Using Technology to Boost Your Productivity
If you’re like most businesspeople, you probably have a main base of operations you call your “office.” It may not be an office per se; it could be a retail store, a factory floor, or a trailer on a construction site. It could also be a room in your home or a cubicle within a larger office complex. But it’s where you can usually be found from 9 to 5, or whatever your typical office hours might be.
Correction: It used to be where you were usually found. These days, your exact location could vary widely. Nowadays, entrepreneurs and employees alike are just as likely to be found working from home, at a client’s office, from a hotel room, or while on board an airplane or train. In fact, according to wide-ranging studies by The Dieringer Research Group, more than 21 million of us frequently work from our cars. And some 15 million of us often work from parks and other recreational sites, according to Industrial and Technology Assistance Corporation (ITAC).
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Don’t need new? The best place to find used equipment is eBay. There are other auction sites, but eBay’s advantage is the sheer size of its worldwide community. Amazon.com also has a growing community of resellers.
Widespread use of devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops means your office can be virtually anywhere, and you can stay connected to your co-workers, clients, and customers anywhere, anytime. Cloud computing has also allowed data to be stored remotely, in the cloud, and be accessed from any of your devices, from anywhere at any time.
Business that’s conducted away from the traditional office goes by a lot of names, such as mobile working or telecommuting—the latter term underlining the importance of telecommunications in enabling this activity (see Chapter 28). Another way to think about it is that, in reality, the office is you—or, at the very least, it becomes whatever workspace you happen to be occupying at the moment. Work is now something you do, rather than a place you go to.
In today’s business world, you’re no longer chained to a desk by a fixed phone number (that only rings at your office), and you’re not required to use an oversized desktop computer that contains all your important data. Internet connectivity, powerful mobile versions of office tools, and new phone services (not to mention the latest smartphones and wireless tablets) are loosening the ties that bind and making physical location more about convenience than necessity.
Virtually on the Road
Thanks to the latest technology, there’s a wide range of products and online services to help you become more productive. The Apple iPhone and iPad, for example, offer thousands of business-oriented applications that allow users to truly customize their phones and transform them into the ultimate time management, contact management, and personal productivity tools.
For the on-the-go entrepreneur, the trick is to choose technology-based tools, whether it’s an iPhone, iPad, Samsung Galaxy, BlackBerry, netbook or laptop, that best fits your work habits and style, and that you’re most comfortable using. After all, you want to boost your productivity, not drown yourself in technology that’s not appropriate or overly complicated for what you need it to do.
Many entrepreneurs have the equivalent of fully equipped virtual offices in the laptops, smartphones, tablets, and other devices they carry around. Some enterprises have even become virtual companies with workmates spending most of their time in separate locations and meeting only occasionally. Basically, you’re “in the office” whenever you’re telecommuting.
The goal isn’t always to do away with the traditional “office,” it’s to use networking and communications technologies to turn it into your “extended office.” Your extended office isn’t a real, physical location; it’s virtual, just like the internet is virtual.
People have been teleworking for decades, but our current degree of mobility is a direct outgrowth of the internet and the mobile devices that allow us to easily connect to the internet from anywhere.
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While computers and mobile devices run using a wide range of different operating systems, most are designed to operate seamlessly in a work environment. So if you’re using an Apple MacBook Pro laptop, for example, you’ll have no trouble transferring data and files with co-workers or clients using Windows-based computers. In fact, you can even run Windows-based software on the latest Macs, and Microsoft Word for iPad has gone a long way to making the iPad a virtual office, too.
Equipping Your Virtual Office
Even though you may be starting your first business, you’re probably fairly experienced with desktop and laptop computers, tablets, wireless PDAs, and smartphones, as well as other productivity equipment needed to get your enterprise off the ground.
One unfailing characteristic of consumer and small-business technologies is that each new iteration delivers more for less. Depending on how much mobility you need, you may find yourself buying more individual pieces of equipment than in years past, but the price tag on each one is guaranteed to be lower than last year and the year before that. In fact, prices fall so rapidly that office technologies depreciate at an unusually high rate. It’s not that they’re shoddy—quite the contrary. But their resale values are continuously being undercut by cheaper and more powerful successors.
