Summer Vocation: Home-Based Worker Hits the Road

March 31, 2008 -- Think you can’t take a month-long holiday and still keep your business or family finances from taking a permanent vacation? Think again. This summer, Home Office Highway: A Digital Adventure – will hit the road to prove vacation and vocation can travel hand in hand.

Setting off July 4th weekend in a recreational vehicle packed with the latest small office technology, Jeff Zbar and his family will showcase just how productive the modern family can be when traveling the nation’s highways. Wife, Robbie, will manage the family’s home finances. Their kids will stay connected with friends. And Zbar, a widely published technology columnist and author, will chronicle the adventure each day in blogs and videologues as the RV travels from up the Eastern Seaboard – and back again.

“We take a family road trip each summer, so I’m used to mixing vacation and work. This year I got the idea to share my experience with others, and show that through technology, you can leave home for vacation and take the office with you,” said Zbar, creator of the site ChiefHomeOfficer.com. “That’s how Home Office Highway was born.”

The home office is large and growing – with spending power in the billions. It includes home-business owners (14 million), teleworkers and corporate employees who work from home or the road (25 million), and heads of households who manage family finances via electronic banking and bill-pay services from an Internet connection.

The family will visit small towns and popular tourist destinations. Zbar will file dispatches, blogs and Webcam videologues to reveal how productive a “road warrior” – and his family – can be from the road. The tour will be live at www.HomeOfficeHighway.com.

“With a cell phone, a laptop computer, wireless broadband Internet access and common workplace technology, anyone can work or manage their affairs as if they’re sitting in their home office – even if they’re miles from home,” said Zbar, who will post each day’s adventure to www.homeofficehighway.com. “This trip will remove the mystery and show how easy a working vacation can be.”

ABOUT THE HOST: Jeff Zbar is a print and online columnist, author and blogger on entrepreneurship, telework and home offices. In 1989 at the age of 25, he quit his last day job to work from his home office. His work appears in Inc., Costco Connection, JuggleZine, BestStuff.com, the South Florida Business Journal, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, among other media. Prospective sponsors, media and consumers can learn more at www.homeofficehighway.com and www.chiefhomeofficer.com.