Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with smallbusiness

Accepting Credit Cards On The Go

Pinwiz — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:49:19 -0800

I need a solution to accept credit cards on the go. I'm starting a side-business as a computer geek, and because of the size of projects that I hope to get it would be useful to accept credit cards. I know that there's e-shop options like PayPal's virtual terminal, but I'd like to find something that I can access via my cell phone (Blackberry 8320) to accept credit cards at a job site.

Any recommendations/alternatives that I should consider?

Promotional/Personalized Items for a Small Business?

allthingsbright — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:22:28 -0800

Where can I buy personalized pens and polo shirts in low quantities - like a dozen or two? My husband's leaving his job and is going to start his own business. I'd like to surprise him with his company name on pens in the drawer where his current employers pens fill the space, and maybe even a couple polo shirts replacing his work shirts in the closet - just for fun and to make is feel more "official" straight off.

I must not be googling the right things, because I'm either finding sites where you have to buy hundreds of something, or crappy stuff. Where can I find promotional items or logo wear for the small business? Thanks for the suggestions!

Email Marketing

freshwater_pr0n — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:31:50 -0800

I'm a dog trainer. Almost 100% of the potential clients who telephone me sign up for lessons. Far fewer, about 40% of the people who email me, sign up for lessons. The other 60% don't respond to my email. How can I get that other 60% to sign up? Most people who telephone me have been referred to me by a past client, a vet, or another pet professional. The people who email me find me through Google, I guess.

My stock response is something like,

"Hi! Thanks for getting in touch. (A sentence or two letting them know that I can help with the problem about which they've emailed me.) Give me a call at (555) 555-1234 if you'd like to set up a time for us to meet."

Then I either get a call back, and get the client, or never hear anything else from them.

Should I be sending follow-up emails? That feels intrusive and spammy to me, but maybe I should just go for it. Or should I tweak the wording of my initial reply email so that it's more effective?

Getting started on my own

Bunglegirl — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:12:53 -0800

How do I best set up space to work as a solo graphic designer (furniture, computer equipment, etc.)? I am in a position where I might be able to work as a freelance graphic designer (or my own, single person company) instead of looking for a full time position at a studio. If I go this route I definitely want to upgrade my work environment (new table & chair, mouse, computer & monitor). I am mainly a print designer, mostly working in InDesign & Illustrator with the occasional retouching in Photoshop. I don't often need to work on photos with 100+ layers and am not interested much in motion work. Think Corporate Identity work, logos, books etc.

My experience includes 6 years at a tiny design studio with everything (including Herman Miller chairs) already set up. We used G4 towers, regular mouses and Apple displays. I've been freelancing on and off for a few years, making do with the equipment I have. I'll be renting a new apartment with, hopefully, an extra room to use as a work space.

Computer:
I am currently on a Mac G4 tower, but am in the market for a new machine (and all the $oftware) this summer. I loved my 12" iBook and would like to have a laptop again. I was planning on getting a new MacBook or MacBook Pro, a good, large monitor and mouse. My tower is okay but I don't think it could run CS3. I feel that a laptop would be enough to run the programs and files I would need. I prefer not to buy a tower and laptop for financial reasons, although the portability is mostly for personal use. It may be handy to take my computer to a client every once in a while.

Mouse:
My current mouse is a small old Fellowes mouse that was free. Although my hands are really small, even for a woman, it's uncomfortable to use and my wrist and outside hand have been getting more sore/numb/clicking.

Do I really need a wireless mouse? What about tablets? They look cool but I think it would definitely take some getting used to. I might benefit from a mouse that keeps my hand in a more natural position (thumb up) might help my current wrist problems. I've never really liked those mouses with the huge ball. I recently used a new Mac mouse for the first time but it seems I've become accustomed to my trackwheel and extra buttons (without hitting a key to use them).

Keyboard:
I have a new extended Mac (wired) keyboard so I'm not worried about that.

Monitor:
My current monitor is way too small for all my pallets and is slowing me down. I think it's around 17" so I imagine I need at least a 22" monitor. I usually leave color correction up to printers so I wouldn't think color would be terribly important, but I probably couldn't get the cheapest model out there. I've looked around at reviews of LaCie monitors, but I'm not sure if it's worth it or if it's better than Mac displays. I always felt that Mac displays were overpriced, but I'm not sure.

