The Entrepreneurial Mind

You can now cast your vote among the 10 semi-finalists for the Microsoft Home Office Makeover contest that I posted about a few weeks ago. One winner will receive a home office makeover from HGTV's Vern Yip and the latest home office technology from Microsoft and HP (valued at $25,000).

Entrants were required to submit an essay of 250 words or less describing how a Microsoft Home Office Makeover would create an overall positive change in entrant's personal and/or business life. Voting closes July 31, 2007 and finalists will be announced and posted online on or about August 1, 2007.

Here are the top 10 finalists:

1. Rebecka (Lincoln, Neb.) -- Rebecka (an accountant) and her video-producer husband squeeze into a crowded, cluttered, uninviting office space -- not ideal when the couple enjoys inviting family and friends into their home office to view his creations.

2. Brandon (Greenville, S.C.) -- Brandon works 10-hour days, five days a week from his home office "loft," (read: no doors!) where he oversees an e-commerce website and remotely manages a Microsoft network, all the while attempting to tune out the noisy washing machine, two energetic young boys running around the house and his wife's voice trying to control the chaos.

3. Nancy (Vista, Calif.) -- Nancy virtually manages a team of registered nurses from her home office bedroom. She is surrounded by her family, pets and photography, but every attempt she makes to bring order to this messy corner of her bedroom is unsuccessful.

4. Crile (Wheatland, Wyo.) -- His web design is edgy and sleek; his desk, a clunker. His Internet access is state-of-the-art; his filing system, Caveman 1.0. Crile seeks office supplies that will keep up with him so that he can avoid the four-hour round trip to town when something breaks down.

5. Kristine (San Antonio, Texas) -- It's Three's Company at Kristine's home office event-planning company: her fifth-grader surfs the web, her husband berates his slow computer while trying to start up his homebuilding company, and Kristine bemoans the office's odd layout made difficult by built-ins, a bar and a sliding glass door.

6. Christopher (Silver Spring, Md.) -- Christopher has a new, roomy home office -- with only one bookshelf, a card table that serves as a desk and a four-year-old archaic laptop. As an attorney, his billables will suffer if he keeps working from home in this environment.

7. KK (Round Rock, Texas) -- Markers, crafts and lesson plans are strewn about KK's home office. This special education teacher for elementary school children is looking to put some order to her creative processes.

8. Sandy (Morton, Ill.) -- While their schedules are organized -- Sandy's husband uses MS Office applications to track the kids' basketball, baseball and social activities -- the home office is not. It's a hodgepodge of new/used furniture in desperate need of some feng shui, as the family spends a lot of time in this room online and watching TV.

9. Robert M. (Albany, Calif.) -- Robert runs four enterprises (including a literacy non-profit) out of a home office that measures 12' by 13'. Every square foot is spoken for, and he has to be careful when he swivels at his desk so that he doesn't knock over a day's work.

10. William (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Due to lack of space, William spends a great deal of time just keeping things organized in his home office. The result? He's less productive in the few hours he has at home -- hours he'd rather spend with his wife and two daughters.

To learn more about the contest and the semi-finalists click here.

Right now I am leaning toward Brandon and his loft (my home office is a loft) or Robert M. because he sounds like a deserving guy (and my Dad's name is Robert M. -- but please be assured that this Robert M. is no relation to me that I know of). But there are a few days to vote, so I may change my mind by the 31st.