Money From Your Micro

THE DATA BUSINESS

In my experience there are two types of users in the computer world. 

There are those, maybe like yourself who own a computer, possibly at

home and who use it as their main tool, and who are interested in its

potential as a financial resource.  And there are those who have purchased

a computer to help their business, probably knowing little about it and

not thinking about it as long as it does what it is supposed to, which

is usually looking after accounts and invoices.

The first group are often enthusiasts, often having a mass of

technical information at their fingertips, in fact, their hobby is just

that, information.  If you know where to look, you can supply that

information, for a profit.

The second group do not know what their machines are capable

of, and often, they are not really interested unless it can make

them more profit.  In many cases they just have not the time to find

out what their machines can do, and even if they are aware, they

have not the time to put their knowledge into practice.  You have

that time - and time, as you know, is money.

Here we have a number of ideas that you can use.  Obviously you

don't have to use them as they are written, nor must you limit

yourself to a single idea.  Research your area, look at what other

people are doing.

This collection of ideas comes from years of experience with

computers and running my own businesses.  I have personally

run most of the businesses outlined here and those what I have not

run, I either know people who do it, or I plan to do it when I get

the time.

R U N N I N G   A   B U S I N E S S

PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

When you have got off the ground with one of the projects, you

need to start looking forward to a years time.  How much spare

cash will you have, what direction are you going to take your

business in.  The obvious thing to do is to expand your services to

your present customer base.  Many businesses go wrong by

diversifying too soon and thus losing momentum.

Spare cash should go back into you plant, i.e. your computer

system, the tools of your trade.  We all have a wish list when it

comes to our computers, but for business purposes some needs

are greater than others.

Here is a sound businesslike wish list:

1.  A hard disk drive of at the very least 20 megabytes

2.  A laser printer

3.  A desktop Publishing package.

In that order.

Once you have your laser printer, you can really start to expand

your business.  I am not going to go into the details of the services

you can offer in any great length.  Instead I will give a quick

rundown of the sort of things that have proved profitable for me.

1.  Typesetting services to local printers.

2.  Leaflet design for mail order companies, junk mail etc.

3.  Stationary design.

4.  Creating master forms for local businesses to photocopy.

5.  Design and typesetting of magazines, books and newsletters.

TIP:

Don't be afraid of looking at bigger businesses.  My regular clients

include an international motor part dealer, a branch of the

National Health Service and a University department.  All these

operations need forms, leaflets, stationary, newsletters and

occasionally books.

S E L L I N G   Y O U R   S E R V I C E S

TELESALES

The first rule of telephone sales is to have a script.  Yes I know it

might sound silly to sit there by your telephone reading a script

down the line to some stranger.  But not as silly as you will sound

to your prospective client when you cannot answer a query or

when you run out of steam and start mumbling.  And if you don't

have a good script, you will.

The script needs to be very well worked out in advance.  Write

down everything from the first 'Hello my name is' ... to the last

'goodbye and thanks very much.'  Include in your script the

answer to any questions you think a prospective customer might

possibly ask you, anything that you can possible think of.

The script  has two purposes.  The first is to get your message

across in the most efficient way possible, no mumblings, no

awkward silences, no unanswerable questions.  The second

purpose is to save your time and your telephone bills, you know

exactly what you are going to say and how long it should take,

you don't waste time chattering, unless of course the client gets

interested in using your service, then you stay on the line until he

starts sounding bored.  As soon as you detect this, get off the

phone, ask your prospect if he would like further details in the

mail or something, anything to get away.  It is absolutely fatal to

bore a prospect.  True you may make a sale, but only once or twice.

If the prospect tries to keep you chatting beyond reasonable

limits, beware.  1.  He is wasting your selling time.  2. He may be the

sort of client who tries to persuade you that he is a friend of yours.

Usually so that they can owe you money and ask you for work in

a hurry because silly man has got stuck somewhere.  Sounds

cynical? Listen, I used to be a nice friendly guy until I was ripped

off by people like this.  Business is business, friends are friends.

Mix them at your peril.  3. It is your 'phone bill.

Telephone selling is a skill that not all of us have.  It takes a business

ness like air with a touch of friendliness.  Far better to be too

businesslike than too friendly.  What follows is a sample script for

somebody selling data entry services.

"Hello. could I speak to your data manager please ....  Hello my

name is ... and I represent Data , we run a data input service

for businesses involved in ... Did you receive our Information

pack recently

(yes) Good, well I am ringing to follow up that information.  Do

you ever use outside agencies for data entry?

(if yes) "Good, perhaps you would be interested in using our

services.

(if No) Is that because there hasn't been such a service?

And on it goes.  The idea is to try and think of any possible

objections the target might have, before you ring him up, that

way, whenever he comes up with an objection as to why he

doesn't need your service, you've got an answer.  Of course you

cannot sell to somebody who really has no use for what you are

offering.

