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Mac vs pc which is the best computer for your home business

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Why do people love MAC computers? Are they really the best choice for your home business? To answer that question you need to understand the basic difference between MACs and PCs. A P. C., the acronym for “Personal Computer”, is the machine that most of the computing world owns. That actually should be the acronym for “Popular Computer”. You’re likely reading this from a PC.

How can you tell? Well MAC computers, manufactured by Apple, run on their own operating system, versus the PC which all run on the Microsoft Windows operating system, i. e. Windows 98, 2000, etc. That’s it…that’s the defining difference between the two types of computers. If you’re running a computer with a Microsoft operating system, than you have a PC.

Bill Gates actually ripped off the original Apple operating system, but that’s a whole other article.

Most media and creative professionals, who work in design or in the film and music industries, only use these computers. That’s the foundation of their business. But other than that, you don’t find them too much in many business settings.

Now I’ve never owned one, but I’ve worked with other business owners who have and I actually fiddled around with one a few times. Here’s what I can tell you….
MAC users LOVE MACs!!!!!! They’re generally like cult followers, they worship them and would drink a vial of arsenic before switching to a PC.

That in itself does say a lot! You don’t generally see PC users feeling the same way. I admit they are really hot machines, but since I’ve worked with PC’s for over 15 years I am admittedly biased. It's really just a "comfort", "familiarity", "feels like a good ol' shoe" kind of thing.

The truth is MACs are essentially better-made. Apple tends to “over-engineer” their computers, so that you can get by without an upgrade for a much longer time. It's about eight to ten years, as opposed to the PC’s three to five year span.

Their operating system is superior to Windows and they have far fewer technical issues, especially relating to viruses. Macs only make up about 2% of all computers out there, so hackers don’t think it’s worthwhile to develop viruses that affect their operating system; hence computer viruses on MACs are virtually non-existent.

Not to mention computer hackers hate the fact that Microsoft has created a monopoly. Viruses are their way of creating a massive migraine for them…and unfortunately us as well.

Now on the other side, since there are fewer Macs in the world, not all software, especially specialty software, is available to run on their operating system. So you have to look into that before you decide to purchase one.

So if they’re so great, then why doesn’t everyone own one?

Simple…they are more expensive than PC’s. That’s the main reason why PC’s are more “popular”…period! You see “Popular Computer”…oh never mind!

Most businesses, especially small businesses, don’t need to spend the extra bucks on a computer just to run simple word processing and database programs…it’s really not a necessary cost. That’s an important concern when starting a small business.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider one. They’re really great machines and will certainly keep your business running at peek efficiency. And the upfront price may be worth the cost, because it may actually save you money on the back-end. The savings from not having to upgrade hardware every couple of years or having to update virus protection software will save you lots over the long-term.

Find out more about MACs for your home business at Duh Idiot’s Home Biz Start-Up Guide.

© 2005 A Covert Operations, Ltd.
All rights reserved.
http://www. starting-a-home-business. org

Avoiding scams in home base businesses

Think you already know what this subject is all about? Chances are that you don’t, but by the end of this article you will!

Now perhaps the infer you’re interested in site up a home base business is because you’ve seen an ad wherever on the Internet maybe, or you've been ask by somebody probably a family member. It was all about a great work-from-home money-making opportunity, and you're excited. Finally, you can suspend your job! Just wait a minute....

If you're thinking of working from home by somebody else’s rules, though, you have to realize that at slightest 99% of the offers out there are scams after all, if it was that easy to pay a few dollars and make thousands, wouldn’t everyone be getting involved with it by now? Here are the major scams out there, how to recognize them, and how to prevent them.

Location, Location, Location.

Where did you see that work from home offer? If you got it in the post, or by email, or saw it on a poster taped around a phone pole, then I can guarantee you right now that it’s not a legitimate offer. If you saw the ad in a newspaper, in a jobs magazine or on a jobs website, then it’s a little more possible to be legit but not much. Forever check out any offer, and think it’s a swindle until you have iron-clad resistant to the contrary.

Envelope Stuffing.

This is the most established work-from-home scam, and it’s been going for decades now. Basically, once you pay your money and authorize up to work from home, you're sent a set of envelopes and ads just like the one you responded to. You might make some money if somebody responds to your ad, but eventually there just wont be a promote for it any more. Anyway, works from home offers like this are dishonest pyramid schemes.

