As a starving entrepreneur, I’m constantly searching for unique facets which make being self employed rewarding (non-monetary). One of these facets is the mobile office. We’ve all heard 101 reasons why a cubicle isn’t humane; there is no need for me to reiterate this. On the flipside, what does working from home really mean?

Many of us entrepreneurs put a great deal of effort in building our home office. Ikea furniture, state of the art desktop computer… but the kitchen and living room only ten steps away. If you’re like me, then this is a problem. So if we’re not able to fulfill our professional dreams within the confines of our own home then what are we supposed to do?

Leasing an office is very 20th century. In this era of laptops, Wi-Fi, EV-DO, etc. it is very efficient to work from hotspots, libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops. There may be a nominal fee for internet usage and you may splurge on an occasional java or two but other than that everything else is paid for.

My personal favorite is the bookstore. I view these places as advanced libraries in that there inventory is a lot more up to date. It’s hard to read up on recent trends at the library because none of the books are for sale; they’re not as motivated to stock the shelves with the latest titles. Working from local Borders is quite the opposite. When you’re at the bookstore, don’t feel bad about reading a book or magazine from within the store confines and not paying for it. Look around, everyone else is doing it to. Think of it as an implicit fee that is being paid when you drop $5 for a coffee.

The point is, a realized benefit of being my own boss is that I have a dynamic office. If you compiled the top 10 reasons that forced successful business icons onto their own path, I’d bet that one of those reasons is lack of freedom within the corporate office. As long as I have my Thinkpad and Treo I’m confident that I’ll never have to sit through the monotony defined by the confines of the same desk and chair everyday.