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Depending on your needs, you might not need to invest $1,500 to $2,500 for a state-of-the-art laptop. If your main tasks when traveling include surfing the web, word processing and spreadsheet management, for example, a less cumbersome, smaller, and lightweight netbook may work for you just fine. The latest netbooks cost only around $300. Or, you might find a tablet, like an iPad or Samsung Galaxy, is all you need for the office. Those can cost between $400 and $900.
Therefore, you should think about office tools and technology slightly differently than you do other durables. Here are a few truisms that need to be taken into account when buying hardware (although they don’t necessarily apply to software):
Even the most expensive office item, the desktop or laptop computer, is dirt cheap by historical measures.
Whatever you buy and whenever you buy it, it will appear expensive and underpowered compared to succeeding versions. New computer technology is available every three to six months. The computer you purchase brand-new today will be outdated by more powerful equipment within months and will probably need to be replaced altogether within two to three years if you want to stay current.
Theoretically, office equipment pays for itself in a very short time by enhancing your productivity; it then helps you make money by letting you do whatever you do faster and better.
Treat your current technology-related purchases as a simple business expense rather than the investment in capital equipment it actually is. Irrespective of how you treat these items on your tax return, don’t try to extract the value of this equipment over years. Yes, the products will work just fine and continue to deliver productivity for years. But their costs are likely recovered within weeks or months—no depreciation calculations required (see “It’s Now or Never” on page 407).
That’s not to say you shouldn’t get the best buy you can. Cash is always precious. But so is your time, and price tags are usually overshadowed by the return on investment from most office products. The real issue when shopping for office equipment is whether the new machine will deliver a higher rate of productivity than the old. It’s a mistake to try to squeeze the last bit of usefulness out of older equipment when a change could result in higher levels of moneymaking. Keep it only until something comes along that will deliver still higher productivity.
Being Well-Connected
The first concern in equipping yourself and your office (virtual or otherwise) is connectivity. You have an expanding constellation of stuff, and it’s more important than ever that it all work together for maximum effect. Efficiency today means being well-connected—both inside and outside the walls of your company.
Even if you start off as a solo operator working from a home office, you’ll want to connect electronically to clients and suppliers and possibly share proposals, spreadsheets, and other data files. This not only requires phone, fax, and instant messaging (IM) connections but usually some level of compatibility among productivity software, IM services, and handheld wireless devices. That used to mean sticking with only the most popular operating systems and applications for seamless data transfer among employees and business partners.
Today, however, PCs can communicate easily with Macs and BlackBerrys and with iPhones; any peripheral that connects to a computer via a USB connection will most likely work with all computers on a network. Sure, you may still encounter minor compatibility issues, but for the most part, exchanging data and files is easier than ever, regardless of what type(s) of computer equipment is being used.
What’s more, Google’s rise in the shared document space has been tremendous. It’s easy to selectively share—and set parameters around who can edit and who can simply view—spreadsheets, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and many other kinds of documents through Google Docs and Google Drive. Free or low-cost services like DropBox, weTransfer, and Box have also made it possible to skip the USB and thumb drives altogether by acting as a transfer service.
The Cloud and You
Simply put, the cloud means applications and services that people access via the internet instead of installing software on their computers. If you’re online, you’re somewhere in the cloud. If you use Facebook or Gmail or Twitter, you’re using the cloud. Many valuable services that once required installing applications have become available as cloud services, explains Mikal Belicove, a market positioning, social media, and management consultant specializing in website usability and business blogging. Often, businesses can use free versions of these applications in the cloud, while full-featured versions are available at low subscription rates, he says.
“The cloud is more heavy-duty and provides more utility than initially perceived,” Belicove says. You can access customer relationship management tools like those offered by Salesforce.com and SugarCRM.com, but also project management applications and many other types of helpful programs and utilities, he says.