Backup:
I plan on getting some sort of external hard drive. Everyone has bad luck with every brand so I'll probably just go with Western Digital or something. I was thinking 500Mb, if I need more space I could buy another 500Mb drive.

Printer:
I definitely need at the very least a black and white laser printer. A color printer would be nice, but I'd like one that doesn't make me replace color cartridges to print black. One of those printer/scanner/faxes would be nice, but I remember spending so much time dealing with printer issues at my studio that anything cheap seems too good to be true. I have a fax machine I could use separately already, if I need it. I do scan things sometimes, but not often. I probably wouldn't scan anything for print myself, I can't afford something of that high quality.

Furniture
Table: I'm currently using an old desk and chair which don't fit together well. The chair is too high for the desk and the table too shallow for my monitor. I have an old library table that I'd like to fix up, but it has the legs cut down. I was planning on replacing the legs so it was about waist height when I stand. I loved the tables in high school art class and would like something similar that's sturdy and has lots of space so I can work around all sides of it, spread projects out and use it for other projects (painting, sewing, bookbinding or whatever) too. I was planning on putting wheels on the table with 2-4 locking wheels. I usually see tables have only 2 locking wheels but I want to make sure it stays put when I need it to.

Chair: I like being "high up" and am excited about working in a stool with foot rest. But I also have a bad back and posture problems. I need a good stool. If I could afford a stool Aero chair I would. The used chairs I've seen are still $300+ and I'm going to be putting down a lot of cash at once.

What else? I suppose I need some file cabinets. I have book shelves. Am I missing anything?

I'm currently small but as I take on more projects my paper system of recording hours, invoices etc. is starting to seem silly. I will probably use some sort of program to do this and have looked at a few. I'm putting this in computers/internet instead of work because it's so computer heavy. Any insight would be appreciated.

Day's never finished...

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:47:23 -0800

Facing critical burnout - how do we keep our business on track without killing ourselves? We're two folks in our twenties who've been running a web hosting and development business for five years (and on the side for five years before that). We're the only two employees. We're also married - to each other. The marriage part is going gangbusters, the business part is wearing us down.

For the last 18mos. we've both been doing this fulltime, and for 12 of those 18mos. we've been struggling to keep up - 20 hour days, no weekends, and any help we have tried to bring on so far has been sub-par to say the least. We are exhausted. In addition to being front line support for the hosting side of the biz, we're also in the thick of several development projects - and I mean several. As in, ten. And the harder I try to get things organized and under control, the more unexpected situations crop up that leave me flying by the seat of my pants. More times than I can count I have wished for a mentor or a secretary or about ten more programmers, but in the immediate, I'm faced with a partner who's definitely showing the strain and I want things to be more manageable so we can start enjoying our accomplishments a little more and maybe not just feel like we're on an endless treadmill. Time off would be nice. I have no idea where to start.

It's Monday morning and I just pulled an all-nighter, not to finish a project, but to stay on top of support for the projects I finished in the last two weeks - which puts me behind in development for this week, and who knows what my inbox may bring? Our mail server has been spotty since Friday and my partner finally looked up after 3 days of trying to fix it and said "I don't care anymore." I hear that. It's hard to care when you feel like you're being bludgeoned from all sides.

Where do we go from here? We clearly need assistance, but our efforts so far have been discouraging. What can I do to help our business grow while allowing us to have a life in between?

I've created an email address for followup questions at sleepydrone AT gmail DOT com.

Easy and cheap voice mail solution please!

my homunculus is drowning — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:40:28 -0800

My small business needs a permanent phone number with several easily customizable voice mail boxes. Skype seems like it may be a solution for me, but there are many other products out there as well that seem to be more dedicated to doing exactly what I need.

I have very little technical know how in this area.

I don't have to make out going calls with this phone number (though it would be nice).

I don't have a lot of money.

Purchasing a retail business

Anonymous — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:31:41 -0800

Specific questions, and general advice and suggestions, on purchasing a very prominent, locally owned, retail business. For the past decade, I have been a regular customer at a local retail business. It's a single location, but it's very prominent and well known in both our city and on a national level (think in terms of The Strand in NYC). The owner has recently announced that they are looking to sell the business and retire, and have retained a local business broker to manage the process. The price has not been made public, nor have the financial records of the business (both will be to serious bidders), but the owner says it is very profitable and in great shape. They have also said that they will not sell to a chain, but only to a local person who will keep the staff and not make substantial changes to the business.

