If you're a fan of British comedy, then you've probably seen Monty Python's movie, The Meaning of Life. At the end of the movie, after quite a few improbable mishaps, John Cleese gives a brief explanation of the real meaning of life. His speech includes a set of sensible daily guidelines for living: "Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations."
This column has been a bit like that movie: I've related some of my adventures and misadventures using PCs in a small business environment. Now, I find that my family and business commitments require all of my time; I've had to give up several discretionary activities, including writing this column.
I regret that; I have enjoyed writing Jump Start, and I wish that I had the time to continue. Now, like John Cleese in the movie, I just have time to lay down a little advice. I won't try to define the meaning of life, but I'll pass along a few lessons that I have learned about using PCs in a small business.
Lesson One: Consider the Cost of Recovery
What would you pay for very fast recovery from a crashed or infected hard disk on your business PC? If your business depends on the data and software that lives on your hard disk, can you afford to lose a day, a week, a month or more while you: Purchase a replacement hard drive or PC, Re-install and re-configure your software, and Re-enter any data that you haven't recently backed up to a tape, diskettes, CDs, or other medium?
I doubt that most businesses would want to spend even a single day recovering from a damaged or infected hard disk.
Yet for just about one hundred dollars, you can buy a big new IDE hard drive and reputable hard disk duplicator utility program, such as Norton Ghost, and in about 15 to 30 minutes you can back up your entire hard disk to the new drive. Do the backup at least once or twice a week, and keep the new drive locked up someplace safe, away from the PC. If disaster strikes your PC's hard drive, you can simply replace it with the new drive and be up and running within minutes. To me, that's worth one hundred dollars.
Lesson Two: Consider the Cost of Replacement
What would it cost you to buy a replacement PC, monitor, and laser printer for your business, if your existing equipment was stolen? Then what would it cost you in time and effort to re-install all of your software and restore and re-enter all of your data? Finally, what would it cost you in peace of mind, if you knew that all of your PC's business-related data had been stolen?
I doubt that most small business owners would enjoy considering such a loss, even if their insurance would cover the cost of replacing the equipment... sooner or later.
Yet for about forty dollars, you can buy a nice, strong, padded, steel security cable with a lock and enough mounting points to tether your PC and printer to a desk or other large piece of furniture, greatly reducing the chance that somebody will be able to easily walk away with your equipment. Of course, it's not a perfect solution; but it's certainly better than not locking up the equipment. So install something like Kensington's Desktop Microsaver security cable system. You might have to search a little bit to find it locally, but it will be worth it. Buy several cable sets, lock up your equipment, and keep the keys somewhere safe.
Lesson Three: Consider the Success of the Web as a Giant Information Catch-All
Are all of your data files kept in carefully-named directories ("folders") on your hard disk? Do you remember where every important file is the spreadsheets, word processing documents, tax forms, technical data, calendars, organizers, meeting notes, etc.?
If you are a small business owner, you may not have the time to organize your files as well as you'd like. Perhaps you can pay somebody else to organize them for you... and then perhaps you can pay them to tell you where those files are, when you need to access them.
The truth is that you probably use a number of different applications, each of which has its own ideas about where to store its data files; and those ideas probably do not match your ideas about how your data files should be arranged. It's like cruising the World Wide Web: Everybody's Web site is different; people don't all follow a universal set of rules that dictate how and where information should be stored and accessed.
Yet the World Wide Web works, more or less: You CAN move around on it quickly to find information, despite its incredible diversity. The main reason is undoubtedly because it uses links to move directly between different pages of information; it is NOT structured like the "trees" of directories or folders of most popular operating systems, from DOS and Windows to UNIX.
Like the Web, your important data is probably scattered all over your PC. So, you should learn how to write very simple little Web pages ("HTML files") of your own, on your business PC, to link all of your important data files together in a mini-Web of your own design. The concept is called an "intranet" (as opposed to the "Internet"), it's a little Web that is built on your own PC, and it is not connected to the outside world.
Access your intranet from a single starting place, such as a shortcut on your Windows desktop; start with a few links to your most important working files and let your intranet grow by adding new links as you need them. Use your existing Web browser to cruise your intranet.
An intranet is easy, free, totally flexible and customizable, and it doesn't require you to re-arrange any of your existing directories or files. There are lots of people out there who already know how to create HTML Web pages. Chances are good that you can get help if you need it. What more could you ask for?
Lesson Four: The Real Problem with Using PCs
There are many other lessons that I could write about, if I only had the time... and that's really the final lesson, too.
You see, very early in the history of personal-sized computers, computer and software companies started making the promise that, by using computers (or by using their particular computer, software, or accessory), you would save time, so you would have more time for the meaningful things in life, such as beauty, nature, family and friends.
That promise is still being made. You can see it in computer-related advertisements all the time. Everybody believes that computers really do make you more efficient... and because of that, everybody expects you to do more in the same amount of time (and do it just as well or better than you could without a computer, or a PDA, or a cell phone, or...).
The end result is that people, using PCs and other high-tech gadgets, have actually sped up much of our business and social world, increased our work load, and taken away some of our time for those meaningful things in life.
That's too bad. So, slow down on purpose once in a while. Leave your cell phone at home and take a walk after dinner with your family. Stop and smell the roses. Watch the sunset.
That's how I'm going to be spending more of my time, even though my business is as high-tech as you could imagine (I actually design some of this modern electronic gadgetry).
I hope these lessons will be useful to you.