At your office, the network is the thing that helps you coordinate your tools—both those inside the office and out—and share them and the data on them among co-workers and partners. Networks include your local area network, Bluetooth connections between devices, cellular connections over a wide area, and, of course, the ultimate backbone, the internet. Increasingly, these things are all backed up by “the cloud.”
It’s not really our portable devices—laptop computers, smartphones, wireless PDAs, netbooks, and tablets—that extend our office. It’s this infrastructure that networks all our devices together and provides quick and easy access to shared information, both in-house and outside, via global network providers.
It Takes Two
Even if you’re starting as a sole proprietor, you really should have at least two connected computers. It doesn’t have to be two desktop computers. If you travel a lot, one could be a laptop computer or netbook.
It’s only a matter of time before your hard drive crashes, you get a virus, or there’s some inscrutable problem with the first PC’s on/off button—whatever. Computers are very durable, but all equipment can fail.
What will you do if the machine holding your critical business information happens to be among the 100,000 computers lightning strikes every year? Even if you’re among that fraction of users who have their data backed up somewhere, how long will it take you to run out and buy a new computer, and add all your usual software configured the way you like it so that data can be read? How many hours or days can your business be offline from customers and business partners?
Realistically, you need at least one duplicate of your main computer that you can immediately turn to without losing a step. Ideally, there will be a third, and more portable option—a hard drive or an automatic cloud backup storage option (you’ll pay an annual fee of between $40 and $150, depending on what it is you need to back up and how much data you’ll need to store). For some businesses, cloud backup is enough to make a second backup computer unnecessary. But, be aware: The cloud isn’t infallible. Some services have experienced outages that can last an hour or two—or up to 12 hours.
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Remote backup services, such as Carbonite.com, and the extremely low cost of high-capacity external hard drives make it easy and inexpensive to automatically and continuously back up your data. Now you have no excuse for not properly backing up your data so if something happens to your primary computer, you can be back up and running, without losing any data, within minutes or hours—not days or weeks.
Serving It Up
Ultimately, you want to build a virtual network that ties your office and its equipment to all those other places and devices you use for work. Thanks to wireless networking, your home, back deck, a local coffee shop, park, and automobile can be part of your extended office.
But the most logical place to start is by connecting your main computer and its backup. Your primary workstation will likely become the heart of your operation, where you generate spreadsheets, keep your books, create sales presentations, surf the net, and do your word processing. If yours is a one-person operation, that’s usually where the master copy of everything is kept—and, if you have help, no one but you should have full access to its data.
Again, even if you’re a one-person operation, you need another computer mirroring that system (or a very reliable data backup solution). As your company grows, you might find it cheaper and more convenient to keep master copies of software and even data on a central computer, and give different workstations access to more or less of it, depending on the needs of individual employees.
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If you’re looking to create a network and link multiple computers and peripherals within your home office, many computer retailers will help you set this up for free (or for a small fee) when you purchase equipment from them. When shopping for computer equipment, ask what support services are available directly from the retailer. For example, Best Buy (bestbuy.com) offers its Geek Squad Computer Set-Up and Support services, starting at a flat fee of $99.
Any computer that serves up data and other services to other devices is referred to as a server, and the computers that get information from it are the clients, arranged in a client/server architecture. As networks and the demands on them grow, computers with specialized characteristics are chosen for servers. But you don’t need to worry about shopping for server hardware at this stage.
By the way, the word server also is used to refer to the operating system that makes connections possible—software like Windows, Mac OS, or Linux. These operating systems include all the special software features to connect your computers in a network.
Networking
The traditional way to create your LAN (Local Area Network) is to string very inexpensive Category 5 cable between the Ethernet adapters of two or more computers. You may need to buy a small and inexpensive Ethernet card to plug into one or more of your computers, if any of them is old. Most computers today come with built-in Ethernet adapters.
