That Large Beige Box Doesn’t Need to be Large…
The growth of small businesses, home offices, and self-employed entrepreneurs can be credited largely to the growth of technology. Things like widely available broadband and wireless Internet, web conferencing and powerful laptops have allowed people to work from wherever they want, whenever they want. Your place of work is no longer confined to four walls and a cubicle inside an office building. In many respects, small businesses inspire bigger businesses on how to cut their costs, make the best use of their space and take advantage of the latest in technology. With this in mind, we are going to have a look at some products that you may want to consider for your own business to save you time, money and even some space
When you think of a large beige box in an office, I bet the first thing you think of is a computer. Well, it’s time to rethink that. Many businesses have chosen laptops over desktop systems due to their small size and portability. However, with sensitive files inside many of these laptops, having the box locked up at the office is still preferable for many business owners. Not to mention, missing or stolen laptops are expensive to replace.
Shuttle Computer Corp. has been making its trademark miniature computers for a very long time now. Their latest invention, known as the X100, measures two-by-six by-eight inches, and fits in places that even your laptop would be too big for. It consumes only 120 watts of power and is whisper-quiet. Your basic desktop system consumes more than three times the power, and quiet it is not. In an office with a number of computers, that translates into quite a savings on the power bill, and you’ll be able to fit into a smaller office, or add more employees. The X100 has an Intel Core Duo processor, a high-performance desktop hard drive up to 500 GB in size, and it is easily upgradeable.
The X100 retailsat $699 U.S. and up.
For more information, visit:
You Don’t Always Have to Be There…
Business-owners worry about the safety and smooth running of their businesses. That’s why it seems most owners never leave. Give yourself a break by investing in a Swann security system.
The Swann DVR4-Net is a $499 U.S. stand-alone DVR (Digital Video Recorder) with 250bGBs of storage capacity and Internet connectivity. Mated with up to four or more Swann cameras (sold separately), you can finally leave the office and keep an eye on things anywhere in the world through the ease of a PC that is nowhere near the office.
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Business-owners worry about the safety and smooth running of their businesses. That’s why it seems most owners never leave. Give yourself a break by investing in a Swann security system.
The Swann DVR4-Net is a $499 U.S. stand-alone DVR (Digital Video Recorder) with 250bGBs of storage capacity and Internet connectivity. Mated with up to four or more Swann cameras (sold separately), you can finally leave the office and keep an eye on things anywhere in the world through the ease of a PC that is nowhere near the office.
In addition to being able to view in real time, the system also allows you to download footage to your offsite PC for later review. You can enjoy your vacation during the day, and watch “Reality TV” later.
For more information, visit: www.swann.com.au Swann products are also carried by London Drugs, if you want to stop by and see them in person. Save Money On Your Printing Costs… Since 1984, HP has shipped more than 100 million LaserJet printers worldwide. The first batch of LaserJet printers cost more than $3,500 U.S. each, and weighed 71-plus pounds. They also took two minutes to print out the first page and could not be shared over a network.
In 2007 you can buy a colour laser printer for less than $550 CDN and it is network-ready out of the box, meaning a small office really only needs one printer. They also spit out the first page in about 20 seconds or less and have features such as duplexing, which allows you to print double-sided pages for even more cost savings on your supplies. If you are a businesses still fiddling with refilling or buying inkjet cartridges, or maintaining more than one printer, your printing costs would decrease enormously with a switch to a laser printer.
Most inkjet cartridges cost $20 to 60 (for black) and produce about 100 pages if you’re lucky, and they also dry out if you don’t use them. Compare that to a laser printer that will print more than 1,000 pages (a few more, if you give it a good shake) on a single black toner that costs about $100. HP has been in the game for a long time, and its HP LaserJet Printers and refills are available at most larger retailers like Staples, Best Buy, CompuSmart and London Drugs.
Don’t Stick Your Clients with Paper—Give Them a CD. Good marketing materials are ones that don’t get left behind after the presentation. Bad ones are usually stacks of paper that no one wants to take along with them. As a courtesy to your clients, burn your materials to a CD so they can easily take it away with them. But if you have a 100-plus attendees, who is going to burn all those CDs for you? That’s why Discmakers invented the PICO.
The PICO is a single-drive DVD/CD duplicator that allows you to burn up to 25 discs at a time. It works with regular CDs and DVDs including business card-sized discs. The PICO comes with software that automates the process of burning your files so that you can move onto practicing your presentation or tending to other business matters. In addition to being a disc duplicator, it also works as a network DVD/CD recorder so that anyone in your office can use it to back up files or create their own projects to duplicate. If you love listening to music, you’ll love this feature.
The PICO will actually allow you to rip songs off your CDs to your MP3 or any other format, 25 discs at a time! The included RipTastic software will also download song titles and artist information for you. If you have hundreds of CDs to rip, that just saved you a load of time you could use to make more money.
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In Closing… There are many excellent products that can make your business more productive, so don’t limit yourself to the things that I’ve suggested. If you discover a great new technology, evaluate it for yourself, and then tell someone about it. Don’t keep it a secret! The best products are always the ones you discover by using them yourself. I hope that whatever technology you find out there will save you time, money and, ultimately, make your business that much more successful!
The PICO retails
for $699 U.S. and
is available at:
www.discmakers.com
