I am a professional sharpener. We sharpen everything from tree company chipper blades to straight razors and surgical instruments.

Until now I have worked at a fixed location and the clients have come to me. The store will remain open, staffed by an employee, but I'm going to hit the road in a completely equipped mobile sharpening vehicle to take my sharpening services to the clients.

I have a Sony Vaio VGN-NR180E laptop with Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 installed. I want to buy the appropriate GPS equipment to use with the laptop in the vehicle.

I'm going to purchase and download customer address data from INFOUSA, import it into S&T then build routes and begin calling on potential customers.

What GPS equipment would you suggest for this application?

Thanks!

Mark Peterson
Superior Sharpening Services

Hi Mark,

:welcome: to Laptop GPS World.

I personally like to keep things simple by using a USB GPS receiver. BU-353 by Globalsat has been used by many people, it works very well, it is inexpensive (~$40USD), and it can be purchased at variety of online stores.

Some people prefer Bluetooth GPS receivers to avoid a cable between the laptop and the GPS receiver. That way you may have more flexibility in deciding where to place the GPS, as you are not limited by the length of cable.

Hi Mark,

I have MS S&T 2009 installed on my Samsung NC10 with 2 GB RAM. I've connected this to a Qstarz 818x (MTK2) via Bluetooth. I've found that this works very well if you turn OFF all the battery saving options for the display. Even with these turned off I get 5 hours of continuous GPS usage.

Thanks for the responses, guys!

I ordered a Pharos 500 GPS receiver, installed the driver and connected it to my laptop with the USB cable and it works great!

I was even able to pick up 7 satellites while sitting on the couch in my living room....the Pharos 500 appears to be an excellent receiver.

I bought 700 leads for potential sharpening customers from INFOUSA.COM, imported them into S+T, and now I'm creating optimized routes that will take me door to door. It should be a great business builder.

Thanks!

Mark Peterson
Superior Sharpening

Mark, for more ideas check out the following thread: http://www.laptopgpsworld.com/661-video-teaches-sales-reps-how-use-microsoft-streets-trips

Marvin, thanks for your suggestion, but I have already paid my membership at www.mypointsales.com and studied all of the tutorials, some several times over.

I found them to be very thorough and instructive, well worth the investment.

Thanks!

Mark Peterson
Superior Sharpening Services
Bluffton, SC

Hi Mark -

I am very pleased you liked our training! Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to help you maximize your sales with Microsoft® Streets and Trips.

I'd love to put your quote on the My Point...Exactly website - would that be OK?

Keith O'Brien
President
My Point....Exactly, LLC

You are welcome to use my comments on your website.

Mark Peterson
Superior Sharpening Services