Easier still is to network your computers wirelessly using wifi network adapters. These come in a variety of network speeds and adapter styles—Ethernet or USB ports, or as an add-in card—for connecting computers. These wifi transceivers have become hugely popular, a standard feature of laptops and available in all smartphones and wireless PDAs. More U.S. households now use wifi wireless technology for home networking than cabled Ethernet, according to a study by Parks Associates. Wifi hot spots in airports, hotels, coffee shops, and other public places deliver this connectivity on the road. And most smartphones have wifi hot spot capabilities for a small, additional, monthly fee on your wireless plan.
Broadband data channels on cellular networks are providing much wider connectivity. Formerly limited to carrying voice, cell phone networks are increasingly able to transfer data at lightning-fast speeds. This technology works with cell phones, wireless PDAs, netbooks, and laptops—making the net available anywhere, regardless of whether there’s a nearby electrical outlet or wifi hotspot.
It’s Now or Never
In most cases, you’ll probably find it more advantageous—and certainly more convenient—to expense, rather than depreciate, computer and telecommunications equipment on your tax returns. That way, there’s less paperwork and no mind-bending depreciation calculations that change every year. Also, the time value of money tells us that a lump-sum refund to you today is always worth more than pro rata shares over the next three to five years.
Uncle Sam has been cooperating in recent years by raising the amount of business equipment you can expense rather than depreciate. No, he isn’t getting soft and generous. Why then? Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, said it first: New equipment generates new [higher] levels of productivity, which generates increased profits, which generates increased taxes. Speak with your accountant about the latest tax deductions and allowances available.
Choosing Partners
There are two things on which you can rely these days when buying just about any individual piece of office equipment:
1. The minimum configuration is going to support 95 percent (or more) of what you want to do.
2. Prices will be so low as to eliminate just about all chance of buyer’s remorse.
Add to that the ease with which internet shopping sites let you comparison shop, and you have a confluence of factors that make it pretty hard to go wrong when buying office equipment. Computers and peripherals are constantly evolving, but the choice of models and features are broad and deep.
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Looking to purchase used equipment or other items? For some large items that cost a lot to ship, or when you’re looking for something unusual in your own town, it’s hard to beat Craigslist (craigslist.org). Instead of just one website and worldwide marketplace, Craigslist is a collection of cyber marketplaces arranged by city, where anyone can post just about anything for free. It’s not yet in every city, but where it is, craigslist is a virtual version of the local paper’s classified ads.
When it comes to PCs, you can choose from dozens of well-known manufacturers, such as Dell, HP, or Lenovo, all of which run the Windows operating system.
Apple offers greater ease of use, superior technical support, the availability of Apple retail stores nationwide, and a sleeker design than most PCs, but they’re also typically a bit more expensive. On that note, there is no one “right” computer brand, printer type, phone system, or fax solution for everyone, any more than everyone needs the same model Chevy or Ford. You’re unique, and your business idea probably is, too. Your enterprise will have its own unique set of equipment needs that probably differ from those of the business next door. Not a problem. Web shopping sites let you quickly find just what you need.
Flying Business Class
Personal computers, whether PCs or Macs, are less expensive than ever. For about $1,500 (usually much less), you can buy a powerful, nicely equipped, state-of-the-art PC. For less than $2,500, you can purchase an extremely powerful Mac-based desktop (an iMac) that will meet all your business-related needs.
Your goal when purchasing computer equipment should be to select items that not only meet all your computing needs today but will also grow with you over the next two to three years until your next upgrade. Buy more than you need now so you’ll be able to continue to run the latest versions of the software and applications you need to properly manage your business.
You’ll want a business-class, rather than a first-class, computer. That means instead of going for the cutting-edge graphics and processor speeds preferred by enthusiasts of multimedia entertainment, gaming, and other photographic activities, a business user’s money is better spent getting just a little more of all the standard stuff—memory, storage, a higher resolution or larger display, those things that not only make computing more pleasing but also enhance your productivity.
They can help you do more in less time, and, if you’re in business, time is money. Things like waiting for databases to update, web pages to download, and insufficient memory errors waste your time and can interfere to different degrees with your efficiency. You want to have the best business productivity enhancer you can afford.
