4 ms·

I work from home, and rent/food/utilities/internet in northern Colorado is about $2,000 a month. Aside from rent, the internet is my biggest expense: I live in

I work from home, and rent/food/utilities/internet in northern Colorado is about $2,000 a month. Aside from rent, the internet is my biggest expense: I live in the mountains, so I pay ~$450/mo for a T1 - cable/DSL is not available, and satellite sucks. I could live in town and pay less, but my rent would go up, and I'd rather live in the mountains. As for business expenses, I average ~$1,000 in recurring charges per month, which pays for servers, payment processing, web app subscriptions, and international calls. I usually spend another thousand a month on books, courses, and other continuing education, since that's my market.

jacquesm 16y ago
You could cut that T1 expense by quite a bit using long-haul wifi.
- jrockway 16y ago
  Or by starting his own phone company! He could also save on the rent by just overthrowing the government and giving the house he lives in to himself. Why didn't I think of this before!?
  - joshkaufman 16y ago
    Don't think my landlord would approve - he lives 400ft away. On the upside, I ran a buried ethernet cable down to his house, so he helps pay for the T1.
- joshkaufman 16y ago
  Looked into that before getting the T1 - mountains make it difficult to get direct line-of-sight to almost anything, and I'm surrounded by national park, so it's difficult to build towers to relay a signal. Video is a big part of my business, so having a dedicated upload pipe is also useful.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    Check out valemount networks, they specialize in that sort of thing. http://www.staros.com/ http://www.staros.com/
redrobot5050 16y ago
Have you looked at MIT's OpenCourseWare or iTunes University (same thing, just a different set of servers to DL from -- and an iPhone/iPad compatible format) for classes/continuing education? Because if it worked out, you could save some money. What about Skype or a VOIP phone for international calls? (I don't recommend Vonage. I've had run ins with their service after some billing errors and it was very unpleasant, to the point where I would NEVER recommend them.
- joshkaufman 16y ago
  Most of the training I'm taking is pretty specific, and not available on OpenCourseWare or iTunes. It's worth the investment in teaching material alone - the more ideas/techniques/approaches I'm exposed to, the more valuable I am as a consultant, so the ROI is great. I use Skype for some calls if the connection is good. For others, hard line is still best. I have a landline in the event the electricity goes out, so it's not a huge deal.

jacquesm 16y ago

You could cut that T1 expense by quite a bit using long-haul wifi.

jrockway 16y ago
Or by starting his own phone company! He could also save on the rent by just overthrowing the government and giving the house he lives in to himself. Why didn't I think of this before!?
- joshkaufman 16y ago
  Don't think my landlord would approve - he lives 400ft away. On the upside, I ran a buried ethernet cable down to his house, so he helps pay for the T1.
joshkaufman 16y ago
Looked into that before getting the T1 - mountains make it difficult to get direct line-of-sight to almost anything, and I'm surrounded by national park, so it's difficult to build towers to relay a signal. Video is a big part of my business, so having a dedicated upload pipe is also useful.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  Check out valemount networks, they specialize in that sort of thing. http://www.staros.com/ http://www.staros.com/

redrobot5050 16y ago

Have you looked at MIT's OpenCourseWare or iTunes University (same thing, just a different set of servers to DL from -- and an iPhone/iPad compatible format) for classes/continuing education? Because if it worked out, you could save some money. What about Skype or a VOIP phone for international calls? (I don't recommend Vonage. I've had run ins with their service after some billing errors and it was very unpleasant, to the point where I would NEVER recommend them.

joshkaufman 16y ago
Most of the training I'm taking is pretty specific, and not available on OpenCourseWare or iTunes. It's worth the investment in teaching material alone - the more ideas/techniques/approaches I'm exposed to, the more valuable I am as a consultant, so the ROI is great. I use Skype for some calls if the connection is good. For others, hard line is still best. I have a landline in the event the electricity goes out, so it's not a huge deal.