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Advertising On A Budget - Part 2: Thinking Small
This is the second article of a three-part series. I'm illustrating the marketing challenges of a small business, PrescottWeddings.com.
Our goal was to both build the PWC brand and drive traffic to the Web site. Advertising regularly was...
Is Starting A Business For Me? What To Consider Before Starting A Business
Do you have the right temperament?
Starting a small business is one of the most serious decisions that a person can take in life. Positively, it often results in higher income levels than one could achieve as an employee together with the...
The 10 worst mistakes you can make when selling your privately owned small business
Thinking about selling your business? You are not alone. CNN Money reports that 35 million baby boomers are expected to retire between 2000 and 2020. If you are approaching retirement or soon will be, chances are you’ve considered putting your...
Top 7 Small Business Resources for 2005
If you want to start a business in 2005, and start making money almost immediately, the sites listed below are some of the best I have found. I've chosen each site because it is absolutely outstanding in providing the tools you need to get started,...
Working Capital: Financial options for small companies
Large companies have always had a number of options when it compes to financing their operations. This paper discusses - and evaluates - the financing options that are available to small business owners.
Disclaimer
This paper is...
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How To Set Up Your Small Office Home Office And Avoid Paying $2,000, $3,000, Or More
When starting out in business there are great temptations to buy
"the best of everything" and spend too much money in the
process. This is one of the potentially devastating mistakes
that new companies make and it can be a killer from the start.
It is the intention of this article to help you avoid spending
thousands of unnecessary dollars when setting up your Small
Office Home Office (SOHO). It addresses your PC and the software
that you buy for it.
First off, think of your PC as a business tool only. Don't fall
for the temptation to buy a PC that is also a game machine or a
video player to watch movies with. This way, you will reduce the
amount of money you spend.
Equipment You Should Have
PC - You can buy a great PC from several places including Dell,
Gateway, Best Buy, and CompUSA for about $500.00. Your PC should
have a minimum of a 1.2GHz processor, 512MB of memory, and a
40GB hard drive.
It should include:
* A sound card or integrated sound chip. The sound card/chip
will have ports for a microphone, "in-line" (which you may never
need but allows for other equipment sound input) and speakers.
* A video card or integrated chip which your monitor plugs into
and also drives your video display.
* USB 2.X ports. USB ports are the interfaces where USB cables
plug into your computer. USB cables allow you to attach
equipment like your mouse, printer, and Scanner.
* PCI slots. These are interfaces on Mother Board that allow you
to add cards with customized functionality to the PC. They are
also the places where video cards and sound cards are attached.
Mouse - I recommend that you get a Wireless Optical Mouse. The
price of Wireless Optical Mouses (or is it Mice?) has come down
so far that there is no reason to have the old kind. The
convenience of being untethered from the PC cannot be adequately
described.
Monitor - I still have the old fashioned CRT (TV type) of
monitor but when this one goes I will get a Flat Panel Display.
The prices have dropped enough to afford one.
Printer - You will need a laser or inkjet printer for everyday
tasks like seeing how your web pages come out on paper. You can
print ebooks or reports. Many people find it difficult to read
from the monitor and like to print much of what they read.
You can buy a good inkjet printer for about $50.00. If you do a
lot of printing it will last at least one or two years.
The advantage of buying inexpensive printers is each year the
manufacturers come out with new printers that are better than
the previous year so you always get better quality
for a lower
price.
Operating System - the Operating System is the machine code
software that makes your PC run. It is the brains of the PC.
It is worth the cost of Windows XP to have a PC that has
thousands of compatible programs available to it.
Applications
Word Processor - You are going to need a word processor to do
business. You will need to communicate with suppliers, your
bank, and with customers. Your word processor should be able to
output documents and read documents with the .doc extension. The
extension is three or four characters with a "period" in front
that tells the computer what kind of program to use to process
your file or document.
When you buy your computer, you can save hundreds of dollars by
getting Microsoft Office bundled with it. MS Office contains
their "Word" word processing system, Excel Spreadsheet, and
PowerPoint presentation system. These are all industry standards.
WYSIWYG Editor - If you plan to have a website, you will either
need to pay someone $2,000.00 or more to do it for you or you
will have to do it yourself. If you are starting on a low
budget, then you will probably want to do it yourself.