You won't make any money putting writing in envelopes get over it.

Charging for Supplies.

The prepare of charging for food is hard to pin down to any one swindle it’s the way almost all work-at-home scams work (including the envelope stuffing, above). You'll be asked to make a small investment for anything resources would be desirable to do the work and then you'll be sent very unkind resources that aren't appealing to anything like what you paid, and you'll find that there's no market for the work anyway.

As you can see, running a ‘home base business’ that just involves ‘working’ for one company is a bad idea. You don’t know who you’re dealing with. Here’s the clincher, though: even with entirely legal work-at-home offers that do pay you for your work, you still won’t make anywhere near as much as you can with your very own home base business. So why bother with them at all?

Over time, you will begin to understand how these concepts really come together if you choose to venture into this subject further.

Working for Free.

This variation on the scam is common with crafts. You might be asked to work at home making clothes, ornaments or toys. Everything seems legitimate – you’ve got the materials without paying out any money, and you’re doing the work. Unfortunately for you, when you send the work back, the company will tell you that it didn’t meet their ‘quality standards’, and will refuse to pay you. Then they’ll sell on what you made at a profit, and move on to the next sucker.

Never do craft work from home unless you’re selling the items yourself. Note that you don’t need to be selling to consumers (you could be selling to wholesalers), but you still need to be the one deciding what you make and getting the money.

Home Typing, Medical Billing, and More.

There are lots of work-from-home scams that involve persuading you that some industry has more work than it can handle, and so has to outsource to people working from home. For example, you might be told that you’d be typing legal documents, or entering medical bills into an electronic database. These scams have one thing in common: they all say that all you need is your computer and they all then go on to say that you need to buy some ‘special software’.

This software might appear to be from a completely unrelated company, but don’t be fooled – the whole reason the ‘work-from-home’ ad was there to begin with was simply as cynical marketing for the software.

As you can see, running a ‘home base business’ that just involves ‘working’ for one company is a bad idea. You don’t know who you’re dealing with. Here’s the clincher, though: even with entirely legal work-at-home offers that do pay you for your work, you still won’t make anywhere near as much as you can with your very own home base business. So why bother with them at all?

Nation branding and place marketing i. the marketing plan

In the decades since World War II, economics prowess replaced military power as the crucial geopolitical determinant. The resilience of a country is measured by its inflows of foreign investment and by the balance of its current account - not by the number of its tanks and brigades.

Inevitably, polities the world over - regions, states, countries, and multinational clubs - behave as only commercial businesses once did. They actively market themselves, their relative advantages, their history and culture, their endowments and assets, their mentality and affiliations. In short, they aggressively promote their brand names ("brands" throughout this article).

To cast countries in the role of brands implies that they act as "producers" to some "consumers" out there. But what do countries - as distinct from firms - produce? And who are the consumers enticed by said statal brand placement and regional location marketing? And how does the process of exchange take place - who gives what to whom and where?

Few governments know the answers to these economically crucial questions. Ministers of finance and industry the world over religiously repeat the mantras of "attracting foreign direct investment" and "encouraging entrepreneurship". They recite the list of advantages proffered by their country to the lucky investor, manager, scientist, expatriate, or businessman. But they lack a deep understanding of the process and meaning of nation branding.

Few countries - Britain being the notable exception in the past decade - conduct serious market research and bang heads together in think tanks or inter-ministerial committees to redesign the national brand. Even fewer maintain long-term, sustained branding campaigns supported by proper advertising. Only recently did a few pioneering polities hire the services of nation branding experts. None has in place the equivalent of a corporate "brand manager".

One of the critical mistakes of countries the world over is the self-centered lack of emphasis on customer satisfaction. Meeting and exceeding the "client's" expectations is merely an afterthought - rather than the axis around which the planning, evaluation, control, and revision of the marketing mix revolve. At best, countries concentrate on concluding specific transactions instead of on the development and cultivation of long-term relationships with their "clients".

It is as though countries arrogantly refuse to acknowledge their dependence on the goodwill of individuals and firms the world over. The traditional and impregnable supremacy of the sovereign nation-state has gone the way of the dodo - but decision-makers still have to be appraised of this startling development. Most countries - and nowadays there is a surfeit of sovereigns - are nothing more than bit players in the global marketplace. It takes getting used to. Many politicians mentally equate self-marketing with humiliating mendicancy.

