Small Office-Home Office Tips #7


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TipWorld - http://www.tipworld.com
The Internet's #1 Source for Computer Tips, News, and Gossip

Proudly presents:
The Windows 98 Tip of the Day

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*1. OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD

In many ways, working at home is much safer than commuting to 
an office. After all, you don't have to worry about getting in 
a traffic accident when you're walking from the kitchen to your 
home office. But if your work requires you to type a lot, 
you're still at risk for repetitive strain injury, or RSI. 
Deborah Quilter's Web site at

http://www.rsihelp.com

offers helpful information on the warning signs of RSI, as well 
as ways to try to avoid it. You'll also find a list of risk 
factors for RSI, a Q&A section, and reviews of ergonomic 
keyboards. In addition, Quilter sells BreakTime, a program that 
tracks your time at the computer and reminds you to take 
regular breaks. 


*2. SPRING CLEANING

If your hard drive is becoming cluttered, you might be tempted 
just to buy a bigger one. After all, disk storage space is 
becoming cheaper all the time. But installing a new hard drive 
is definitely not a job for people who aren't comfortable 
working on their PCs, and professional installation can be 
costly. Plus, you'll need to transfer your data to the new 
disk. Before you open that can of worms, take a look around 
your hard drive to see if you have any old software that you've 
installed but never use. If so, delete the unused program (or, 
if it can be uninstalled through Windows, do that). A good 
strategy for deleting individual files through Windows Explorer 
is to choose Details from the View menu, then click the date 
column twice to list the files from oldest to newest. You may 
find quite a few older files that could be archived to a 
diskette or simply deleted.


*3. GIVING IT AWAY

Sometimes giving away your product or service can be a smart, 
inexpensive way to promote it. Consider donating your product 
or a coupon for your professional services as a prize for a 
local charity. In some cases, you can find an organization that 
has a good proportion of potential customers. For example, if 
you offer a pet-sitting service, donating a free day or week of 
your services to a humane society auction could be great 
exposure to a pet-loving audience.


*4. HOME OFFICE POWER

If you're planning to remodel a room as a home office, be sure 
to install plenty of grounded, three-prong outlets for powering 
your PC, fax, and other office equipment. Also install good 
quality phone jacks in the office. If your home has a lot of 
poorly rigged phone extensions coming off the main line, you'll 
probably want to call the phone company or another professional 
phone service company to install new wire with the proper 
connections; this can greatly reduce the line noise that can 
interfere with your modem connection. Unless clients will visit 
you in your office, these behind-the-wall improvements can be 
more helpful to you and your business than more cosmetic 
changes, such as new carpeting or wall coverings. (But as we've 
mentioned in previous tips, don't scrimp on your chair!)


*5. VIEWER FOR POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS

Do you use Microsoft PowerPoint to create presentations for 
clients? If you meet with your clients in person, you might 
bring your laptop along to make sure that you have access to 
PowerPoint so you can play back your show. You might not have 
to do all that lugging, however, if you use Microsoft's free 
PowerPoint Viewer, which lets you view and print PowerPoint 
presentations without having the software installed on the PC. 
You can read more about the freeware and download it through 
FileWorld at

http://www.pcworld.com/r/tw/1%2C2061%2Ctw-soho0430%2C00.html


*6. WANNA BUY A BIZ?

Entrepreneur Magazine and Franchise Update sponsor the Business 
Resale Network, a database of businesses for sale. You can 
search by location, business type, and price range. Records 
include a business description and contact information. Many 
businesses list asking price, but you may need to call to get 
minimum investment and gross annual sales data. The site also 
includes articles on buying a business or franchise, including 
tips on evaluating a business opportunity.

http://www.br-network.com


*7. MARKET INTELLIGENCE FOR WEBMASTERS

StatMarket tracks trends in the use of the browsers, systems, 
and referrals that take people to Web sites. This can be very 
valuable information when you're designing a Web site, because 
it tells you what people are using to access Web sites. For 
example, you'll learn that many surfers use a particular audio 
plug-in or even which screen colors are most popular. Once 
you've developed your site, you might want to consider 
registering for StatMarket's HitBOX Tracker, a free service 
that tracks who's visiting your Web site (actually, the domains 
your visitors are using when connected to the Internet), how 
they get there, and when they visit--among other statistics.

http://www.statmarket.com


*8. INTERVIEWING PROSPECTIVE HELP          
   
When you interview someone to fill a position in your business, 
remember to let the interviewee do most of the talking. One 
mistake prospective employers make is talking too much, which 
can give the person many clues about what you want to hear. As 
a rule of thumb, try to get the person you're interviewing to 
do about four times as much talking as you do.


*9.  SMALL-OFFICE POSTAGE SOLUTIONS

You probably don't need a huge piece of mailing equipment in 
your home, but sometimes it would be nice to have a desktop 
solution to keep you from running to the post office. PC 
World's Yardena Arar reviews two such products in the article, 
"Internet Postage Saves Time and Shoe Leather," which is 
available online at

http://www.pcworld.com/r/tw/1%2C2061%2Ctw-soho0505%2C00.html

Simply Postage includes a desktop meter and monthly fee, while 
Stamps.com is a completely online service from the United 
States Postal Service.


*10. DEALING WITH AN ANGRY CLIENT

If a client calls to complain and seems angry, try not to use 
an angry tone in return. Instead, ask questions about why he or 
she is dissatisfied, which shows that you empathize. Of course, 
your questions should also help you devise a solution to the 
problem if you were at all at fault or if the client isn't 
using the product correctly. And if the client has made a 
mistake, try to explain that what he or she wants simply is not 
part of the contract. (Good customer service people would see 
this situation as an opportunity to "sell up" by offering to 
sell the client more services.)