I have non-retail business experience, strong ties to the community, a familiarity with the store and industry, and no desire to substantially change the business or the (fantastic!) staff. But, as much as I know about business, I know next to nothing about buying a pre-existing one.

A few questions:

1 - If you've purchased a pre-existing business (retail or not), what’s the best advice you received in the process? What do you wish you had known ahead of time that you learned the hard way?

2 - I'll need to take out a business loan to cover the cost of the purchase. In a situation like this, generally how much, if any, of the total cost is the buyer expected to put down? Is a loan for the total cost of the business normal, or even possible? (Not yet knowing the cost of the business, I want to understand my full spectrum of options!)

3 - I can get general financial information from D&B. I can get general operational information by watching the business for a given period of time. What else can I find out before approaching the broker or owner and starting a conversation with them?

Any other advice, suggestions, or words of wisdom would be appreciated. Emails can be sent to a throw-away account at AskMeBusiness@gmail.com. Thanks!

Inspire me with your best personal entrepreneurial story

jmnugent — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:27:15 -0800

I'm looking for practical, first-person, inspirational stories of how to launch/bootstrap entrepreneurial ideas with little or no resources. The more specific and detailed, the better. I'm in a life-phase right now of working hard to pay off some significant debt. During the slow and painful process, I'm building up a stack of creative ideas that I'm pretty sure would be successful if I only had the resources to nurture them. (I have no delusions of going "rags to riches", I'd just like to go "rags to being-able-to-pay-my-bills" before I turn 40.)

I hate to let the ideas stagnate, but there are weeks I can barely afford to eat, much less anything else. I just have this sinking feeling how much it will suck to hit 40 and look back to see all those ideas that died on the vine. (I also am starting to resent being referred to as the "guy with a bunch of ideas who never does anything with them" because I'm totally NOT that guy, but I have no resources to prove otherwise.

I realize the pragmatic answer for me (at the moment) is to keep doing whatever I can to get out of debt, but I'm hoping other MeFi's will have some inspirational stories of times you were at the bottom, and found creative ways to jumpstart one of your favorite ideas. Bonus points to anyone who started their own in-house business and eventually moved to it full time.

should we switch to a green energy provider?

minicloud — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:30:18 -0800

Should I have our small business switch to a third party green energy provider? We had a salesman for Accent Energy come to our door and he was a bit shady so I told him that I wanted to look into this on my own time. But from what I'm reading online it could be a great way to convert to a more environmentally responsible energy solution. And its Earth Day today too. Our company wants to do what we can to be "green" and we would even pay slightly more to do so, but if a switch to a third party will cost three times as much then we just cant do it. I apologize if theres a post covering this that I missed, but I couldn't find anything besides this posting and they focus on hydro-power in Ontario. So my question is, has anyone here in New York made the switch to a third party like Accent or one of the other green providers that work with Con Ed? Did you choose fixed rate or fluctuating rate? How much did it change your bill? I wish they would provide more of this concrete information on their websites, and the fact that they dont makes me feel like it may be a bad move. But I want to help reduce our impact! Help!

How do I be better at system administration and helpdesk tasks?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:41:02 -0800

Small company IT administrators, how do you handle users with a wide disparity of technical ability? Users who hate computers? Who don't want to even restart before calling you? Who treat you like your a nerd from a bad teen comedy? Quitting or hiring someone to help me is out of the question right now. I have no IT experience except that I worked on quite a few projects at grad level that required me to use Matlab and VBA. Computers were a tool, so I figured out how to configure servers and work data sources by just learning it. Fast forward 9 months and I'm now the only, and first, IT guy at a small 50-100 person company.

I was hired to do all sorts of things, like help implement ERP and CRM solutions, etc. I do that, but at least half my time is taken up by help desk. I hate help desk. I've tried really hard to improve things, and believe I have accomplished a lot, but the, say, bottom half of users cause me the most problems and I believe will always cause me problems. They hate technology, don't understand and refuse to understand it. I can automate and lock down things, but it gets to a point where doing so any further would seriously inhibit their ability to do their job. These are multi-tasking, mobile users ... not a kiosk somewhere.