ADVERTISING

Advertising in the press is a minefield for the inexperienced.  If

you are not very cautious you can lose hundreds and hundreds

of pounds.  There are two types of advertising, classified and

display.  Just in case you don't know the difference, classified

consists of a few lines of type which the publication will set for

you.  Display consists of an area of space displaying your artwork,

which generally is provided by yourself.

Your type of service or product and your potential clients usually

tell you what type of advertising to buy.  A general rule of thumb

for the newcomer is to only advertise in places where other

businesses similar to your own are advertising.  If you are advertising

a local service, then of course you must advertise locally, freesheets

and local newspapers can work.  But a leaflet drop can work better.

A small leaflet is much more likely to be retained by an interested

party than a newspaper ad.

MAILSHOTS

A mailshot is a circular or leaflet posted to possible clients.  Get the

addresses from your local yellow pages or buy a mailing list.  If you

are offering a service to business, the yellow pages will sell you a

mailing list in any category you want, see their ad in the back of the

phone book.

If you are interested in desktop publishing and producing leaflets

etc., then buy a list from one of the advertisers in the Exchange &

Mart, from the publisher who sold you this book or from Icon Graphics.

You can buy or rent a list of people who are involved in direct mail.

Expect to pay about œ50 to œ75 per thousand names and addresses.

Pay much less and you are probably getting an old list.

WHAT TO CHARGE

Base your fees on an hourly rate.  No business can survive on less

than œ7.00 per hour.  Double it to be safe and double again for

profit.  That's œ28.00 per hour.  If you charge less you are ripping

yourself off.

ESTIMATING

Never give a client a quote, always an estimate.  There is a

difference.  A quote is fixed, you cannot change your mind if the

job turns out to be more difficult than expected.  An estimate is

just that, an educated guess and can be altered to fit the practical

circumstances.

GETTING PAID

Try to get at least 30% up front on a big job.  This makes sure that

the client does not change his mind and cancel the job without

telling you.  It does happen.  It also means that you have some cash

in hand while you work.

Invoice with the job.  When you send a job out, enclose an invoice.

When I send proof copies of work out to a new client I usually

send the invoice with the proofs.  This means he has to pay before

I send the finished material.  To stop him using the proofs as

finished material and not paying me, I have a big rubber stamp

that says PROOF that goes over the material preventing him from

using it.

COLLECTING DEBTS

If you are in mail order, you have no problem, you get paid in

advance.  If you are selling services to businesses, then there is a

problem.  Every business has a simple rule which says 'collect early,

pay late'.  Expect businesses to 'try in on'.  They will nearly

always try to pay you as late as possible.  I know of one businessman

who NEVER pays a bill until the court summons arrives.  If you get

one of these characters, forget him, take him to the small claims

court if you have to but don't work for him again.  It doesn't

matter how big the job is and how attractive the fee, don't do it

because you will get ulcers just trying to collect your money, not

to mention the bank charges you'll collect.

Having said that, it should also be your aim to collect early and

pay late.  That is what cash flow is all about.  There are certain very

big businesses that I have heard about who actually have a policy of

not paying at all.  They prey on small businesses who cannot afford

the time or hassle of a court case.  Tip: if they don't pay in

three months, take them to court.  Don't waste time sending them

letters or offering them extra time.  Just take a walk down to your

local county court and tell them that you want to sue somebody

for non payment, they will tell you How to do it and what it costs.

It is a cheap and usually effective.  It doesn't matter if the bill

is small, sue anyway.

P R O J E C T   O N E

KEYBOARDING

An old chestnut.  A wordprocessing agency.  In two words, FORGET IT.

It doesn't work.  The time involved, unless you are a trained typist,

it just not worth the money you will make.  Undoubtedly you will make

a few pounds here and there, but this cash will be more than offset

by the number of small businesses that will pay you late, giving you

cashflow problems, or not pay at all.  Believe me, this was one of my

mistakes.  A trained typist, in my area charges 75p per page.  How

many pages can you type in a day?  How long can you type for non-stop?

How much can you hope to make at these rates even if you manage to get

enough work to keep you busy all day every day?  And finally who goes

into business to slog their guts out for between 8 and 14 hours a day

for pittance.  Believe me, I have done it.  Oh, and don't think that

you can get rich on wordprocsssing student thesis, they mess you about,

ask the impossible and pay very little, and the work all comes in at

the end of the college year.

Having said this, there are at present two potentially lucrative

areas.  The problem with wordprocessing is that jobs are usually

small and irregular.  It takes time to set up your system and doing

small jobs takes too long.  Ideally you need large, long term projects.

THE SERVICE

Typesetters & Printers.  Many typesetters & printers are these days

going over to desktop publishing systems.  Computers that produce

high resolution typesetting through a laser printer, just like this.

Despite the fact that software is available that will enable these

systems to actually read text from a printed page and avoid keying

in, at present the available software is not very good.  Most DTP

systems will accept a variety of floppy disks.  Your service depends

on your hardware.  If you don't have a laser printer, you offer to

input text and deliver it on floppy disk or via modem.

