How to Run a Business on a Shoestring Computer Budget A Dummies Book of Tips and Tidbits

By Faun Pischerke

The book is written by a small business owner who by virtue of having extensively worked as an IT support specialist for a long time and in various capacities, has acquired a lot of valuable experience. The author is genuinely convinced that in the 21st century American business environment IT technologies and their savvy use are indispensable for the long-term survival and sustainability of any startup company. Additionally, since the author has been an educator and a highly trained multilingual linguist for quite some time, explaining complicated ideas and concepts in laymen's terms comes quite naturally to him. The author has used anecdotes from his own experience to illustrate specific points. The book is loosely organized into three interrelated sections – planning, reference on incorporating and practical tips and tidbits derived from experience. This is the suggested order of reading; however you can use it as reference in any way you feel like. The author has dedicated a good portion on planning, as this would hopefully allow the reader to eliminate at least some typical mistakes, common for startup business. It is up to the reader after reading the book to decide whether running their own business is something they are keen and passionate about. The final section deals extensively with software and hardware considerations, how to choose wisely between different, paid and free services and products for optimal IT investment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Faun Pischerke
• Release date: Mar 24, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310247132

Faun Pischerke

I grew up multilingual from a very early age, received my Masters degree in Engineering Physics and spent my formative years in Bulgaria, under the shadow of a mild, yet persistent political persecution and harassment by the regime. My background cannot be understood without a few words about my country of origin - a little known European country with about 7000 years of history, home to the third European alphabet, whose people have brought the oldest known Sun calendar, dating back some 7000 years. This is a country that has had its name intact for a little over 1300 years and has survived and outlived several major empires. This country has been a Christian nation for much longer than major European nations, and has given birth to great reformers of the church, at the time when Europe has ensconced in the "Dark Ages". 'Mild' in this case means continual, sometimes overt, sometimes implicit denial of job and growth opportunities, based on political origin, as well as travel and residency restrictions. I started writing back in the early seventies, while still in high school with several research papers on bionics, quantum mechanics and relativity theory that have won me national awards and later, Dean's scholarships. Half way through university I caught the proverbial 'writing bug' and decided to try my hand at free-lance journalism. Despite or better, because of the obvious and not-so-subtle difficulties of publishing in a country with tight government control on print media, I had managed to publish about 40 articles both in popular, weekly publications (some of them now defunct, due to the radical changes in Bulgaria at the end of the 80's), as well as in international magazines and symposia in Bulgarian, Russian and English languages. Topics varied from reporting on the latest technological advances in Western science, to philosophical discussions on human cognitive development and Artificial Intelligence and book reviews. This research has also landed me participation at two, all expenses-paid symposia – in Los Angeles (CA), 1988 and in London (UK), 1989. I have worked as an adjunct professor, trilingual linguist and an IT specialist (including several stints as a technical writer) in various capacities. Among other things worth mentioning, I have served nearly three years with the US military in the Middle East (Iraq and Afghanistan) as an IT & logistics specialist and have acquired absolutely superb experience as a result.

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How to Run a Business on a Shoestring

Computer Budget

A Dummies Book of Tips and Tidbits

Published by Faun Pischerke at Smashwords. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, used, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, and recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the author. The author has not traded or recommended any product, software, hardware, or otherwise herein mentioned; is not endorsing or recommending any products herein mentioned, has not consulted, nor is currently consulting on behalf of any mentioned company and to the best of his knowledge, does not own directly any stocks and/or bonds of any mentioned company. His relationships with any referenced company are at an arm’s length. This book is not intended to provide legal or other specialized advice and the reader is strongly encouraged to seek such advice based on their individual circumstances. All trademarks and copyrights are the intellectual property of their respective owners. Additionally, every effort has been made to verify the various Internet links provided herein, but with the constantly changing nature of the Internet guaranteeing 100% accuracy and availability is simply impossible.

Copyright © 2014 Faun Pischerke

DEDICATION

I am dedicating this book first and foremost, to the bright lasting memory of my parents Maria and Vesselin who have suffered immensely during Communism and who sadly, did not live long enough to witness its historic demise that made this book possible. Despite, or rather, because of the harsh reality, they managed to teach me the importance of living a fair and honest life and never giving up in the face of difficulties. My teachers from the English Language School in Plovdiv, Bulgaria deserve all my respect for instilling in me the necessary values to succeed in life — perseverance, hard work, responsibility and dignity. I am eternally grateful and beholden to my highly principled principal — the late Lyuben Khristov for his personal guidance and tough but fair love for every student at the school, regardless of origin and socio-economic status. Words fail me to express my enormous appreciation for Lyuben Khristov ‘s courage in taking a personal stance against the established, rigid Communist party line and letting me study in his school, when all the odds were against me.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Authors acknowledge the assistance and help they have received when toiling on their books. In my case, I am grateful for the invaluable intellectual support I have received from Gerard Jones in dealing with the self-appointed guardians of literary correctness (AKA literary agents) and his immensely useful Web site:

Everyone Who's Anyone In Adult Trade Publishing, Newspapers, Magazines, Broadcasting And Tinseltown, Too: http://everyonewhosanyone.com.

