IT Consulting: Charge Appropriately for Your Services by Joshua Feinberg
In IT consulting it is important to know the relationship between hourly billing rates and salary affordability so you can properly plan for both your own salary draw, as well as salaries of future technical and sales-related staff. This is directly related to one of the biggest mistakes you can... They’re copying the computer repair technicians or other moonlighters, and it’s not possible to ever be able to have a sustainable business. ... Even if you don’t plan on hiring additional staff, you have to consider that you are doing the work and you need to be compensated appropriately.

Data Backup - Do You Have A Data Backup And Recovery Plan In Place? by Lee Morrell
Data backup is rarely a part of a home computer user’s or business IT administrator’s plans, we all say it will never happen to me or my company, but in reality we are just mentally preparing for the time we lose our data. Its like trying to stop smoking, we all know we should do it but will... A RAID system for business continuity, offsite backup to securely protect all my business data, and to enable a quick restore, a CD backup of just my mission critical data which will keep my business running.

ERP Software Solutions by Jennifer Bailey
Enterprise Resource Management attempts to assimilate and automate all functional departments within a company into a single computer system that can provide all the particular needs of each department. ERP software constitutes various modules for each business activity like product planning,... These consolidated views and reports with business metrics can be automatically distributed to users or be accessed via the web. ... They centralize every aspect of your business around your customers, suppliers and prospects.

Best Buy for Laptop: How to Buy a Laptop Computer by Alex Fir
There is a wide range of laptop models available on the market today and buying the right machine can turn into a confusing mission. There are laptop computers intended for home users, multimedia, business and gaming. You can spend from $500 to $5,000. ... A laptop computer with smaller screen is great option if you do not plan to use laptop too much. ... But if plan to purchase a gaming laptop, be ready to pay at least $3,000. ... - Screen sizes range from 12 to 19 inches. ... A larger screen is perfect for extensive use.

QuickBooks and the Vista Operating System - What QuickBooks Users Need to Know by Jennifer A. Thieme
Microsoft plans to release its new Vista operating system to consumers in January 2007. The new operating system is schedule to be released to larger businesses in November 2006. Although upgrading to Vista is completely optional, QuickBooks users need to understand Vista’s compatibility with... If a product is for Vista only, this forces the user to make a decision: keep the product, and upgrade to Vista and to QuickBooks 2007 (and possibly upgrade other software products as well), or don’t keep the product and don’t upgrade.

Computer Consulting: Use Your Time Wisely by Joshua Feinberg
Time is money. If you're not careful in your computer consulting business, you'll waste both. With a little discipline and structure, you can maximize the return on your time. Journal Your Time One way to determine your computer consulting time is by journaling. ... Give Your Computer Consulting Staff A Plan If you’re billing out your computer consulting techs at 65 or 70 percent capacity and they have six to eight hours a week where they’re either sitting on the bench or doing some work or tending to the store, structure it so they have a plan of attack.

Five Steps to Protect Your Business System from a Disaster by David McCullough
You never know when disaster might strike. If one happens, the first thing on your agenda as a staffing business owner or manager, after assuring the health and safety of yourself and others will probably be: "How are we going to do business?" The lifeblood of any staffing business is information. ... There are essentially five steps that must take place in order to protect your hardware and software investment from a natural disaster: Create a Disaster Recovery Team Develop a Disaster Recovery Plan Test the Plan Communicate the Plan Implement the Plan Let's break these five steps...

IT Service Contracts: Recurring Revenue is Absolutely Critical by Joshua Feinberg
One-shot deals are for amateurs. The pros insist on IT service contracts. Otherwise you’re going to have a whole bunch of people that call you once or twice a year and in the meantime, you’re sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring. You’re doing nothing proactive. ... Those are the ones that allow you to invest and grow in your business. ... That’s the value of your business. ... Without those kinds of clients, it’s very hard to plan growth. ... It’s very hard to make any kinds of decisions on where your business is going.

Purchasing a Computer? by Jordi Shoman
When deciding on a large purchase like a computer, one must be sure they know exactly what they are looking for and what they are buying. An individual would not want to buy a computer and take it home only to find out that there is a crucial desired component of the computer missing from the... Determining what you wish to use the computer for is the next necessary step you must take, whether it is for business endeavors or for playing games. ... If you plan on using you computer for cataloguing and storing various things, such as songs, you require a significant amount of storage and as...

Hard Drive Failure: Picking Up the Digital Pieces of Your Life by Brian Cain
When a Digital Disaster Strikes, Who are you going to call? ECO Data Recovery has been recovering mission critical data for over 20years. Once upon a time, if your hard drive failed you had it repaired. This was a much more cost effective solution rather than buying a new “Whopping” 5Mb (Yes... The data stored on a drive, may be Payroll, Employee Information, Inventory or any number of items that when without, business continuity becomes nonexistent. ... The hard drive in every computer will eventually fail.