SMALL OFFICE HOME OFFICE
bizSmart, a joint venture of CIBC and STAPLES Business Depot. did a study that reports that there are currently more than two million small office / home office (SOHO) businesses in Canada — 1.5 million one-person operations, and another 600,000 companies that employ up to four people. Over the past decade, the SOHO segment of the economy has increased by 33%. Profit Guide Magazine
SOHO. The small office home office is your life blood. If you're like the average SOHO you have all your important files, your accounting, your office productivity suite (complete with all of your correspondence and documents), all the important stuff on your computer.
Alas, if you're like the average SOHO you're also at risk because you don't have proper backups and you don't have proper security. You also don't follow basic best practices such as performing regular scandisk and defrag operations. Proper data management? I bet 90+% of you have one big C: drive where everything, including the kitchen sink ends up!
It doesn't take a lot of money and it doesn't take a lot of know how to keep your computer safe, secure and running smoothly but it does take discipline. Additional information on these subjects can be found in the Networking and Security sections of this website.
Home Office - Do's & Don'ts
| 1. | Do get a dedicated business computer system. Prices are low enough now that sharing a computer with the kids is history. |
| 2. |
Do talk to an IT professional about your IT needs. Yeah I know it sounds self serving but unless you have some advanced computer skills you're just asking for trouble. When your first virus hits (notice I said WHEN not IF!) and wipes out your hard drive you'll be looking at a minimum of:
A professional can also set up a maintenance schedule for your computers Scandisk and Defrag tasks. Tasks that must be performed regularly in order to keep your computer functioning properly. |
| 3. | Don't buy the latest technology unless you can really justify it. Most SOHO's cannot justify purchasing the latest and the fastest hardware. You would be much better served purchasing additional maintenance and security software with the hundreds of dollars you're going to save by NOT keeping up with Jones's. |
| 4. | Do spend the time to find out about proper Data Management. The reason they call them COMPUTER FILES is because that's what they are! Files! Meant to be kept in a logical FILE SYSTEM! Scroll down to Data Management for more info on how to set up a file system so that you can quickly find any file you need. |
| 5. | Do
find out about proper Backup Strategies for your critical data. It is so cheap and easy yet you don't do it! Why!Why!Why? |
Data Management
Data Management
is the process of managing data. This means managing all aspects of your
data. And that means organization. Just like your filing cabinet, only
easier. The computer makes it a snap to label and organize your folders
and files. There is no excuse (except for microsoft annoying habit of
trying to put everything into the default folder "my documents"!)
for not being able to find any document or picture quickly and painlessly.
The first step is to stop and think, If these were paper files in a filing
cabinet what would be the best way to organize them? Are your files oriented
by date, job number, client name or a mixture of all of the above and
then some?
BackUp Strategies
Proper backup strategy means that when (not if) you have a system
crash of any sort that destroys critical information, you can replace
that critical information.
Operating Systems for a SOHO
Windows
95 - Not recommended
Windows 98 - Recommended
Windows ME - Not recommended....unless it's free.
Windows 2000 - Recommended
Windows XP - Recommended
Mac OS X - Recommended
Do have you have a
SOHO question or concern?
E-mail
us for free online advice.
SOHO Links
Bella
Online
Home
Office Mag by
Entrepreneur.com
ITZone - A Ziff Davis site dedicated to small
and medium size businesses
SOHO
Canada Business Group 
SmallBusinessComputing.com
And then there is this guy! Fred Langa i one of the best I.T.
resources on the net for common folk and one of the very few newsletters
I read every issue top to bottom.
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Last
Updated:November
2007
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