Instead, decision makers should hire marketing (and, more specifically, brand name) experts to prepare a thorough and comprehensive place marketing and nation branding plan for them:

Strategic Marketing Analysis

I. Identify what needs and whose needs can the country meet and satisfy. What preference groups (of investors, for instance) or even market niches (e. g., stem cell scientists) should be targeted to optimize economic outcomes?

II. Compile databases of past clients of the state, its resources, offerings, laws, regulations, international treaties, and economic opportunities (e. g., state companies to be privatized). These allow for micro-branding (or segment branding as opposed to mass branding): tweaking the national brand to suit the preferences, likes, dislikes, and wishes of specific target groups, down to single, important, individuals.

III. Position the country in relation to its competitors, emphasizing its natural and human endowments and its relative advantages. The process of positioning aims to identify the nation with an image, perception, concept, or trait which capture its essence and further its appeal to the clients it had identified in stage I above (investors, other countries, diplomats, scientists, and so on). Great care should be taken to align the positioning messages with realities on the ground. Anything perceived by the preference groups as being a lie or an exaggeration will backfire.

IV. Marketing is about optimal allocation of resources in view of objectives and opportunities.

The classic STP model calls for:

I. Segmentation - Identify potential customers - for instance, foreign direct investors, or expatriates and the diaspora.

II. Targeting - Concentrate on those "clients" you can serve most effectively, to whom you are most valuable and thus can "charge" the most for your offerings

III. Positioning - Communicate effectively the main benefits you offer to the targeted group.

The marketing mix comprises 4 P's which are perfectly applicable to nations as they are to businesses:

Product - Your "products" as a country being tax incentives, infrastructure, natural endowments, human resources, a geographic vantage point, helpful laws and regulations (or absence thereof), etc.

Price - Demonstrate a relative or absolute advantage in terms of return on investment

Place - Facilitate the unhindered exchange of goods, services, and capital (tax holidays, free processing zones, no red tape, double taxation treaties and free trade agreements with other countries, etc.)

Promotion - The advertising and dissemination of news and information, lobbying, public relations, media campaigns, etc.

But what products do countries offer and market and how are they tailored to the needs of specific market segments?

Cell phone accessories and their uses

The number of brands of cell phones available in the market available today is growing rapidly. These models are available in different colors, shapes and sizes. With increase in use of cell phones, people have become interested in making use of all the features in a cell phone. To make use of these features, they need what you call the accessories. Accessories have three main functions to serve – 1) To improve the functioning of the cell phone, 2) To improve its appearance, and 3) To increase the safety of the cell phone and also its user.

Since the use of cell phones has become cheap and economical in the recent days, people have been trying to eliminate the use of normal phones all together. Now a person can easily acquire a cell phone at any cost, ranging from high end to low end phones. The accessories associated with these phones have also become cheap. With the addition of accessories, the people have been able to use their cell phones as multipurpose devices to accomplish a plethora of functions.

There are a number of cell phone accessories available like antennas, batteries, cases, faceplates, holsters, holders, hands free kits and some others. You should not jump into buying an accessory just because it looks nice or since it can increase the applications that your cell phone can be used for. Firstly, you must access your needs and determine exactly what type of accessories you require for your cell phone. Though many people feel that cell phone accessories are only fashion gadgets, the truth is that most of them are beneficial to the user in one way or the other.

Hands-free kit is the most important accessory when it comes to increasing the safety of the user. Since law has been enacted prohibiting drivers from talking on cell phones while driving, they can now talk without talking their hands off the steering wheel. These kits also enable you to wear headphone and microphone which makes it easy for talking on them.

Another good accessory is the antenna. Antennas help to improve the signal reception qualities. Hence, you will be able to receive your cell phone signal even if you are trekking in the mountains or are present in a lift. Hence, this accessory improves the capabilities of the cell phone.

The need for other accessories like cases, faceplates, holsters and holders must be assessed on your requirements.

Not another book club

Want to talk about fiction but not sure if you can commit to reading a book each month? Especially if it turns out to be a book you don’t like. It’s one thing finding time for a novel you do like, but one that is a struggle just to turn the pages? No thanks.

So what is the answer. Short stories, of course! They can be read in a fraction of the time and then you can talk about them instantly.

So how does a short story club work? Basically the same as a book club but without the 12 hours of homework that it takes to read the novel so that you can join in the discussion.

