Do Try This At Home
Start Your Own Business
May 19, 2007
By Marci De Vries
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Many women these days are given the marvelous opportunity to start their own home-based business or to work from home full time. Sometimes this happens when a maternity leave is extended or when a start-up company offers you a job but doesn’t yet have its own office space.
It can be jarring to suddenly face the prospect of buying and maintaining computers and software with no tech department to lean on when something breaks. When I started out on my own, the very first person from the office I missed was our friendly (yet arrogant) tech-support person. I lost databases and had to unfreeze my computer many times before I got the hang of doing it myself.
If this sounds familiar, let me share 10 simple tips for getting started with as few technical glitches as possible:
- For heaven’s sake, buy a new computer. We probably all have a behemoth in our basement from that one big tax refund five years or so ago. If you think that old machine will work as your main business computer, think again. You’ll face software incompatibilities, speed and memory issues, and maybe even mold on the hard drive. Go out and get a good machine with at least 512 megs of RAM and 4 gigs of memory. (It’ll run you between $1,500 and $3,000.) You’ll need it.
- Use good accounting software from Day One. I know how it is when you’re just starting out — you send maybe three invoices per month, so it seems silly to use software like QuickBooks or Peachtree. But do yourself a favor and get in the habit early. I had to transition from sticky notes on a marker board to Peachtree at a time when business was so frantic that I didn’t have time to learn the software properly. Six invoices from one very crabby accountant prompted me to figure out my finances in a way that would keep me out of jail.
- If you use industry-specific software, buy your own copy — don’t pirate it from your last employer’s office. I’m not just being a goody two-shoes here. If you use bootlegged software for your home business, you won’t be able to call the manufacturer for support and you won’t have a warranty. If you’re not very good at troubleshooting computer-related problems, you will definitely need the manufacturer’s help when things go awry. And they ALWAYS go awry at some point.
- Start a filing system online and offline from the get-go. Even if this isn’t the filing system you eventually will use, get in the habit of putting your electronic files and paperwork away in an organized manner. And by the way, leaving everything on your computer desktop is not what I’m talking about. The point is, when you are on your own, you can’t pass the buck when you misplace paperwork or documents. You absolutely must be able to find everything, and find it quickly.
- Make a computer backup schedule and stick to it. After you buy your fancy new computer (see step 1), the natural tendency is to think that the new system is infallible. But have you thought of this: Besides preventing catastrophic data loss, a set of regularly created backup files helps you retrieve documents that you may delete from your regular folders over time. For instance, if a client stops service with you and then five years later wants to pick up where she left off, you can go to your backup disks to retrieve her client history.
- Start using appointment-scheduling and calendar software now. You might think you can stop using Outlook or Salesforce.com now that you’re on your own, but it’s smart to stay in that habit. Once your business gets busier, you won’t want to spend half a day transferring handwritten appointments into your scheduling software.
- Get reliable Web and e-mail hosting. It’s tempting to buy from a provider that offers $7.99 hosting with free e-mail, but you’re just buying yourself many hours on the phone with tech support while your e-mail is down. Try one of the larger providers in the area like Covad.net. Mostly you want reliability and a phone number to call for immediate service.
- If you are working remotely with business partners or co-workers, try using an Instant Messenger (IM) program to help speed your communications. I shave hours off my day with IM, exchanging immediate messages with my employees and outside contractors.
- Use a high-speed connection. Most people already have high-speed connectivity in their homes, so this point is almost moot. But if you don’t have a fast connection and are thinking about limping along on dial-up for a while, just say no.
- Get outside and be social every now and then. When I started working from home, the overwhelming temptation was to chain myself to the desk and work until the sun set. After a while I realized that the whole point of having a home office was to work and enjoy my time more, and that the best way to grow my business was to get out of the office and meet people. Join the local chamber of commerce or a business networking group to meet people who may be good connections or clients. Most of all, enjoy yourself. Play a little!
Marci De Vries is president of MDV Communications, an online marketing strategy company specializing in best-practice methods for reaching customers and generating revenue with the advertising and communications tools available online. She can be reached at mar...@mdvcommunications.com and mdvcommunications.com.
