Your Helping Business

What You Need

This section is about the equipment and facilities you’re going to need on top of the ‘tools of your trade’ whatever they may be such as appropriate furniture, a therapy bed or couch and so forth. You know what they are, but you will need some other equipment and facilities.

Remember – everything you buy for your business, including your own personal training and CPD costs must be recorded and claimed against your income. More details in the Money section to follow.

Technology

One of the biggest issues for new business owners is ‘technology’ and in particular one or more aspects of ‘IT’.
Issues around the equipment itself, web sites, social media, communications and so on.

This perceived lack of knowledge about how it all works or fits together frequently leads to unscrupulous IT providers charging extortionate amounts of money for some of the simplest things.

If they perceive that you have no knowledge in this area and aren’t really interested in the technical details then sometimes they take advantage.

Never admit that you’re not sure what you’re doing in this area.

Here’s what you need when starting a personal business.

First of all, you do need a computer. You cannot properly run a business on a tablet or a smartphone – well you ‘can’, but not effectively or efficiently.

You need a desktop or a laptop/notebook with a reasonably large screen. I’d say 15” as a minimum (if you have good eyesight!).

It should be running the latest version of the Microsoft or Apple operating system, as fast and powerful a processor and as much internal storage (RAM) as you can afford.

Oh, and you do need an up to date smartphone as well!

Choices
Apple or Microsoft?

That is the ‘big’ question and from the point of view of efficiency and what they will ‘do’ there is little to choose between them.

The thing to remember is that if you choose Apple you effectively ‘lock yourself in’. Apple systems only run on Apple hardware, whereas Microsoft systems run on any hardware other than Apple. The two systems are incompatible and although software such as Microsoft Office will run on all computers, that which runs on Apple is somewhat different in terms of how you interface with it.

It’s a matter of choice, Apple hardware is generally more expensive than other computers and many IT service people don’t ‘do’ Apple, but you can always take it into an Apple Store and they will help you out.

Laptop – Desktop – Tablet?

If you do a lot of your ‘work’ at your desk, then you probably need a desktop computer, preferable an ‘all in one’ that takes up less space.

If you are more mobile, then you might go for a good laptop but go for the largest screen/weight you can cope with. Some laptops have quite small screens and are difficult to use for writing or spreadsheet work, they’re more suited to visuals such as games. You may also want to choose a laptop if you don’t have a permanent working space at home.

We don’t recommend you choose a tablet computer as these often have modified operating systems and work more like a big smartphone (without the phone capability). They are good for gathering data or using previously created forms, but please, please do not try to run your business on a smartphone and nothing else. It just doesn’t work!

Remember that any ‘IT’ you purchase depreciates at 33% which is another way of saying that it’s a good plan to update it every three years or so. After five years most computers will need a ‘clean up’ by a professional to remove unwanted obsolete operating system data and maintain effective operation.

Internet

You need a good fibre-optic internet connection and a good high power WiFi router. The reason you need fibre broadband is not so much about the download speed that you use to access websites and download data, images and so on, it’s about the upload speed.

You’re going to need to upload files, send things to other people and use the ‘cloud’ to store your business critical files.

The thing is that the maximum upload speed for non-fibre broadband is 1 megabyte per second, regardless of how fast the download speed. This means it will take a very long time to upload whatever you need to send to the web.

So what’s this ‘cloud’ thing?

The ‘cloud’ is a term for a vast system of distributed computer storage space, and although it’s called ‘the cloud’ it’s often underground in disused mines and sometimes caves to protect it from radiation of various sorts and for security reasons.

When you upload to OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud and so on your data files end up in one of these ‘server farms’ and can be retrieved whenever you want it.

Actually it’s in two different places – everything is ‘backed up’ (copied in case of loss) so you don’t have to do this yourself; but it is a good idea to get a large external hard drive as well so you can also copy everything to another ‘box’ on your desk – just in case the internet goes down!

IT Skills

Everyone has different levels of IT skills. Don’t assume that younger people know more – some do, some don’t, and remember that IT started with the ‘silent generation’ during the 1940s. Many ‘silver surfers’ grew up with modern computer technology and often had a hand in its development. So don’t make assumptions that if your PC goes wrong you need to find a 12 year old!

The point is that unless you are an IT professional yourself you will need ‘IT support’ for the ‘techy’ stuff from time to time. Go networking and find someone before you need them!

You’ll need some very basic IT skills: how to use email, spreadsheets and document software, how to access the web, and how to keep your virtual house in order.

Understanding how the applications (apps) you want to use are put together helps you use them intuitively, but you and I often need to learn how to use specific things, even things like Facebook and payment systems in order to keep our businesses running.

We may need to be able to do some of this ourselves rather than having to call on someone else who may not get round to what is effectively a ‘5 minute job’ – like updating a page on your website – for a couple of days!

In your home everything is in its place (more or less) and you know where to find stuff – it needs to be the same on your computer.

You don’t leave all your possessions out on the kitchen table and it’s the same with your computer ‘desktop’ – you need to create a meaningful filing system for all the information you have and ‘put it away’ when you’re not using it.

Your business may require you to use certain specific software – make sure you know how it works and how to use it, so you don’t have to rely on someone else for business critical stuff.