For example: I have to do things like create desktop shortcuts, explain how to type addresses in the address bar and how to make favorites. Fundamentally, they want computers to work like a cell phone. This contradicts with the fact that their tasks aren't as well defined as phone service. Common hardware, silent installs and remote administration can only go so far. I have to deal with meltdowns and vague troubleshooting ("I can't get my turned on, it is too slow" ... "I have no idea what you're talking about").

So what have I done? Documentation, wikis and other collaboration tools. I've tried them all, and they are great if you can get people to use them, but they don't. I tried a ticket and queue system, but that also doesn't work. If I don't respond within 5 minutes I get frantic calls, and nothing saps your energy more than spending 30 minutes explaining how to put a shortcut on a desktop and being treated like I'm Comic Book Guy.

There's got to be something I can do? Again, 70% of users are fine and only need me if they can't go through some basic trouble shooting themselves, like at least reboot a computer. I feel that the other 30% is a mix of people avoiding work and dumping their problems on me. The correct answer may be to "find another place to work," but that's not an option in at least the short term, so I kind of have to deal with this at some level. Most of these people don't have computers at home and only interaction with this whole computer fad is through their work-provided laptop or desktop. Any, any advice or help would be appreciated. Sorry for the somewhat non-structured ranting.

Inventory Management solution

Raichle — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:34:33 -0800

I'm looking for a free or really cheap inventory management system. I need to be able to easily add and modify existing inventory and print invoices based off that inventory.. Nothing too exciting.. It would be helpful if it played nicely with Peachtree, but that isn't necessary. This computer will not be on the Internet so I need a solution that can be hosted or locally installed on a Windows or Ubuntu machine.

I don't understand tea!

mustcatchmooseandsquirrel — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:38:27 -0800

How are teabags made? Help me understand the mysterious world of tea production. I see smallish companies like this selling teabags and I always wonder about the process of going from loose tea leaves to teabag in shiny tea bag wrapper.

I assume that there is not a single person sitting and blending all the leaves, stuffing them into each individual teabag, gluing the bag closed, and then stuffing the bag into the paper/plastic wrapper. There must be some sort of automated process? A machine? Where do companies get teabag stuffing/making/packaging machines? Where do they get the teabags to put the tea in? How does it all work?

marketing brainstorm forecast: cloudy

modernpoverty — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:41:57 -0800

I could really use some assistance planning a complete advertising and marketing strategy for my small business in Richmond, VA. The problem is that I don't know where to start. I've been making decisions on advertising and such for the last few years, and I do not think that we are getting as much out of our advertising dollar as we could. It might be time to get professional help, but I don't know who to call or how much that should cost, which means that it will be difficult to choose the right person for the job. Like most small businesses, the budget is nowhere near what it probably needs to be...but if our marketing attack is successful, that (hopefully) won't be a problem.

Other assorted details: Business is located in Richmond, VA. Due to our relatively unique product, we attract folks from nearby metro areas as well (Hampton Roads area, Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Petersburg, Williamsburg, Lynchburg, and even northern Virginia). Our typical customer is tough to nail down. Ages range 18 to 80. It's definitely biased towards men vs women, although that percentage is shifting a lot lately. The things that unite our customers? Many of them have done some traveling. Many of them are a bit smarter than the average bear. Most of them have at least a passing concern for the environment.

I don't want to be all self linky, but I should probably tell you what we actually do as that will help you smart folks answer my questions more effectively. We sell motorscooters. An obvious angle on this problem considering the current freakout over gas prices would involve the fuel economy of scooters, as the bikes get anywhere from 90-140 miles to the gallon.

Meandering intro out of the way, your thoughts on the following would be appreciated:
I've looked at all of the previous threads on local marketing and have prices for many of those ideas. What other ideas may be particularly helpful considering my product and potential customer?
What should I consider when sorting out which of those ideas and others I should try?
Is it in my best interest to get professional help with planning a complete marketing bonanza?
If so, how do I choose the right person for my business?
Got any fantastic recommendations on a professional in the Richmond area who would have a solid handle on what works and what doesn't in this area?
If I decide to go it alone, are there any must-read books that might help me sort this all out?

