Filed under: Business, Internet, Video, Office, Productivity, Web services, OpenOffice.org, Shareware, Freeware
Five Small Business Tech Resolutions for 2008
Start out 2008 with a business bang! Get free online tools to help in everyday and long-term technology chores. Here are some suggestions for the best free small business tools available for a 2008 launch for your business.Keep track of your software licenses
Every time you buy a Microsoft Office or Windows software product, or one from Adobe (like Acrobat) or those expensive graphic suites (like CS3), you get a serial number usually attached to the CD case. After installing the software, does the box (with that critical serial number inside) wind up on a shelf somewhere? Resolve to undertake a software licensing program in 2008 and keep track of your serial numbers with a copy of those numbers off-site, perhaps on a portable USB storage device that is password-protected. Use a spreadsheet and note the software title, date and place of purchase, serial number, on which computer it was installed and where the original or backup copy is. Reasonably-priced shareware is here and some free apps are here. Check out KeyFiler, an online solution.Back up your software media and keep it safe (CD or DVD)
Make a single backup copy of all new software, including what you pay for and download from online sources. (Most software companies allow a backup copy.) Buy a media safe (here's a place to start looking) and keep the original media in that safe (not a bad place to stow a copy of the license information in #1 above). Fireproof safes are for paper; media safes withstand much hotter temperatures.
Organize your company graphics
Do you have original copies of your logo somewhere? Your products shots? Your purchased stock photography? Make January the month that the art director (even if that's you) puts all the company graphics in a single directory (with subfolders) on the server. If you don't have a server yet (why don't you have a server?), organize the pics on a single computer that is always backed up (look for a sale on external USB drives – here's a good place to start looking – and Flash keys – look here; you're going to need some). There are rules about using stock and other licensed photos. Keeping them organized in one place (and removed from a variety of less-than-secure places) is a step in the right direction.
Get a projector
In early 1998, I remember having a Fortune 100 company president wheel in an InFocus projector that his firm was lending to our group and demanding, "Why is this projector so damned expensive?" At the time, LCD projectors could cost more than $10K, so no wonder he was perplexed. The good news is that small portable projectors are available in big box stores like Costco and Sam's Club, and their prices have likewise slid into the affordable range. If your projector is more than 3 years old, chances are a new bulb will cost about 2/3 of a new projector today. Projectors serve multiple purposes and solve more than one typical office dilemma. If you have a product to showcase, don't make your potential customer squint at a notebook screen: project it instead.
Learn how to use Web meetings, Skype, and free conference calling
We've told you about LiveOffice's free conferencing service, so have you tried it yet? What about Wengo Meeting that lets you take your next meeting online? Webslides is a browser-based Web page slideshow that puts it together for you online. InstaConference has basic conferencing for free (although long-distance charges apply). The GizmoProject advertises itself as a free phone for your computer that reaches 60 countries.
But the granddaddy of online conferencing is Skype. Using Skype (and most other computer-based conferencing programs) requires a microphone and/or headset (unless the entire office wants to share your business call). It will be a free call if your recipients also have Skype; otherwise, the price is 'cheap,' Skype claims. Business accounts are available and obviously have more features. Make it a point in early 2008 to learn how to use Skype. Oh heck, you can buy it at Wal-Mart. How difficult can that be to use?
Make your 2008 resolutions now but be sure to follow through on them. If you have a brilliant addition for small business resolutions, please leave it in comments.
After spending the better part of an hour on 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TurboFool said 12:29PM on 12-27-2007
Great advice overall. One tip on the projectors, though, is on the price of bulbs. The ETORL bulbs on most Epson projectors cost $199 and have for years, so they're quite a bit less expensive than what you quote. Of course with the prices dropping the way they are, that's almost half the sale-price of some of the projectors.
The rest of your article is pretty important and matters I've discussed with co-workers. In particular the licenses and graphics stand out to me. As an IT guy, most of my clients have no clue where their licenses are and it makes my job a mess when we have to reformat or redistribute licenses between computers. The company I worked for previously was relatively good at keeping track of this info for the client, and some future ventures I'm involved in will make this a priority.
As for the graphics, I can't express enough during my web design years how many clients did NOT have the source files for any of their logos or other information. This is arguably more important than simply organizing what you do have. They'd have to search for days or weeks to find anything, and half the time I was forced to copy images from their old site and vectorize or even manually edit them to make them usable for their new work. It was an awful mess, and one that can and should be avoided. Rule one when having a logo or art designed for your company: request the source files. PSDs, PNGs, Illustrator files, whatever. Get the original vector sources and not just the exported JPEGs they'll usually give you. It doesn't matter if you don't have software capable of viewing it. Years down the line when you need something new done with it and your graphic artist is unreachable, your new artist will be more than capable of converting or working with those files, far more than he/she will be able to work with JPEGs or scans.
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Sue Polinsky said 12:36PM on 12-27-2007
Were that I had not married this guy a long while ago and it stuck, I'd consider you, TurboFool! Your mind works like mine and we're singing similar songs. Best to you in 2008 and thanks for the above comment.
TurboFool said 1:02PM on 12-27-2007
Always happy to receive the virtual hypothetical proposals. ;)
I'd say the worst I ever dealt with was a client who had some pretty nicely-designed original art of a cartoon horse over a denim background, complete with sewn edges and brass jean buttons. Problem was there was no way it could fill the screen of the web browser, and the source material was nowhere to be found (plus it was hand-drawn, so the original probably wasn't a vector anyway). I was forced to clone part of the background to create a background for the web site, then I was forced to clone and reverse the stitched edges of the original image for the bottom and right side, then I was forced to clone and smudge my way through extending part of the horse, then I was forced to copy and modify the jean buttons to use elsewhere, etc., etc., etc. The graphic wasn't designed with what I was doing in mind, and with no access to the source material my job became ten times harder. Not good for a package-quoted job.
So that's also good advice for web designers: when quoting a job, find out what source material the client has first.