Your job is to key in text from a typewritten or sometime handwritten

copy and send a disk off to the typesetters or squirt the data down

the telephone line via a modem.

MARKETING

Most typesetters & printers are small outfits, some are large.  The way

to sell to these people is to use the telephone or pay a visit with

some samples.  Adverts won't work because they won't bother to contact

you, small businesses always manage somehow until somebody comes along

and offers them an alternative.  A mailshot will probably not work

because small business people have not the time or inclination to find

yet another way to spend their money, as I said, they always seem to

get by.  What you have to do is to sell.  Ring the guy up and sell him

your time and services.  Get to know the potential customer.

YOUR CUSTOMER

Find your customer first of all locally.  Don't forget that many

printers have in house typesetting equipment.  Most are one man operations.

If somebody wants them to produce a booklet, often they can't do it

because they haven't the time.  You help them to make more money.  Your

services will give them more time to sell their services, more time to

produce more work and the opportunity to expand their customer base.

Sure, some of the profits go to you, but not all of them.  The customer

will tell you how he likes the work presented and in what format.

AUTHORS

As a writer, I know lots of other writers, I also read the writers

papers and magazines.  About 50% (educated guess) of authors and

budding authors do not type their own work.  All authors need multiple

copies of their manuscripts.  More and more publishers of books are

beginning to accept manuscripts on floppy disk.  Take a look at the ads

in writers magazines.  You will find quite a few advertising wordprocessing

or typing services.  Advertise here, usually the ads are very cheap, don't

pay for display ads, if somebody needs a wordprocessing service they

will take the bother to read the ads, buy lineage. Your unique selling

point is that you will supply two or three copies, along with a floppy

disk.  Nearly everybody else will do this not nobody says so.  The

readers don't know this.

Design, or get a professional to design a leaflet for you.  Then advertise

in the writers press.  The best way to find out current magazines is to

look in the 'Writers & Artists Yearbook' there will be a copy in your

library.  In your ad, write something like the following: "Authors

services.  Wordprocessing, proofreading etc. Send first class stamp for

free details."  Simple as that.  Plus of course your address.  Don't ask

for an SAE because most of them will be too small to put your leaflet

into.

Most books come in at around 500 typed pages.  At even as low as 75p

per page that is a healthy income and will keep you in work for some

time.  Add on to that the cost of extra copies and your mark up on the

floppy disk and things start looking interesting.

FORMAT

Manuscripts always follow definite guidelines as to layout.  Here it is.

Everything is always at least double line space, wide margins, 2" on the

left an inch on the right, 1.5" top and bottom.  Each page needs

numbering.  That is it.

PROBLEMS

You will get manuscripts written in biro, with handwriting that you

cannot read, you will find pages missing.  Telephone the client.  These

things will hold you up so charge for them.

If you have a laser printer you can offer publishing services.  You

keyboard, design, typeset and produce camera ready copy.  Find a

competitive printer and have the clients book printed and bound in as

many copies as he wants.  Offer a self-publishing package.  Don't forget

to supply your client with proofs before going to press.  It should be

his responsibility to make sure that everything is just as he wants it.

Make him sign an acceptance agreement so that he cannot refuse to pay if

he finds a spelling mistake. 

You can also do this without a laser printer, send your disk off to one

of the computerised typesetters or laser bureaus who will send you a

bromide or laser print.  This costs you more but it goes on the clients

bill in the end.

P R O J E C T   T W O

This project is DATA INPUT.  This is still keyboard work, but you will

be working for large organisations, most pay on delivery, sometimes

in advance.  No cashflow problems.

THE SERVICE

You offer certain types of business a service which consists of typing

in names and addresses, sometimes including ordering details or subscription

details.  You put this information on your database and send the client a

disk containing that information.

THE CLIENTS

Very wide ranging.  Basically businesses who use mail lists, magazine

subscriptions, mail order companies etc.  Anybody who sells anything and

needs to keep a list of customers.  The market for this is very specialised

but international.  One US company uses freelance operators in Ireland for

all its data input.  Reply coupons arrive by air mail every day and the

data is sent down the telephone line via modem back to the USA every night.

Of course at first you will be looking for small magazines and dealers,

perhaps locally, but who knows.  Personally I don't like keyboard work and

I don't like to work all day but for someone with determination and

imagination this market is growing at the same rate as direct mail,

obviously really as the two operations co-exist.

WHAT TO CHARGE

The market is so fresh that this is a difficult subject.  Personally I

would charge in the region of ten to fifteen pence per name, that is a

very conservative estimate.  1,000 names is œ150, easily done in an eight

hour day.

FINDING CLIENTS

1. Firstly, look through your yellow pages for mail order dealers,

publishers of books, magazines, records.  Big businesses use freelancers,

it pays them to use freelancers to get the job done because they are self

employed and don't have time to mess about and talk to the secretaries

all day.  Freelancers pay their own Tax and National Insurance, their own

pension schemes and don't take up expensive office space.

