In its basic form, the Gigaset 2420 consists of a desk station; a cordless, battery-powered handset; and a docking station. The system comes with an integrated digital answering machine, a speakerphone, a phone-number directory, four speed-dial settings, and caller-ID display.
The Siemens system can grow along with your company. As your office team expands, you can add up to seven handsets (each with its own docking station), thereby gaining walkie-talkie capabilities while maintaining ultraclear voice quality. You can also incorporate both business- and home-phone lines. That way, you can pass off personal calls to family members and still keep the desk station free for business calls.
Coordinates: $399 (full system, including one handset). Gigaset 2420 Cordless Communication System, Siemens AG, www.siemens-wireless.com
As we close this peek inside a free agent's tool kit, remember that the kit is never complete. Successful independent contractors know how to find the tools that will help them redefine the value that they bring to the marketplace -- regardless of whether those tools are high-tech, low-tech, or no-tech.
Any way you look at it, shopping for office equipment and business supplies chews through your time and your money. But you can cut your losses at BuyersZone, an online resource for finding goods and services that will keep your business humming.
A compelling mix of a shopping club, an online library, and a community bulletin board, BuyersZone can be explored using three options: Hit "Learn" to read up on a product. Hit "Compare" to discover what other business shoppers have to say about their purchases. Or hit "Shop" to be linked to vendors that will take your credit-card number, sell you a product, and let you return to the real work of running your business.
Coordinates: Free. BuyersZone, www.buyerszone.com
I might be working solo, but I can still tap into the collective brainpower that comes with belonging to a group of talented businesspeople.
Every two weeks, I dial into a teleconference with a group of veteran free agents. This group includes a professional speaker from Minneapolis, a financial planner from Little Rock, and a copywriter from San Francisco. We help one another negotiate business contracts, to deal with troublesome clients, and to overcome free-agent burnout. Here's how we do it.
At an agreed-upon time, all members dial into a telephone-bridge number that links us into a teleconference. Several companies offer this service; we use one called Telephone Bridge Line Savers.
Each person is given about 10 minutes to share news, to ask for advice, and to set one goal (to be completed before the next session).
Soon after each session, a designated scribe emails a brief summary to the rest of the group. The views of my fellow free agents are always stimulating; their encouragement is a tonic; their advice is priceless.
Coordinates: About $1,000 per year for flat-rate service. Telephone Bridge Line Savers, 800-345-3325
After years of fighting data overload, I've learned how to wage war against paper. And I've found a weapon that blends the simplicity of numerical filing with the power of database technology.
Kiplinger's Taming the Paper Tiger software features an easy-to-track system of numerical file folders. Each folder corresponds to a set of keywords. When I need to access a folder, I just type in the first keyword that comes to mind; the folder's number pops up onscreen -- and voilà, I know which folder to pull from my filing cabinet.
Developed with Barbara Hemphill, author of the Taming the Paper Tiger books (Kiplinger Books, 1992), the multimedia CD-ROM aims to help you "find anything in your office in five seconds," she says. Once I had Paper Tiger up and running on my computer -- which took about an hour -- I found that Hemphill was right.
Coordinates: $79.95. Taming the Paper Tiger, the Monticello Corp., www.thepapertiger.com
Every free agent needs a personal tech-support team. Here are three online resources that offer high-quality help.
SupportHelp.com catalogs more than 17,000 personal-technology products and offers contact information for more than 5,100 manufacturers. You can search the database by company name, keyword, or product name.
Coordinates: Free. SupportHelp.com, www.supporthelp.com
PC Crisis Line is a round-the-clock service that provides prompt support to PC owners. Charges apply only if the service can answer a user's question. Coordinates: $3 per minute for the first 10 minutes; $1 for each additional minute (there's a 2-minute minimum). PC Crisis Line, www.pccrisis.com
Rent-A-Geek is a directory of more than 2,000 independent computer consultants -- all of whom make house calls. To find a geek near you, enter your location and list which technical skills you need your geek to have.
Coordinates: Free. Rent-A-Geek, www.rentageek.com
Terri Lonier is the president of Working Solo inc. (www.workingsolo.com). Additional reporting by Associate Editor Gina Imperato (gimperato@fastcompany.com).
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