More often than not, when someone starts up a new business, budgets are very tight and capital is scarce. It isn’t bad to be “on the cheap” when you are starting up. In fact, it is prudent to do so. You should save money in any place that you can without sacrificing the quality of your service or product.
In this article, I will give you some pointers for saving a huge amount of money on your computer products such as hardware, software and networking components. You don’t have to be a computer expert to be able to find and purchase products at a fraction of their “street” value. I will also tell you how to shop for a computer consultant when you need that kind of assistance.Many people, including computer consultants, will tell you to purchase as much computer as you can afford. My thinking is just the opposite. I think you should purchase as much as you need to do the job. You can always upgrade in a year or two and technology will have changed so much that you may be glad you waited. If you are not involved in high-end graphics or CAD type computing, then you can generally take advantage of technology that is at least a year old and about thirty percent of the original price. It may be impressive to some to boast that you have the latest Pentium whatever with the biggest available hard drive and the fastest this and giga-that, but is it practical? Probably you are like most people and you use a web browser, an email program, and a word processor. The occasional use of a spreadsheet or presentation application doesn’t justify more of anything either. Here are some guidelines about what you will need to stay compatible with everyone else in the world. You will need a decent computer which is still something you should spend no more than $300-$400 on. This amount will get you the technology you need at a price you can well afford. This computer should have the following components, at a minimum, or you should keep shopping until you find it. You should ask to see a list of components or look for the list if you are buying online. A hard drive that is at least 20GB (gigabytes) in size, a 32MB (megabytes) video card (sometimes referred to as a graphics card), a 10/100 Network Card or NIC (can also be a wireless card, if you wish), a keyboard, a mouse, a CD-RW (CD Rewritable Drive so that you can save data to a writable CDROM disk), a floppy disk drive (although almost obsolete these days), and 256MB (megabytes of RAM) memory, and the CPU or Processor should be at least a Pentium III.
Generally speaking, you should be able to get the previous generation of processor for a very low price, so if Pentium IV is the latest, then Pentium III will be what you look for in your purchase. Also ask if there is a warranty and what kind and for how long. If no warranty is offered, pass it up unless you can fix computers.
There should be at least a 90 day warranty for the hardware although some vendors will offer a warranty against DOA (dead on arrival) and 30 days replacement. New components generally carry a one year warranty. Buying network components is fairly easy. There are no moving parts to worry about so buying used equipment is pretty safe. If you are going with a wired or mostly wired network, then get a 10/100 Switch and get one that is larger than all of your computers and printers put together. In other words, if you have 4 computers and one printer, then you would need an 8-port Switch. Always buy large enough to expand when it comes to Switches. All of your computers should come equipped with Network Cards that will connect to the network via a cable that is then connected to the Switch.
When it comes to buying printers, you have many choices but not all printers are created equal. Buy a new printer. You get a warranty and phone support. Printers are cheap. If you need color, then expect to pay a bit more for quality. A good quality laser printer is probably sufficient for most small offices. Make sure the printer is network ready or networkable. Find out how much toner cartridges or ink costs before your purchase. These things can run into the hundreds of dollars per year. My suggestion is to find a company that refills toner and ink cartridges to save a significant amount of money.
If you are thinking of wireless, it is ok to buy used equipment as you can save a lot by doing so. Setting up a wireless network is also pretty easy but I suggest that you hire an outside consultant to come in an secure it for you so that no one down the hall or outside can “piggyback” off of your connection or steal bandwidth from you.A cabled network is quite probably what you will go with, at least to start. Find a company that does cabling in the phone book or ask for a recommendation from a business associate. The approximate cost for cabling an office is about $100-$150 per cable depending on what part of the country you are in. This is money well spent but be sure to ask if the cable is plenum cat 5 cable or otherwise building code approved. The cabling company should do a professional job by stringing the cable properly through the ceiling, providing RJ-45 “drops” for you to plug in your network cables, and provide you with “patch” cables for all of your computers and network devices plus a couple of extras for good measure. They should also warranty their work against defects. Typically this is a lifetime of ownership warranty.Now that you have your network hardware, it is time to think about software. You will no doubt have to purchase some software that is specific to your industry. This may or may not be a negotiable item. See if you can purchase an older version of the software that is still supported at a discounted rate. For your other software needs such as operating systems, office suites (Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation, etc.), and accounting software. My suggestion is to go to an online auction site or a software clearing house. They will have software at greatly discounted prices. If you go to an online auction site for software, be sure that the software you buy is unopened and fully licensed.