2.  Devise a mailshot outlining your services, you need to stress two

things on this leaflet, firstly that you are professional and reliable,

the second thing is your telephone number.  See the section on mailshots

later on.

3.  After posting this mail shot, wait for about two days, then give the

recipient a telephone call.  See the section on tele sales later on.

4.  Look out for cheap or free advertising.  Your target is business so

get hold of the business oriented trade papers.  'In Business Now' is a

free paper with cheap advertising rates.

Most small businesses, even one man operations, have some form of computer

these days.  So don't try to sell them letter writing services, they can

write their own.  What you can offer them is time.  Writing and mailing

a letter does not take long to do so few will buy.

DATA PROTECTION ACT

If you are keeping any kind of customer information on computer, you may

need to register with the Data Protection Registrar.  Details from:

The Data Protection Registrar, Springfield House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,

Cheshire SK9 5AX.

P R O J E C T   T H R E E

YOUR OWN BULLETIN BOARD

This is an idea that I have been toying with for a while.  Perhaps

someday I will do it, if you don't beat me to it.  Just in case you

don't know, a bulletin board is a system run on a computer.  A user

uses his computer wherever he may be and via a modem (yet again!) he

dials up another computer, this computer, called the Host, is running

a programme called a bulletin board system or BBS.  A BBS is like an

electronic mailbox, you can leave messages, read messages left by others,

buy goods or services, download Public Domain Software to run on your own

computer.  Most BBS's are run by enthusiasts and are free to users.  Some

are commercial and some are very large commercial enterprises which

charge you membership and sometimes connection time depending on the

service.

BBS software is readily available so you can start your own system that

other computer users can dial in to.  You can either charge a membership

fee or, and this is only speculative, perhaps you could obtain an 0898

telephone number.  These telephone numbers are the ones you see advertised

in various newspapers and magazines.  The caller pays a higher rate for the

call than usual and the owner of the line is paid a percentage by British

Telecom.  Now whether this is possible, I don't know, whether it is

financially viable or not I don't know.  It's just an idea, and it's yours

to find out because I know that I am never going to have the time to look

at it.  If you set one up, let me know, I'd be very interested to log on

and see what's happening.

P R O J E C T   F O U R

DESKTOP PUBLISHING

Anybody can be a publisher, poets and writers have been doing it since

presses were invented.  The facilities for desktop publishing have been

around for many years.  All you really need is a typewriter.  Many books

and magazines are published each year from purely typewritten copies.

Some printed at a print shop, others, particularly 'Fanzines' being

photocopied.  However, with the new technology, it is now possible to

typeset and design pages from your desktop.  Using all the typefaces all

the illustrations and graphics that have traditionally involved design

studios & typesetters.

The term Desktop Publishing means designing, typesetting and laying out

pages on a screen on your desktop.  You can now produce a full colour

magazine with an expenditure so small that it would have been unthinkable

just a few years ago.

Whether you have a typewriter, a wordprocessor a personal computer or a

dedicated graphics workstation you can be a publisher.  The difference

between these machines concerns quality, speed, flexibility and obviously

cost.

The equipment you decide to use will not necessarily dictate how professional

your work will appear.  A talented artist with just a photocopier a pencil

and a typewriter will produce a more eyecatching, visually interesting

and readable magazine than an averagely talented person using œ50,000

worth of cutting edge technology.  I have seen examples of both extremes

and would prefer to read the former production every time.

Desktop publishing is first of all about publishing, designing and

producing a publication.  This can be done with a pencil and a sheet of

paper.  Publishing is about designing and producing a publication that

will be printed and sold or otherwise distributed to the public.  Desktop

Publishing is about having as much control over this process as possible,

producing artwork from your desktop using whatever technology is available.

As far as computers are concerned, Desktop Publishing is about assembling

pages on screen.

What you are willing to spend on equipment will not dictate the final

quality of your work, what it will do is give you more tools and flexibility

to complete the job of publishing.  What equipment you use will be

determined by two factors, (a) what you really need for your purposes and

(b) how much money you want to spend.  Machines and software are developing

all the time so there is no point me giving you any information on specific

machines.  The machine itself doesn't matter anyway, what does matter is

what facilities you have.

You can break into publishing using a typewriter, rub down lettering a felt

pen and a photocopier. There are numerous magazines all over the country

producing work in this way, mainly Fanzines, very small circulation

newsletters and magazines aimed at fan clubs or special interest groups.

There is a lot of very good design talent and enthusiasm at work on many

of these magazines.                                                

A typical Fanzine uses all the traditional skills of the graphic designer.

Design, Layout, Paste up etc.  The tools required are some means of creating

type, a typewriter or wordprocessor.  A desk to work on, access to a

photocopier for copying and re-sizing pictures and illustrations etc. to fit

the space.  A tin of Spray Mount or a waxer (this is a machine which coats

the back of the work to be pasted with hot wax), a bit more expensive to

buy but cheaper to use and a lot more environmentally friendly than an

aerosol.  A scalpel for cutting copy.  A board to cut it on.  A steel ruler

for measuring and as a cutting edge.  A plastic set square for ruling base

lines.  A supply of rub down lettering and a felt pen and pencil for

headlines and roughing out.  That's all you need to make a magazine.

