Like all entrepreneurs, I was a combination of CEO, chief operating officer, chief information officer and chief cook and bottle washer. But the real determining title was chief financial officer, which put parameters around my technology-buying decisions. No matter how cool the new gadget was, budgets forced my bleeding edge lifestyle to get cauterized.

Related: Read the previous column by Rick Gilman “Websites Optional.”

For the most part, my trips were short and few between, so my needs were manageable and I adjusted. And then about a year and a half ago, things changed.

An awesome turn of events

My son often triggers many of my writing topics. You might also know that my son is starring in the major motion picture “Moonrise Kingdom.”

When Jared was cast as the lead back in March 2011 and we learned he would be up in Rhode Island for two and a half months shooting, my wife needed to make life in a small hotel suite feel like “home” for 10 weeks—and I needed to figure out how to make being there or traveling there by train (4 hours one way) workable. I was a visitor and not the “designated” parent on set. As I tell our friends, someone had to stay home and take care of the pets and water the plants.

Although my circumstances are unique, the idea of finding solutions to support an on-the-road lifestyle is not.

Not every solution will have the same option across different platforms. I won't apologize for operating on an Apple platform, but I will mention other options when I know them.

Like many of you, I began with a desktop computer in my office and a laptop for general work when visiting clients. Because a lot of my “away” involved the 4-hour train ride to visit my family in Rhode Island, I needed a good Wi-Fi hotspot for accessing the Internet no matter where I was. Because I was traveling through different tower groupings, it was difficult to determine which carrier would be the strongest. I decided to double my chances.

My cell phone is an iPhone, which at the time was only available through AT&T. I therefore purchased the Verizon Hubspot, which allows connection of up to five devices at a single time.

I pay $50 per month for 5GB of data and when I was with my family in the hotel, we all could access the Internet from it without any issues. The hotel did provide free Wi-Fi but at a frustratingly slow speed.

Cloud's illusions

Because I was now doing a lot of work on both my desktop and laptop, carrying my files between the two via thumb drive proved less than efficient. I started looking at cloud options. As an Apple user, MobileMe would have been a solution, but the company was in the process of closing down MobileMe and I didn't know for sure what would take its place, how much it would cost or how easily it would work. Instead, I purchased a 50 GB Dropbox account for $99 per year.

Related: Read another column by Rick Gilman “The Why of Business.”

Dropbox is loaded on all of my devices, including my iPhone, and gives me access to my work files anywhere at anytime. If I'm using a computer that isn't mine, I can access the same files through the Internet on my account site. Two of the features I particularly like have less to do with my business and more to do with my son's career.

Since finishing the movie, his new agent has been sending him on auditions. Sometimes the casting director is not in New York and we tape the audition. If you've ever created a movie with your webcam or camera phone, you know that the edited file can be too large to email. Dropbox allows you to send public links to specific files in your Dropbox so recipients can download the file. Or you can create folders to share with specific people, allowing you and as many others as you invite to collaborate on work sharing the same files.

Tablet time

As part of my son's responsibilities to the movie, he participated in press junkets and publicity activities to promote “Moonrise Kingdom.” The first, and the most exciting, was in May, when the film opened the Cannes Film Festival in France. Jared did the photo call with hordes of cameras going off, answered questions at the official press conference, walked the red carpet and participated with his co-star in more than a hundred interviews. According to Interceter.net, Jared has averaged 9.5 new articles per day for the past month.

I mention this not just to brag, but to demonstrate that my lifestyle, like 87 percent of the world's population, is mobile and despite the portability of laptops, my MacBook Pro is big and heavy. An iPad would be less cumbersome and when the new one came out in April, I bought it.

Although it doesn't have all of the functionality of a full computer or laptop, it serves 80 percent of my work needs. I have Dropbox, Pages, Numbers and Keynote to access or create Word, Excel or PowerPoint-compatible documents. I downloaded Onlive Desktop, which gives me access to Microsoft Office in the cloud for working in the native platform.

Related: Read the column “A Thousand Words” by Rick Gilman.

The last item I'll mention is 1Password by AgileBits.com. Again, it's loaded on all my devices and synced across them, which provides me with easy, secure access to all my password-protected websites, accounts and information.

Not only does it automatically open and access sites that I visit, it captures new usernames and passwords I create for new accounts. It can generate impossibly complex passwords that can't be hacked and then sync it with my devices so I don't have to do the Post-It note routine.

Not the only game in town

For every solution I chose, there are one hundred others to consider. Like fingerprints, I don't think you'll find two setups from soup to nuts that are identical. Although needs may be similar, people are not. Although you'll base much of your decision about technology on the estimated return on investment, ease of implementation and integration into existing systems, some of that decision is personal and emotional—if not at the enterprise system level, then definitely at the mobile and personal level.

This column was certainly personal for me, based on my passion for technology and the journey I took building my support system, as well as my passion and love for my son and the incredible journey he is just beginning. If you haven't already seen “Moonrise Kingdom,” check your local listings for a theater near you.

I'll leave you with this question: “What kind of bird are you?”