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How long will a computer last? To maximize your return on investment, replace it every three years, advises the Information Technology Solution Providers Alliance. Older computers negatively impact security and productivity and cost considerably more per year to support and maintain—often twice the cost of newer technology.
Take Note
As mentioned, if you travel or work from home and the office, or different spots around your home, you may prefer that your second computer be a laptop or netbook. Portables come in all shapes and sizes today, and you can easily find one powerful enough to perform any or all the desktop duties described earlier.
When it comes to laptops, focus on their computing power (processor speed, memory, hard-drive capacity, available ports, DVD/CD drive, etc.) and battery life as well as the overall size and weight of the unit. A laptop that weighs five pounds or less is a lot easier to lug around when you’re traveling than a larger laptop that weighs six to eight pounds.
However, if your laptop computer will be your primary backup computer, and you’ll need serious computing power while on the go, you may want to spend more (up to $2,500) for a unit with a larger display and extra computing muscle. On the flip side, if you’ll want a small, lightweight computer, a netbook (priced under $300) might be the perfect solution.
A typical laptop will generally run a few hundred dollars more than an equivalent desktop model, but name-brand laptops can easily be found for as little as $500. Laptops suitable for serious business users typically range between $1,000 and $2,500.
The Well-Dressed Computer
The minimum you should look for in terms of technical specifications for a desktop or laptop changes constantly. As a general rule, look for a computer with a fast processing speed, graphics card, and DVD/CD drive; sizeable amount of memory; large-capacity hard drive; powerful sound card; and plenty of ports.
Every six to 12 months, Apple overhauls its lineup of iMac and MacBook computers with improved specifications. For descriptions of the latest desktops and laptops available, visit any Apple store or apple.com. Plan on spending between $999 and $2,500 for a MacBook or MacBook Pro laptop and between $1,100 and $2,500 for an iMac or Mac Pro desktop that runs both Windows and Mac-based software applications.
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Need it fixed? Most computer retail stores have on-site repair departments to fix or install new hardware, even if you purchased the original computer elsewhere. The price to have a professional debug your PC or install an upgrade is $50 to $150 per hour. Add-on services and repairs for Macs cost about the same, but are typically billed by service, not hourly.
Office Productivity Software
A computer is useless without the right software to support your business activities. The most popular suite of business-related applications is, without a doubt, Microsoft Office. It’s available for both PCs and Macs. There are, however, other business application suites that also offer word processing, spreadsheet, database management, scheduling, contact management, and presentation tools.
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Got a cash-flow problem? Who doesn’t? Don’t solve it by succumbing to the gazillion counterfeit software offers filling your email inbox. If you get caught purchasing these low-cost knock-offs, you’ll be fined heavily and could face criminal charges. Instead, look into using open source software, which is just as powerful as the higher priced commercial software you pay for, only it’s 100 percent free, with no strings attached. SourceForge (sourceforge.net) is an excellent resource for finding and downloading a wide range of open source software for any operating system.
One of these software suites alone could cost $150 to $400 or more, depending on the components included. Computers are so cheap that not many computer manufacturers include an office suite on a standard hard drive, but most will offer Microsoft Office pre-installed as an upgrade.
After that, two other kinds of software you can’t live without are a security suite and accounting program. You’ll want an all-encompassing security suite, such as those offered by companies like Symantec (symantec.com), McAfee (mcafee.com), Zone Labs (www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/home.htm), Trend Micro (trendmicro.com), and Panda Labs (www.pandasecurity.com/usa/) that include a firewall, regularly updated anti-virus and anti-spyware definitions, email scanning and other protections for $50 to $90. If you’re running Mac-based computers, different types of security software may be needed, depending on how you’ll be using the computer.