The first thing to do is to rough out your design on paper, at the same

size as the finished job.  Divide the page into the number of columns you

wish to use so that you know how wide to type your columns of text for

pasting down.  There are usually 2, 3 or 4 columns to an A4 sized page.

Draw a grid using these columns and make plenty of copies of it.  Your

typed strips of paper (called Galleys) are then pasted down onto the grids

along with any illustrations.

Some books are also created in this way, particularly low profit or

specialised books with a very small circulation, perhaps to Professionals

in a particular field, academic books etc.

Using this method you can produce a very exciting and visually interesting

magazine.  You can reproduce your artwork either by a traditional offset

litho printer or on a photocopier for short runs.  You could even

introduce colour to such a magazine if you have access to a two colour

copier.

WORD-PROCESSORS

For our purposes there are two types of wordprocessor, those that are

dedicated to the task of wordprocessing and those that are personal

computers with a bias toward wordprocessing.  Dedicated word-processors,

those that can do nothing but process words are spectacularly expensive.

Happily your chances of being the owner of one of these strange machines

is not very likely.  They are usually used by very large organisations and

have not found their way into the domestic market.  Machines such as the

Amstrad PCW range, although sold as word-processors, are in effect personal

computers, software and peripherals are available that will allow them

to perform a number of tasks including accounting, graphics and Desktop

Publishing although in a limited way, still a massive step up from a

typewriter.

If you use a dot matrix printer, a number of typestyles are at your

disposal although they are not usually up to the quality of that on a

good typewriter.  Typestyles and sizes can be changed, stretched

and manipulated.  A dot matrix printer uses a print head which

contains usually nine but sometimes up to twenty four tiny needles

to punch into a ribbon in vaiouse combinations and thus form a

character on the paper behind the ribbon.  The clarity of the characters

can be variable depending on how good the ribbon is, how old the

print head is etc.  But copy can be improved slightly by photocopying.

The print out from a dot matrix printer can look very 'computery' due

to the matrix of dots.  However there are some very good DTP packages

around for the Amstrad PCW particularly.  One of them uses just one

pin of the print head to form all the characters, this pin is very finely

controlled and actually overlaps to give a much greater resolution

than usual.  Usually extra typefaces are included in the package of

software that you buy and so much greater flexibility is obtained.

A DTP package will allow you to design on screen give you a number

of columns, page sizes, type styles and sizes and perhaps some basic

tools for drawing grids, boxes, rules and maybe even create illustrations.

A DTP package should also allow you to place 'clip-art' on the page and

be able to import text from your usual wordprocessing programme.

One of the best I have come across for the PCW is Microdesign II from

Creative technology of Uttoxeter.  This package comes complete with

a selection of clip-art and will drive a Dot matrix, Daisy wheel or even

a laser printer, though spending more on the printer than on the computer

may seem a little strange.

If using a Dot matrix printer to produce your artwork, one tip is to reduce

the A4 page to A5 on photocopier, this can yield impressive results,

blacks will be blacker and print will be a lot sharper and less 'bitty'.

One problem with using a PCW with a DTP package is that usually you

are limited to single pages and even fractions of pages.  A page design

on screen takes up a lot of computer memory, particularly if there are

a number of typefaces and graphics on the page.  Also printing from such

a programme can take a long time due to the fact that every single dot on

the page has to be remembered and processed by the computer.

A daisywheel or golf ball printer uses a plastic or metal wheel or ball

with characters preformed on its surface.  The printer punches these

characters against the ribbon thus forming characters on the paper behind.

Using one of these printers you are restricted to the typefaces, sizes and

styles available but there is a limited range of alternative typefaces.

A wordprocessor obviously has a number of improvements on the

typewriter.  Corrections are very easy to make on screen, so that if a

mistake should be made the whole page does not need to be re-typed.

Also work can be saved to disk for later printing.  A number of typefaces

and sizes are available.

Apple Macintosh computers are THE computers for DTP, but they are

very expensive, a bottom of the range model starts at around œ2000 new.

Secondhand prices are not much lower, they hold their price very well.

Bearing in mind that you will also need software, a printer and a hard

disk you are looking at spending about œ5000 before you start to feed

paper into your machine.  Not only is the machine itself very expensive

and something of an enthusiasts computer, add-ons, peripherals and

software are also generally more expensive than similar items for other

makes of machine.

Having given you the bad news about the Mac, the good news is that

basically a child could use it.  It is well known as the most user friendly

computer in the world.  It is designed for people to use and you don't

have to be a computer boffin to understand it.  I personally used one to

design, Illustrate and typeset this book.

Having said that the 'Mac' (as it is universally known), is the best, things

are changing very quickly.  Machines are getting easier to use, faster

better and cheaper all the time, there are many viable alternatives to the

Mac, particularly for the smaller user.