How do I perform an effective market analysis?

lunit — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:21:33 -0800

I'm trying to start a small business. Please give me tips on performing market and competition analyses. I work at a non-profit, and I'm trying to launch a social enterprise (small business) that provides property maintenance services which can employ our clients directly. We're looking at creating low-skill jobs doing things like grafitti removal, trash pick-up, shovelling, basic landscaping and maintenance, etc. - whatever services are both low-skill (low education, low job experience) and in demand.

I need to perform a market and competition analysis to determine what kind of demand is out there, figure out pricing, etc. We're targetting businesses, non-profits, and residential properties in or around this neighborhood that might have property maintenance needs, as well as city and state contracts. Open to suggestions on possible targets if you have any.

Can you point me to some resources that provide direction with this piece of business planning? Further, I'm interested in hearing any experiences you have doing this kind of analysis. What should I keep in mind when I speak with potential customers? Potential competition? Should I focus on just gathering market data, or should I also use this as an opportunity to start selling a business that isn't off the ground yet? Are there ways to phrase questions about sensitive information (ie: who does your property maintenance? how much do you pay them?) that up my chances of getting those questions answered?

Thanks!

Small business ecommerce solution?

s01110011 — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:55:03 -0800

What is the best(are there any at all?) FREE storefront (Amazon Webstore, Shopify, WebBuilder, and bigcartel )type websites that don't use payment gateways? I need a quick, easy to setup website to sell one specific line of products - Maybe 5 items total (at the moment, only three are ready to ship). Something secure and convenient for customers. Are there any free websites that offer this? Right now, I'm leaning towards just pushing through with bigcartel or shopify - time is an issue.

Any suggestions? My web/programming skills are non so I don't know that building a site from scratch would be a viable option. As it is I just struggled with putting up a template based website using a WYSIWYG editor.

DNS set up

lazaruslong — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:09:30 -0800

I need help setting up email addresses and DNS service for a business. So. My employer really wants email addresses for @thecompanyname.com

This is what I have already done:

Purchased the domain name they wanted from go daddy.

Set up with Bell South lots of stuff: We have the small business DSL package so we get a few free static IP addresses. I've set that up and have received the address we were assigned. Now I need to set up the DNS to point at our domain, right?

I logged into the dns management and added the domain. Now I need to figure out how to list bell south as the Primary DNS on Godaddy, right? And then set up the email addresses, I imagine using MX records (although I don't really know what those are)

Did I miss any steps? What else do I need to do? Can anyone with experience with the fastaccess.com/dns GUI from BellSouth and GoDaddy walk me through the rest? I've run out of knowledge.

What's the perfect app to track expenses?

mathowie — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:04:39 -0800

Is there an expense reporting app that's flexible, handy, and will help me finish next year's taxes quickly and easily? I know about excel, quicken, and various financial transaction apps, but what if I drive 100 miles to a tech conference and want to note my mileage? And what if I'm out entertaining clients and I want to pop onto my iPhone to note the total bill for the evening (before I forget the next day to open excel). Are there any web-based flexible apps for doing all the expense reporting you might need for a small business' bookkeeping needs?

shareable contact management solution?

nerdcore — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:18:01 -0800

I'm looking for a shareable/collaborative Contact and Calendar Management program. I work for a small business but we have a lot of contacts to manage. I've been using Highrise but honestly, the lack of several key features is getting to me: calendaring function,editing people/tags in batches, etc. My boss is leaning towards exchange server, I am hoping to find a better, more inclusive solution. My boss doesn't want to pay a monthly fee, but is cool with buying something on a 1 time basis. The things we need most are:

- A good contact management system with the ability to tag/group people into different categories, and the ability to add notes to people.

- A shareable calendar with tasks/meetings/whatever which can be linked back to a client.

Browser or desktop based solutions are good. An ideal solution would probably be something browser based which we could install on our own server. Pony-filter wishlist items include: ability to send bulk emails to specific groups and project management functionality with time tracking and milestones.

Hire Me!

freshwater_pr0n — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:17:38 -0800

Tell me some great, effective ways to market my dog training business. For example, how do I promote myself to veterinary clinics who don't know me yet? What will really help me get my name out there? Right now, my clients are my best marketing tool. Nothing is more effective than making a client so happy, and training a dog so well that people on the street will come up to them and ask them how they wound up with such a great dog. I want to build a larger pool of people like that.