First up you need to decide if you want to be in an online or offline club. If you are wanting to set up an online club then the best way to do it would be to use either an instant messaging service (Yahoo or MSN are too popular services) or an internet voice service like Skype so that you can chat aloud for free just like you would if you were all meeting in person (go to http://www. skype. com/ for more details).

Whether you decide on an online or offline club, you will need to work out a few other details like how many people you’d like in the club. Too few members and it maybe difficult to get a discussion going, too many and it maybe difficult for everyone to get an opportunity to speak. Eight is probably a good number as it allows for a few people to be away each week but it would probably still work well with six. You could always start off with less and then invite more people in if you feel you need to.

You need to set the guidelines up front so that everyone knows how it will work.

1. How often will you meet? Once a week, once a month, once every two months. You probably wouldn’t want to go any further out than two months or you will lose momentum.

2. When will you meet? Lunchtime, after work, in the evenings, Saturday afternoons, over breakfast. It’s better to be consistent, say every Friday lunchtime or the first Monday evening of the month, so that you save on scheduling time and avoid confusion.

3. Where will you meet? This will probably be determined by when you meet but some possible options are a library, restaurant, someone’s home, a community centre or a cafй. Wherever you go, make sure that it is not too noisy so that everyone can hear what others are saying.

4. Work out how you will choose what to read. Will you take it in turns to pick? This could work well if people have time to go searching for stories. Will you work from a book of short stories? Bear in mind with this that some people will read ahead. You could subscribe to a short story service like espresso Fiction and receive a new short story every Tuesday which you can discuss. The benefit of this is that the onus to plan ahead doesn’t fall on any one person and saves time.

So you’ve now got the rules organised, how will you get a discussion going? The best way to do this is to structure each meeting along similar lines. A rough outline follows:

. Meet at a set time and allow a few minutes for everyone to catch up with each other

. Spend 15 minutes reading the story

. When everyone is finished, go around in turn and have each person say what they liked or disliked about the story

. Run through a standard list of questions:

- Did the opening grab your attention?

- Was the ending satisfying? Did it derive from the story or did it feel too left field?

- Was it well written?

- How was the pace of the story? Were there any dead spots?

- Was there any padding that didn’t contribute to the telling of the story or development of the characters?

. Finally ask each person to give the story a rating out of ten. One being terrible and ten being outstanding. You can then add the scores together and divide by the number of people attending to give an average score.

How to avoid credit card pitfalls

Seeing people buying food or shopping clothes using credit cards has been commonplace these days. The phrase "Charge it!" has become a favorite expression of card users, and has been commonly heard in shops, dining places, and elsewhere.

After all, who does not want to use these credit cards? Easy to use, these sleekly-designed cards can be used to buy practically everything in commercial establishments regardless of how much (or less) money does one carry money in his wallet. Short of cash and hungry? No grocery supplies? Going to a party but no money to buy that dress you've been drooling for? No problem! Your good ol' credit can care of that for you. No worries.

Credit Cards: Not Free Money

But wait. A credit card spree may be fun, but that doesn't free you from responsibilities in paying the expenses you incurred from using your credit card. Credit cards, after all, are interest loans in disguise. Typical credit cards ask for a number of charges, including:

" A finance charge, which is an interest charge for the unpaid portion of your monthly bill;

" An annual membership fee;

" Or if you're paying after the deadline, there is also a late payment fee which could have a higher interest rate.

In fact, many credit-card holders face credit-related problems. Poor purchasing decisions, lack of information on credit card fees, and disregard for upcoming credit payments are among the reasons why many credit-card users are often hard-pressed in paying their debts. Some are not even able to pay for the actual purchases they made, just barely managing to pay credit card company charges.

Before you get drowned in a sea of debt, here are some tips to help you manage your credit-related expenses:

" Be credit smart. Applying for a credit card application means you are ready to assume the responsibility for paying your credit. You and only you - not your parents, spouse, or whoever - is responsible for that.

" Use your credit cards wisely and sparingly. Remember: Paying goods and services using credit cards are more expensive than using cash or checks. Credit payments include interest and other fees. Use credit cards as sparingly as possible. If you really need to use credit cards, carry only the cards that you will actually use.

" Use credit only if you are sure you can repay it. Paying your debt on a credit card using another does not count.

" Avoid impulse shopping on your credit card.

" Use credit for money emergency only.

" Seek credit counseling as soon you see financial problems on the horizon.