I also use an Amstrad PC 1512 that cost me about œ500.  It's plasticky and

creaks, the screen is in Black and White, the disk drives make a plodding

noise (hence my machine is called 'Plod') I've had it for about five years,

it was my first ever computer, I bought it before I even knew what a

computer did and I use it daily (yes I use two computers at the same time).

In that five years it has never given me a minutes trouble and has paid for

itself probably 100 times over.  Sure, it was a risk, I thought it was

expensive and it was at the time, but I have a great regard for that machine

it brought me to a point where I now make between œ20 and œ40 an hour.

Just using the machines for other people.  I'm a desktop publisher.  I

turn other peoples work into something ready for the printing press.  I

make leaflets, posters, books, magazines and so on.  I work for publishers

across the country, big and small.  From freesheets to great volumes of

academic books.

But I digress.  What I'm saying here is that you don't need to spend vast

amounts of cash.  Spend what you can afford and grow, just like I did.

What I as a businessman recommend is to go for a middle range machine,

then when you come up against a problem that your machine cannot

handle, put the job out to somebody who can do it, and put a mark up

when you deliver the finished job to a client.  I do this all the time.  I

personally never type a word, I have a chap down the road who has got

a wordprocessor and isn't as enterprising as me.  He types all my stuff

onto disk for me, I pay him 75p per page of typing.  Then I take his disk,

lay all his hard work out to the clients specifications and charge the client

œ12.50 per page.  This takes on average around fifteen to twenty minutes.

That means for a page of text I get paid between œ37.50 and œ50 per hour.

Now if my chap down the road were to invest just œ500 in his enterprise,

he would be a competitor, but he hasn't and he won't because he has no

imagination.  You obviously have because you have invested time, energy

and hard cash in ordering and reading this book.

REPEAT SALES

Important.  Keep everything you ever produce for anybody on disk for

six months.  Most clients will want more leaflets, or they will want a

change of coding on an old leaflet, or they will want a leaflet that is

similar but not quite the same as one you did for him before.  If you can

grab his old leaflet from disk you can spend five minutes on it and charge

him again at your latest rate.  This  saves time, typing and costs just the

price of a floppy disk, about 50p if you buy from the right place.

If a client wants a leaflet designing and typesetting he is usually willing

to pay œ12.50 for a well produced piece of work.  He photocopies it and

makes god knows how much return on his investment.

A vital piece of equipment for any DTP Publisher is a fax machine.  I

leased mine, when business was looking slow, it costs me œ28 per month

and pays for its next month every Monday morning.  The Fax means that

I can have clients all over the country, from Inverness to Portsmouth.

Work comes down the line, proof copies go back and when approved the

finished artwork goes out in the post.  A client can have a completed job

by the very next day.

I ran out of fax paper once halfway through a fax that was coming in from

London.  It was a fifty page booklet and a Sunday.  Monday I couldn't

get to the shop until 4pm because the phone kept ringing.  So that job

didn't get done until Tuesday.  A day is a long time in the computer

business.  And I pride myself on getting any job out, no matter how big,

within two days.  Even if I have to pay someone else to do it.  This attitude

keeps my customers coming back.

MORAL: Keep a good supply on consumeables.

P R O J E C T   F I V E

YOUR OWN PUBLISHING BUSINESS

This can be a goldmine.  I love it.  There are two ways you can go with

this.  You can either buy the reproduction rights for books which already

exist, usually business guides and manuals like this one, or you can write

your own.  I usually write my own but then I started off my business life

as a writer.

WRITING YOUR OWN BOOK

If you have a skill or talent that you know more about than the average

person, then you have the basis for a saleable look.  You don't need to

be great, just better than average.  Obviously 50% of the population are

average and below average in any particular area.

If you don't have a particular skill or hobby, learn one.  Years ago I was

a Buddhist, I eventually learned quite a lot about hypnosis, a subject

which fascinated me for years, I began to teach a local evening class

then I made and sold some cassette tapes a finally wrote a book.  It was

the first book I published "Teach Yourself Hypnosis"  It is still selling

steadily and costs œ10.00 including postage from Alter Ego Dept CB,

Everton House, Cliff Terrace, Aberystwyth, Dyfed SY23 2DN.  If you

would like a copy.

If you can bake a good load of bread, install double glazing, mend a

burst pipe or know some funny stories, then you can write you own book

too.  It doesn't matter what your skill is.

BUYING REPRODUCTION RIGHTS

If you take a look in the Exchange and Mart, Business Opportunities

section, you will see pages of adverts which state something like this

"Start Your Own Home Publishing Business".  Most of these adverts are

selling the reproduction rights to "Business Manuals"  Often costing from

œ3.00 to œ30.00.  Beware.  Whilst researching this book, I bought a great

number of manuals from these sources, all offering me the opportunity to

make cash from my computer.  I wanted to look at the competition.  I

remember paying œ12.00 for a "Business Manual" which consisted of TEN

yes JUST TEN pages of dot matrix printed information, photocopied on one

side only and stapled down the edge.  This "Manual" told me nothing.

