Essential Equipment For Your Home Office.. Home Office Tips by BB Lee(C)2003This is part 4 in a series of Home Business Tip Articles. You can read previous tips at: http://www.angelfire.com/zine/smallbiz.
This part concerns
basic equipment you will need in your home office if you want to be productive.
A Computer: I assume most people reading this article already have a personal computer. Purchase best you can afford. But, if you are budget minded, you can find many computer stores selling a full computer setup for under $1,000. For starters, take a look at Dell Computer's Website. http://www.dell.com
The hardware or software you will need on your computer will depend on your type of buisiness. Most of newer computers are pre-loaded with all basic software you will need to run your home office in beginning. This would include: emailing, spreadsheets, wordprocessing, database creation. Don't forget to install a good back up system for your important files plus a good surge protector to protect computer. And anti-virus software for added protection when on Internet.
Monitor: Computers are packaged with monitors. A few years ago 15 inches was standard. Now you can easily up grade to a 17 inch screen or larger. Larger viewing areas help reduce eyestrain.
Printers: Again most computers are packaged with a printer. Printers available might be ink jet, or laser. Laser printers produce higher, crisper, professional work. A laser printer is a good choice if you do a lot of printing and correspondence. If you rarely print out your work, a lower price ink jet printer is adequate.
Scanner: If you desktop publish you will certainly need a scanner. Scanners are great for scanning images from books, newspapers, reports. Use to make copies of important business documents.
Fax/Copy Machine: A dedicated fax line is a must if you are online for long periods of time. A fax is still quite essential even in face of email technology. Many business people still prefer a hands on hard copy instead of email documents. Fax machines also are good copy machine substitutes if you frequently need to copy documents. Fax machines are available for under $100. And don't forget that you can easily send and receive faxes from your computer with Win Fax.