Whether or not you use an accounting professional, you also need a good basic accounting program, from a company like Intuit (intuit.com), Sage 50 Accounting (http://na.sage.com/us/sage-50-accounting), or Microsoft (microsoft.com), to keep up with your checkbooks, bank accounts, invoices, bills, taxes, and inventory. Most of these programs let you pay bills and download bank account information electronically, use your printer to create checks, and link to tax preparation software so you can minimize your tax liability. Some popular programs are: Intuit’s QuickBooks Pro, Bookkeeper, and Sage 50 Complete Accounting.
Peripherals
There are any number of things you can hang off a computer these days—or, more likely, wirelessly connect to your office network. The basics include printers, scanners, copiers, webcams, external hard drives, thumb drives, digital cameras, speakers, and fax machines. If you have an iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry, you can also connect these devices to your computer to sync data.
Most businesses need at least one good-quality laser printer; however, if your printing needs involve color or photo-quality output, an inkjet or high-end photo printer will also be useful. When choosing printers, look at the unit’s resolution, print speed, and paper-tray size.
For most small businesses, an all-in-one device (sometimes referred to as a multifunction device, or MFD) that includes a printer, scanner, fax machine, and copier is ideal. Plus, you’ll definitely want to invest in an external hard drive to back up important data.
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To buy online or not to buy online, that’s the question. If you’re not techno-savvy and need after-sales support, the superstores are a good option for purchasing equipment. If you’re looking to save money and don’t need support, buying online is the way to go.
Most peripherals these days connect to a computer via FireWire, or a USB or Bluetooth wireless connection. It’s common for a desktop computer to have up to ten or more devices and peripherals connected to it, all of which work seamlessly with your software.
As a general rule, focus first on your needs, and then shop around for the most advanced technology you can afford. If you don’t need a color laser printer, for example, opt for a less expensive black-and-white laser printer with a faster print speed and larger paper tray. Or if you’re choosing between laser printers and inkjet printers, consider not only the cost of the hardware (the printer itself) but also the ongoing cost of toner or ink cartridges, as well as the printer’s speed. If you’ll frequently be producing 100-page reports, a printer that churns out 15 to 30 pages per minute is much more useful than one that prints just 8 pages per minute with a feeder that holds just 25 sheets.
Once you determine your needs, shopping for computer peripherals online will always save you a fortune. Reserve a visit to the local consumer electronics or office supply superstore to see and touch the latest technology firsthand before making your purchases.
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Printers are relatively cheap. What’s expensive is the toner or ink cartridges you must use with the printer. You can shop for name-brand cartridges at retail stores and pay a fortune, or you can shop online for compatible, no-name cartridges—that cost up to 80 percent less. Just go to a price comparison website, such as Nextag.com, and enter the make and model of your printer. Also check out eBay. In most cases, the cartridges are the same or better quality than their name-brand counterparts.
In the past, any one of these peripherals could have been priced in the thousands, and, of course, you can still pay as much as you want to get all the buzzers and bells. But a personal laser printer will only set you back around $100—ditto for a scanner and a fax. And while a copier appointed for business can run into the thousands, you can find very capable ones for $200.
MFDs didn’t used to be the best alternative for growing businesses when prices were high and the technologies of these devices were evolving at different rates. You could find yourself locked behind the curve on one or more, and, since MFDs cost in the thousands, their purchase became a complex decision.
Not so anymore. There are any number of MFDs priced between $100 and $300—from companies such as HP, Canon, Brother, Epson, and Kyocera—that pack an incredible amount of functionality. For example, HP—the longtime quality leader and high-priced spread in printing peripherals—has an absolutely amazing MFD line with several models designed for entrepreneurs that print, scan, and copy for less than $200.
Figure 26.1. Office Equipment Budget
Figure 26.2. Office Shopping List
In some cases, it might be useful to think of these categories of peripherals as supplies, rather than equipment, because, in fact, the replacement toner cartridges for MFDs and individual copiers and printers can cost as much as the hardware itself. Today, an MFD is almost an impulse buy.
Suffice to say, entrepreneurship is no longer a stationary activity. Entrepreneurs go where the action is, stay productive en route, and use technology to adapt to changing market conditions and ad hoc business needs. Now you can make the most of what is available wherever you are.