Three of those ten pages were trying to sell me mailing lists of other

people who have allegedly bought the same "Manual"  Three more pages

told me such useful things as "You will probably need an accountant" and

"Should you decide to purchase an answering machine, make sure it has

the green spot for approval".  The four actual business ideas were the

popular but unprofitable of unworkable ones such as: a wordprocessor

agency, Computer graphics for video titling, and so on.  Does computer

graphics for video titling sound interesting?  Further reading gives no idea

of how you are supposed to get the words off your monitor and onto video

tape.  This is an extremely complex subject, worth far more than the four

paragraphs it was given.

So, Be Very Aware of what you are buying.  If you buy reproduction

rights, find out how many pages the book or manual consists of.  I

recommend however that you do answer some of these ads, if only to

find out more about the business.  Most of them will send you free

catalogues and leaflets explaining the business of publishing business

guides and manuals.  These will help you to find out more about the

marketing techniques and what's on offer.

PUBLISHING

The first thing you need is a business name, one you like and which has

a potential for growth.  Remember that you are going to have to live with

it.  Test it out on people you know, it may have some adverse connotations

which you didn't notice.  For example, I run a business called Icon

Graphics.  I had been running this business for some months when

somebody said to me, "I'm not sure about the name, sounds a bit on a

con, I con".  Well I don't but it was too late to change the name, clients

were getting used to it.  Even simple things like that can have an effect

on a business.  So think carefully, it still worries me that my business name

might be putting people off, but, it is now so established that changing it

might do more harm than good.

The next thing is a separate business bank account.  Don't use your

personal account, keep it at a different bank, that way, if you get into

financial difficulties and the bank is being unhelpful, you can still eat.

Whether you need an ISBN number or not is up to you.  It depends on

what you are publishing.  If I think a book would do well in the bookshops

I get one, otherwise I don't bother.  They don't cost anything but they do

get your book on all the databases that are used by libraries and bookshops

for ordering books.  A few orders will drift in from this without it costing

you a penny.  Bookshops expect 30% off the cover price of your book.

Send them an invoice with the copies and expect them to take two months

at least to pay up.  Send reminders.

You can either typeset the book yourself, or use a typesetter/designer,

such as Icon Graphics.  Of course I'm plugging my own business, why on

earth shouldn't I?  Talk to your printer about how he would like it

presented, use a standard paper size such as A5 or A4, this will keep

costs down, use a mail order printer, preferably a specialist book or booklet

printer.  Get plenty of Quotes because prices vary enormously.

If you are doing it yourself, think about your output, do you use a laser

printer, dot matrix or daisywheel printer.  A laser is fine, no problems,

a daisywheel works okay too.  If you are using a Dot Matrix printer,

print to your highest quality output, larger than  the finished page and ask

your printer to reduce the pages.  He won't charge you any extra for this

and the reduction in size will mean that the dots from your printer are

closer together and not as noticeable.

MAIL ORDER PRICING

If you are selling anything by mail order, you need a good mark up.

80% is minimum.  You need it to pay for your advertising.  Advertising

is hellishly expensive.  Sometimes you can spend œ300 and not get a

single order.  I did just that.  It was my own fault, I was experimenting

with an idea that turned out to be spectacularly stupid.

MARKETING YOUR BOOKS

As a mail order publisher, you need to advertise.  There are two methods

of doing this.  Press advertising and direct mail.  Again answer some of

the ads in Exchange & Mart to see how it's done.  Your first book should

perhaps be something on how to run a mail order business, check out the

publisher you bought this from or write to us at Icon Graphics.

WRITING SERVICES

This one is not quite computer related but I thought that I would put it in

anyway as it follows a theme.  I offer writing services to publishers

of all sizes.  I will write a book on any subject to any length and will even

typeset it.  If you can write, why not do the same.  There are thousands

and thousands of writers in the country but very few of them actually

make any money at it, even the published novelists apart from the golden

handful.  But, there is a massive market.  I wrote this book, I have written

dozens of others like it and sold every single one apart from my three

novels which are still unpublished.

Of course you have to start somewhere.  Write your book on what you

know and advertise it to the people who offer to set you up in your own

publishing business.  Get their details from Exchange & Mart and send

them a circular.

When you have a list of buyers, mailshot them again offering your

services.  You will write a book to their specifications on any subject

they want.  Of course that means research time and it means they have to

pay more than usual, but some companies will be willing to pay extra

just to have a title that nobody else offers.  When I was writing my

hypnosis book I told a few people about it and was inundated with offers,

ranging from œ500 to œ2000.

If writing to commission, ask for 50% up front (as long as you are capable

of completing the job of course).  That ties you both into a contract.  Get

the full details and estimate how long it would take you.  Don't offer

a price, ask the buyer how much he expects to pay.  That way you know

just how much effort to put in.  The buyer gets full copyright, you get a

lump sum and your name on the cover.