You should really have a WYSIWIG (What You See Is What You Get)
editor like Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver. What
a WYSIWYG editor does is take the information that you visually
create on a web page and translate it into the HTML (Hyper Text
Markup Language) computer code that make the web page show up in
the Browser like Internet Explorer or Netscape.
Adobe Acrobat Reader - Hundreds of thousand of documents on the
web are in the .pdf format. Most ebooks are formatted in .pdf.
This is a document compression program developed by Adobe. They
have a free reader called Acrobat Reader that can be downloaded
at their site http://www.adobe.com.
Macromedia Flash - Macromedia Corporation invented a program
called Macromedia Flash that makes it easy to have animations or
movies on the web. It is almost a necessity if you want to take
the many free courses or tutorials that are available on the web.
You can download the free Macromedia Flash Player at http://www.macromedia.com.
If you follow these recommendations, you will have everything
you need to get your Small Office Home Office set up and ready
to go.
About the author:
Start your Internet Business/Home Business the right way and
avoid paying $2,000 or $3,000 too much. Get your free 6 part
mini-course here:
http://daily-results.com/start-a-home-business.html
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United States Small Business Administration |
An electronic gateway of procurement information for and about small businesses. Search engine for contracting officers, marketing tool for small firms, ... |
www.sba.gov |
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SBA |
The Small Business Planner includes information and resources that will help you at any stage of the business lifecycle. ... |
www.sba.gov |
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Main Page - SmallBusiness.com - Small Business Resources |
Find Small Business plans, advice, tutorials about organization, corporations, entrepreneurship, and smallbusiness. |
www.smallbusiness.com |
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Yahoo! Small Business: Domain Names, Web Hosting, E-commerce ... |
Yahoo! Small Business provides products and services that enable you to establish and grow your business on the Internet. Services include domain name ... |
smallbusiness.yahoo.com |
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Small business advice business start up small business finance ... |
business start up small business finance start up advice. |
www.smallbusiness.co.uk |
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Smallbusiness.gov.au redirect to business.gov.au |
Business Entry Point - Helping small business in big ways. An Australian Government initiative. The content from this website has now been consolidated into ... |
www.smallbusiness.gov.au |
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Business & Small Business |
Online and print small business publication. Information to help start, grow or manage a small business. |
www.entrepreneur.com |
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Microsoft Small Business Center |
Your home for information about Microsoft's small-business products and services, tailored business advice, technology tools, and more. |
www.microsoft.com |
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The Small Business Advisor - advice for starting and operating a ... |
Advice and assistance for starting and operating a small or home based business. |
www.isquare.com |
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SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" |
A nonprofit association dedicated to encouraging the formation, growth, and success of small business nationwide through counseling and mentor programs. |
www.score.org |
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Small Business and Self-Employed One-Stop Resource |
IR-2006-2, January 3, 2006 - Temporary and proposed regulations will significantly reduce tax filing burden for nearly 950000 small business owners. ... |
www.irs.gov |
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Welcome to Small Business BC your business resource in British ... |
BC Business Services offers assistance and resources for those running or starting a business in British Columbia and Vancouver. |
www.smallbusinessbc.ca |
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Small Business Service | Home |
Provides information and advice to help small businesses realise their potential. |
www.sbs.gov.uk |
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NSW Small Business |
A site developed by the NSW Department of State and Regional Development for small businesses. Topics include management, resources, current issues and ... |
www.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au |
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Business Management & Advice: Small Business Resources & Information |
Looking for business management and advice? Our website includes small business resources and information that can help you. Visit the small business ... |
www.businessweek.com |
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Small Business Lawyer, Attorney, Law, Legal Help - FindLaw for ... |
Information and legal sites relevant to small business. |
smallbusiness.findlaw.com |
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Small Business Funding Opportunities (SBIR and STTR) |
Links to Small Business Funding Opportunities and SBIR / STTR Applications. |
grants.nih.gov |
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Microsoft bCentral Small Business Directory |
Directory categorized by industry with company business card feature. |
sbd.bcentral.com |
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Our site has moved! Please update your bookmarks! |
Facilitates the sharing and exchange of information among small business development centers, the small business administration and other business-oriented ... |
sbdcnet.utsa.edu |
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Small Business Development Corporation |
Our business information services provides guidance to improve business skills and knowledge on advice on starting, buying, selling and expanding a small ... |
www.sbdc.com.au |
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