‘MOBILE OFFICE‘ The four people we‘ve heard from have left larger firms to start up on their own but many firms are experimenting with homeâ€"based offices on their own. One of them is Ernst & Young, a large chartered accountant business in Toronto. Of its 1,500 employees, 12 were selectâ€" ed to participate in a yearâ€"long pilot "mobile office" project that would see them equipped to work anyâ€" where with an electronic hookâ€"up to the Toronto office. Although the experiment was basically serviceâ€"driven rather than costâ€"driven in that it gave employees the flexibility of looking after their clients‘ needs outside of the tradiâ€" tional 9 to 5 day, Heffernan said it was also beneficial to the company. The 12 offices the employees forâ€" merly occupied were reduced to three rooms which, equipped with March 31, 1993 (Continued from page 12) opening up," she said. "Our base is our home rather than the Bay Street office, although we do a lot of work from wherever we hapâ€" pen to be ," said Paul Heffernan, an audit partner in the firm and one of the representative participants in the project. "If I‘m in a hotel room in Sudbury, for example, I can receive mail electronically and use the fax and modem as long as there‘s a teleâ€" phone jack." The project, destined to end in June, has been successful for the most part, said Heffernan. Of the 12 who began it, two dropped out, one because the social atmosphere of the office was missed and the other because he needed to access more electronic equipment than the mobile office afforded him. Lap top computer a godsend Business help just a call away Another source of help the fledgling entrepreneur might wish to explore is the Halton Small Business Advisory Group composed of retired executives who provide guidance to new and established compaâ€" nies. The group charges $50 for unlimited consultation, said Johnston. Those mentally equipped and with the motivation to launch their own home businesses can ask Halton Region for help. According to Kate Johnston, business development officer at the Region of Halton, information on government programs available to small businesses and on other aspects of setting up your own firm is available from the region just for the asking. The business department will mail out a free small business information kit on request, said Johnston. Call 825â€"6300. To probe other governmental aids to small businesses, call the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Technology at 279â€"6516. ‘"Hypothetically, if you have one office for four people, then you can reduce real estate by 75%," said Heffernan. "In expensive downtown areas, that‘s a big part of your overâ€" For developers intent on building more and higher office downtown complexes, the writing may be on the wall. They should take heed of experiments such as Emst & Young‘s which, if they proliferate, could see computer and telephones, served as meeting places for clients. Tim Jones, father of five and an engineering consulting and project manager, is master of his own destiny. businesses pulling up stakes in downtown areas and moving to smaller and cheaper accommodaâ€" tions, perhaps in the suburbs or shopping malls, where core offices would serve as an administrative centre for a network of homeâ€"based employees. "We think it‘s a glimpse of the future," Heffernan concluded. "Twenty years from now, these will represent the standard mode of working rather than the exception that it is now." To Heffernan, changes in the way people do business are inevitable. Mobile offices and home offices are indicative of those changes. Sweet Expressions TREASURE TROLLS CANDY BASKET ... EASTER GRASS 20z. 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