Computer Equipment and some Data Protection Legislation.
Today I want to look at the actual computer equipment you may need in order to run your own online business. Now you may have read that you can run your own business on the internet without even having a computer, these sorts of adverts show up all over the place either online or in newspapers and magazines.
Well these adverts are COMPLETE AND UTTER RUBBISH, you cannot run any sort of online business without access to a computer and the internet. You might just manage to scrape up a few dollars making use of computers in internet cafe's but the limitations on use will seriously hamper your ability to run a business, in fact the only people I can think of who make any money in this way are scam artists who use internet cafe's to send out their dodgy e-mails, making it hard for anyone to track them down later.
Right so we will accept it as given you must have your own computer and internet access in order to run an online business. The problem here is that the vast majority of people do not understand computers and their capabilities, making it hard for them to know just what they require in the way of computer equipment they require to carry out a particular task.
Now when it comes to purchasing computers for business your actual requirements are surprisingly modest, you do not need the latest greatest turbocharged home supercomputer. using a computer for business is totally different from using a computer for home entertainment purposes. A business computer will have no need of a massively expensive 3D graphics display card (remember business use not games or family entertainment), in most cases there is no real need for the very latest high performance processor either.
A business computer pretty much only needs to perform the following tasks successfully.
Run a reasonable office suite i.e. word processor, spreadsheet and database program.
Be able to connect to the Internet either by dial up modem or via broadband connection.
Have a reasonably up to date version of a web browser program.
Have some sort of graphics manipulation software for simple image editing.
Of course if you feel that your budget will allow it having a computer with a little extra power which would allow you to do things like video editing and creation would be nice but for most of us these things are not essential.
So exactly what kind of computer should I buy then Graham? Oh how often have I heard that particular question, my answer these days is always the same and is always two-fold.
What do you want to be able to do? (we pretty much covered that already)
How much can you afford to spend?
It is a fact that for many people starting out on their path to running their own online business that money may be in short supply, but I would always recommend that you best computer for the job that you can afford. Notice I did say the 'best computer for the job', this does not mean going to your local outlet of PC World or its equivalent and letting some slick salesperson convince you to part with large amounts of cash for a computer that is vastly overpowered for the purpose you need it for you are buying a business tool not a status symbol.
If you are buying a new computer then you should be looking for a machine that is targeted for office use, check both online and in computer magazines, there are a multitude of suppliers who can meet your needs, just be sure that you choose a reputable company (check online using google, or in computing forums to see if there are reports of problems with the company delivering on its sales pitch). My personal recommendation would be to consider a company like Dell Computers who specialize in providing computers to business users.
If the cost of a new computer is beyond your current budget, then buying a second user machine is perfectly acceptable alternative providing that:
The computer meets your requirements, i.e. can run your office software.
Is in good working condition, if your own knowledge isn't quite up to scratch here find a friend who does know a lot about computers. (Hint most teenagers these days are very computer savvy but remember they tend to know most about computers which are able to play high powered games not those used solely for business).
One other thing to consider is the amount of RAM memory the machine has, as well as the size of the hard disk, a general rule here is the more the better but we will look more specifically at these requirements at a later date.
When buying second user machines a good option is to look at companies providing refurbished ex-corporate computers, these machines come on the market regularly simply because a large number of corporate computers are leased as opposed to sold. Many lease agreements allow the user to upgrade their equipment after 12 – 18 months at no additional cost, it makes sense for the company to do this even is the machines they have are perfectly up to the tasks asked of them.
It would be wise for the inexperienced computer person to purchase a machine with operating software already installed and configured, although most modern software installation is fairly straightforward and with no special skills required, operating software can have a few quirks of its own making it a bit harder for the inexperienced to install (this is another time when your computer geek friend comes in handy, I know I'm a computer geek!).
So hopefully after this you should be able to get your own business computer system operational at least, but remember we are talking business computer system here, so do try to have a separate system, form the family PC unless you want to take the chance of another family member accidentally deleting your business data!
Now I said at the beginning that we would look at some legislation regarding data protection, as I'm based in the UK (North-East Scotland to be exact) I have to comply with EU data protection regulations. This is very important, contravention of these regulations can carry very heavy penalties, I worked in one job not so very long ago where the possible penalty for revealing a customers data could be up to £1,000,000 thats over $1,500,000 for my friends in the US.
There is a requirement that anyone holding 'personally identifiable data' of others on file must register with the Data Protection Registrar, although some exceptions to this rule apply anyone living in the EU should contact their relavent registrar and check if they need to register. Remember personally identifiable information is any list of names and addresses, hard to run a business without recording your customers details!
For my colleagues in the US there are requirements for you too if you are dealing with anyone from any EU country, these are the 'safe harbor' rules which provide protection for personal data belonging to EU nationals outside of the EU.
The reason I mention these regulations so early on is that I know some people will rush ahead and start building e-mail lists of prospects or customers and I do not want you falling foul of the law, especially as ignorance of the law will make no difference to how the courts will treat you. If you have any doubts check the legislation, check with regulatory bodies or even seek specialist legal advice. I have included some links here which may help, the language can be rather hard to follow at times so I intend to break this down for 'real people' at a later time. In the meantime if anyone would like some help on this they can leave a comment asking for help. I'm not an expert by any means but have had to study this subject whilst I was at college so do at least understand the basic rules and regulations. A search on google under the terms 'safe harbor and data protection' should give results for those in the US, whilst a search under 'EU data protection act' will give results for us European nationals.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/fsj/privacy/docs/guide/guide-ukingdom_en.pdf
http://www.ico.gov.uk/documentUploads/Electronic_mail_marketing_Good_Practice_Note.pdf
http://europa.eu.int/pol/infso/index_en.htm
In my next post I plan on looking in more depth at some of the software which might be required to run a home business. Hopefully I can do this in a shorter post than this as we have covered quite a bit of material today
Regards Graham