacation and then work the entire time."

Called a "mobile workmate," Zbar's portable office is a wheeled case with telescoping handle and a place for everything: Laptop, cords, GPS -- all the necessary tools that can be stashed out of sight when it's more important to be fishing with the kids or playing in the sand on the Jersey Shore.

To prove it can be done, and to turn a little profit, Zbar embarked July 5 with his family of five on a four-week road trip he calls "Home Office Highway."

Zbar's wife, Robbie, a pediatric nurse practitioner, and children, Nicole, 16, Zachary, 14, and Zoe, 10, joined him on the almost 3,000-mile trip up and down the East Coast in a rented RV.

He's demonstrating his mobile office -- and tricks he's learned after 19 years working from home -- at various stops along the way. He's also giving out his tip-filled booklet, with advice to those new to the concept of a working vacation, or "workation," as Zbar calls it. Zbar projects he'll at least break even because he'll continue to work and because Office Depot(ODP Quote), Verizon Wireless (VZ Quote) and RV Sales of Broward, a Florida-based business, are sponsors. Zbar says while on vacation he'll be working about 30% to 50% of what he would in a normal week.