Cover art courtesy of Capt. Ivan Trichkov, Bulgarian National Army contingent in Kabul, Afghanistan, 2014

I am also infinitely indebted to the myriads of heartless petty souls (the list is too long to be included here) who by choosing to treat me as their enemy and adversary, under the thinly veiled guise of elusive and vaguely defined corporate interests, reasons and motives regardless have strengthened my resolve, fortitude and survival skills. If one’s personality can be measured by the amount of their enemies, then no doubt I am a great person. I am especially thankful to those few managers, under whose command I have had the dubious pleasure to work on different occasions, for the great lessons learned. With their narrow-mindedness and obsequious kowtowing the party line they not only have they liberated me once and forever of all illusions regarding corporate loyalty and career stability, but have also provided me with invaluable insights on the corporate pseudo-culture in America.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Plan Ahead

3. Get Your Financial House in Order

4. Take a Good Look at Your Banks

4.1. Build an Emergency Fund EF

4.2. Check Your Credit History

4.3 Open a Business Credit Card

4.4. Establish a Business Line Of Credit

4.5. Buy Business Purchases Ahead of Time

4.6. Build Up Cash Reserves

4.7. Consolidate Your Finances

4.8. Stash Your Meds

4.9. Stock Your Pantry

4.10. Keep Good Records

4.11. Time Management

5. Some Tips on Incorporating

5.1. Benefits from Incorporating

5.2. Business Entities Types

5.2.1. Sole Proprietorships

5.2.2. Partnerships

5.2.3. Limited Liability Companies LLC

5.2.4. Subchapter S Corporation

5.2.5. C Corporation

5.2.6. Non-Profit Corporations

5.3. Your Business and Taxes

6. Basic Computer Information

6.1. Basic Ideas and Concepts

6.1.1. Hardware Components

6.1.2. Sequence of Events at Computer Startup

6.1.3. Software Discussion

6.1.4. File Types

6.1.5. Software Considerations

6.1.6. Useful Utilities and Websites

6.1.7. Recommended Paid Utilities

6.1.8. Recommended Connectivity Tools

6.2. Considerations for Choosing Hardware

6.2.1. Tips on Selecting Laptops and Desktops

6.2.2. Printer Choosing Considerations

6.2.3. Bundles vs. Separate, Multifunction vs. Single-Use Devices

7. Web Links Used Throughout the Book

1. Introduction

Congratulations! You have decided for any number of reasons to leave the proverbial ‘rat-race’ and be your own boss. Hopefully the road ahead will be fun and rewarding. The reasons people get into business for themselves, as you know, are various and we can safely say, as many people, as many reasons.

They can be roughly divided into two broad, interwoven categories – personal and financial.

Personal reasons satisfy some need, craving, or ill-defined necessity, say to be independent, to see the ‘proverbial fruit of your hands and labor’, to be responsible for your own success and failure, something that brings satisfaction on a personal and emotional level. You might also need to prove to your former colleagues and bosses that they are total losers and you are free to thumb up your nose to those you despise, detest or otherwise don’t care much about. Personal could be reaching some milestone, set by you, and noone else, and receiving emotional gratification as a result.

Financial reasons – obviously gaining financial independence, being successful, writing your own paycheck while doing something you enjoy. There are also tax implications in running your own business while the purely financial, can have emotional undertones as well ("Pay yourself first").

The proverbial ‘Million Dollar question’ obviously is – do you have what it takes to run a business? Are you willing to endure denials and rejection for a long time? Are you inclined to abandon a well-thought plan for action, scrap it and start from scratch? Do you believe in yourself and in your product? Are you just enough crazy to want the insecurity of working for yourself, vis-à-vis the insecurity of working for someone else in today’s economy? Here is a nice thought that I have seen expressed in different ways: "Some think of me as nuts. Well, today’s mighty oak is the yesterday’s nut who stood his ground!"’

The book is organized into three sections – planning, reference on incorporating and practical tips and tidbits derived from experience. This is the suggested order of reading; however you can use it as reference in any way you feel like. I have dedicated a good portion on planning, as this would hopefully allow you to eliminate at least some typical mistakes (mistakes I myself am guilty of having committed over and again), and hopefully you should be able to decide if being in business for yourself is something you are keen and passionate about. I am deliberately excluding information about franchises, as they are a separate topic and I don’t know much about them. I would