Radio ads were a disaster. I got calls, but mostly from nutjobs. For this reason, I'm wary of print ads. I'm the sole proprietor of my business, and I don't have time to talk to people who want free advice.

Most of my non-referral clients come through Google Ads, and I'm happy with my campaign.

What else can I be doing?

What cheap software or webapps can I recommend to help my friend manage her small business?

abkadefgee — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 02:04:09 -0800

What free or cheap software, or webapps, can I recommend to help my friend manage and build her small business, a salon? Although there is software out there specifically made for this purpose, it seems out of her price range and shares a lot in common with more general software. I've recommended using Google Calendar to manage her appointments and suggested that her basic inventory needs can be tracked with Excel. However, it would also be helpful for her to be able to track the contact information for her clients and what type of services they receive at each appointment, and perhaps including pictures would be helpful as well.

I would think that someone who has experience in managing a business might have some suggestions for software without having specific knowledge about the salon world. Any advice would be helpful.

Looking for financing to start a small business

amysk — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:52:34 -0800

My husband has been given the opportunity to purchase a small business. He knows that the company will be sucessful. We need about $10,000 to start it up. Here is the problem: he has a great credit rating, but he is currently unemployed and we do not own a home to put up as collateral. Are there any creative financing solutions out there for him?

Multitasking CPA?

Eringatang — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 15:12:15 -0800

I am looking for a person/firm in southeastern Michigan who will do a great job preparing my personal income taxes (including small business expenses) AND file an LLC for me. The more work they can do (and the less leg work I have to do), the better. If you have a personal recommendation, please share! If you would be willing to tell me about rates, you can send me a mefimail. Thanks!

How much money do I need to save for my new business to take off without a hitch?

bacall423 — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:14:43 -0800

How much money do I need to start my business? And am I foolish to think I will be able to do this?? I'm planning to start a private investigating business in early-mid 2008. Before it happens, my partner and I will move from San Francisco to Eugene, OR (she's hopefully going to be attending grad school at UO). Our cost of living will decrease substantially, but she will most likely have a limited income, so I am fully expecting money to be tight for a little while.

My question is this: How much money do I need to save up in order to focus all my efforts on my new business once we're in Eugene?

The business will be low-cost to start-up - I've estimated about $3,000 will go into licensing fees, a new computer, etc. Moving fees have been estimated at about $1,200.

(I should mention here that my business will be a sole proprietorship, I will be working from home, and most of my work will be done online. I'm not the field investigating type of P.I., I'm the public records research P.I. with a librarian background. The main focus of my work will be background investigations and skip tracing.)

So, besides the estimated $4,200 needed to move and start my business, how much do you think would be necessary to have saved up before jumping into this head first? I'm not sure how much rent will be in Eugene, but I'm guessing maybe $800 a month for a 2 bedroom?

Should I look into small business loans, state funded grants, etc., or is that not a good idea?

Also, does anyone have any idea how much E&O insurance for this type of business might cost me?

Hold my hand through the world of e-commerce.

infinityjinx — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 07:25:51 -0800

What inexpensive web hosting would you recommend for my super small business? Oh, and how does the shopping cart thing work anyway? So far I have: a product (for a very niche market); a domain name; most of my web site done using SiteSpinner. Now I need: hosting with a shopping cart and either PayPal or secure credit card payments (or both?). As far as I know I don't need anything complicated like a hundred email addresses and databases, but I don't really know anything about this aspect of the biz. How much can I expect to pay right off the bat? Per month? Who do you recommend; what else should I know?

Midphase seems to be the cheapest I can find, at $7.95/month, but they say I need a business checking account. Is that true? I'm not expecting to make a living off of this, just something to do as a creative outlet for fun and maybe make a little mad money.

What say ye, hive mind?? Thanks for your time!

How to do a small business Vista rollout?

birchhook — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 13:52:15 -0800

Is there a good document to help with determining the proper timing, method, and/or budget for installing Vista at a small business? We have about 15 users on a good day on our network. I realize that we will need to go to Vista eventually, but we can wait "until it's finished." I've been trying to find something that will give me guidance as to how to prepare for and implement the switch. In other words has someone already done the planning work for me? something like :

1) 6mos. out upgrade the hardware
2) 3 mos. out install Vista on non-critical machines ...