P R O J E C T   S I X

DATA RECOVERY

I recently crashed the hard disk on my Apple Macintosh.  It put me out

of business for four days.  I knew it was going to happen one day, it was

inevitable.  Hard disk crashes are inevitable.  It will happen to practically

everybody sooner or later.  Guess what? I have worked with computers

for over fie years, I know the risks and I did not have a collection of

backup copies.

But, I do have a 'First Aid Kit'.  I spent four days breaking into my Hard

Disk and copying everything off it onto floppies, re-formatting the disk

and copying everything back on again.

If I didn't have my 'First Aid Kit' I would have had to call out a specialist

in data recovery.  Being a specialist is nothing other than having the right

tools and the right knowledge and information.  If you know a fair bit

about computers you can charge around œ40.00 per hour going on call out

with your recovery software and preferably an external hard disk and

cables.  I live in a tiny town by the sea, population, about 30,000 in the

surrounding town and villages.  But I know of literally dozens and dozens

of business computers in the area.  If you live in a large town, how many

computers do you think there are around you?  Probably thousands.

True, you won't work every day, but when you do work you will probably

be working through the night, weekends, holidays and so on.  One crashed

hard disk over a weekend can be a real earner.  Say it takes you eight

hours at œ40.00, plus a call out charge of œ50.00, plus double time for

weekends and night work.  That comes to œ690.00 for eight hours work.

While you are at it your clients will be delighted to buy file protection

software from you to prevent it happening again.  They will be ripe for a

sale, believe me.

Offer them your services on a weekly basis, offer to visit after office

hours, or at weekends, one day per week to back up their data for them.

Charge œ40.0 per hour again.  All businesses buy insurance, it is stupid

not to, but nobody offers insurance against lost data.  You can, if they have

another crash, you have the ability to back up, to restore their files and

so on.

Software is readily available and for the most part is relatively inexpensive.

Of  course you need a suit, a padded briefcase for your disks, software and

manuals, transport and possibly a mobile phone or pager.  When people

need you, they usually need you desperately.

VIRUS PROTECTION

Along with your data recovery service, you should offer a virus protection

service.  It amounts to the same thing really.  Basically insuring people

against data loss but you also sell the client a package of virus protection

utilities.  Try marketing your business by making some telephone calls

on Wednesday the 11th reminding people about the Friday the 13th virus.

P R O J E C T   S E V E N

ILLUSTRATION

Can you draw with a computer?  Do you have a scanner?  If you can

answer yes to either or both of these questions, then you have the basis

of what could be a very profitable business.

Every print shop has a collection of clip art.  Stock images that are used

to add interest to a page, a leaflet of price list.  I do a good line in art for

plastic carrier bags.  Build up a collection and you can either print it out

at your highest resolution to offer through mailshots to printers or people

who send out circulars.  Or, more profitable, advertise clip art collections

through the computer mags.  Sell the disks over and over again.  You can

even offer custom made clip art on any subject, charge by the hour for

this and give the purchases full copyright.

P R O J E C T   E I G H T

SHAREWARE MARKETING

If you are setting up a bulletin board you should do this anyway.  What you

need is a computer and modem, a dark disk and lots and lots of floppies.

Call the bulletin boards you can find, especially in America where they

proliferate.  Download their Public Domain and Shareware software and

sell it.  You cannot charge for the actual software but you can charge a fee

to cover the media and your expenses.  That means your time, phone bills,

computer time etc.

Advertise in the computer press or offer specific packages to targetted

buyers.  For instance, mailing list programmes to small mail order

companies.  You can progress on to advising small businesses, clubs and

societies etc., on setting up complete computer systems in this way.

P R O J E C T   N I N E

INDEPENDANT ADVISOR

If you know a fair bit about computers.  Set yourself up as an independant

advisor.  I spend a fair amount of time on the phone to people just helping

them with computer problems.  Sometimes they are friends or clients of

one of my other businesses.  Sometimes they have called me because

somebody has told them that I know a thing or two.  When I get one of

these calls I start by discussing the fee.  I end up paying a visit and can

earn quite a bit of money just by talking to people.  You need a

collection of recent catalogues, a business card and contacts in the trade.

Your contacts mean that you can offer to set up complete systems for

people and in effect work as a freelance salesman for the computer

dealers.  Expect a commission from your contacts, that's what they are

for.  Pass some of it on to your customer so that they are getting the

system at below list price and will automatically come back to you when

they need help.

Your main job is to be a trouble shooter, solving problems, setting up

systems, customising software, advising on hardware and software

purchases and so on.  Possibly not a full time job but it fits in easily with

Data Protection and Virus Protection.  Your selling point is that you are

independant.  You are not trying to push any articular piece of equipment

or software because it doesn't matter to you what they buy.  Whatever

they want, you supply it.  Your first stop when buying anything for a client

is to contact an American exporter and get his price.  USA prices are often

far below UK prices and you can save a lot of money.