You may want to check with a computer consultant about licensing issues before purchasing. Licensing issues are not to be taken lightly and will end up costing you more in the long run if you violate licensing policies. Please also investigate Open Source alternatives to commercial software. Open Source means that the program is free to use personally or commercially and you also get the source code to the program to make any changes or fixes, etc. that you wish to add. You don’t pay any fees to anyone. Be careful about repackaging the software as your own. Contact the copyright holder or the author for info on how to properly proceed with using their software as a basis for your own. There are free versions of just about any software that you may need somewhere on the Internet. At the end of this article, I include some good links for you to reference for hardware and software. Many consultants will try to put you into their “basket” because they want to support what is easy for them. What you need to do is choose the Operating System (the main software that you interact with on your computer) and applications that will run your business efficiently and inexpensively.When it comes time to find help in fixing, installing, maintaining, or choosing your hardware and software, you will need to find a competent and competitively priced consultant to assist you. Call around to ten or so companies for comparative pricing. While you have them on the phone, you will need to ask a few pointed questions. You need to find out their hourly rates, weekend rates, night rates, response time (very important), specializations (careful of jargon here), and if they offer discounts on labor if you buy blocks of support time. A block of support time is almost like a limited life contract where you prepay for say 10 hours of support at a discounted rate. Listen carefully to not only what the consultant says on the phone, but how they say it. If they talk over your head and you don’t feel comfortable, keep calling other companies. The people that will take the time to make you understand and make you feel comfortable and confident in their abilities are the ones to choose.
Many computer consultants try to baffle their clients with jargon and double-talk to elevate themselves over you, the paying client. After deciding on your consulting firm, have them come and visit you at your site (they may or may not charge for this initial site visit). Show them around. Show them your hardware and software, if you have already purchased it. Don’t ask them what they think. They will tell you it isn’t good enough and try to sell you the latest and greatest technology that is cool, but not what you need. You are in your business and they are in the computer business.
Computers for you are not your life but a tool. They need to understand your point of view on this. Be frank and let them know that your time is valuable and when you call them, you want them in to fix the problem or problems and then quickly exit. Some consulting companies will charge on the quarter or half hour so watch the clock. Some also charge travel time to and from your location, so it may be wise to choose someone close to you if that is the case. Please use a reputable company with referrals for your consulting firm. Call all of the referred companies. Ask a lot of questions about rates, response time, repeat visits to fix the same problems, etc.
Using the guy down the street that is a computer hobbyist could get you into a lot of trouble. You may end up spending more in the long run by attempting to go too cheap on labor.
I know this is an article about being on the cheap, but you also have to be smart about how you spend your money.In summary, you will find that computer hardware and software are potential costly tools and you have to manage those costs with information and good sense. If you have only spent $300 on a computer system and it will cost $175 to fix it, it is probably not wise to do that. Set that computer aside and buy another $300 computer that is in good condition and use the old one for spare parts. In many cases, printers can’t and shouldn’t be repaired, they should just be trashed. This is the same logic as the computer example above. I used to give the estimate of $800-$1,000 per year per computer for hardware, software, and support. I think it can now be done for $400-$500 per year per computer. You will need to budget this amount in to your overall business plan.If you would like to contact me about this article or if you need further information, please write to me at: kenneth.hess@gmail.com.
Reference Links:
http://www.directdeals.com Great prices on software.
http://www.pricewatch.com My hardware haven.
http://www.tigerdirect.com A discount hardware company.
http://www.dirtcheapdrives.com The name says it all.
http://sourceforge.net Search for and download open source applications that you can use for free.
