Читать книгу Start & Run a Creative Services Business - Susan Kirkland - Страница 27

Whether you work on a laptop or prefer a massive tower and 22-inch monitor, remember you get what you pay for. Spend some time talking to other people in your field. Ask them why they chose their computer; how much downtime they’ve had due to hardware problems; how easy it was to get the equipment fixed when there was a problem; and if they ever used a backup system. Remember that running your own business involves taking care of your own problems. Your client will not care about why you missed his million-dollar deadline; he will only remember that you did. There are no excuses or second chances when you cost your client money.

Buying the best equipment you can afford will save you a lot of potential grief. Like others, you may be afraid of buying equipment that will be out of date before it’s paid for. This is a common problem when technology moves as fast as it does today. Leasing is an excellent option for the short term. Just make sure you read the small print on the lease agreement.

If you’re working by yourself and on a limited budget, look for reliability. In this regard, you can’t beat Macintosh. Contrary to popular myth, there are more than 3 million Apple users who swear by their machines, and I’m one of them. Information technology departments all over the country saved a few hundred dollars on corporate pc purchases but spent millions creating the technical-support teams required to keep their hardware up and running. Now that prices of the two operating systems are almost the same, it makes good sense to buy the one that’s the least time-consuming and troublesome to maintain. If you want to be self-sufficient, my advice is to buy a Mac.

A few words about your Graphical User Interface (GUI): It was great news for pc owners when Windows was introduced, but it’s just a big piece of software that reproduces the inherent graphic interface of the Mac’s operating system. Windows takes longer to react to commands and requires more keystrokes, plus it takes up valuable drive space. None of this matters if you have the capital to fund an it department to install new software for you, work out bugs, and cater to all your hardware needs. If you want to be self-reliant, though, buy reliable equipment — buy a Mac.

Macs are designed for people who use computers in their work but don’t want to spend time working on their computers. Finding software is no problem, either, especially if you shop at any one of the dedicated Macintosh sites such as MacConnection or Mac Warehouse.

Another advantage to buying Macintosh is rarely mentioned yet is of particular interest to the creative professional. The graphic interface is more intuitive. This means there is less shifting from the left (logic) side of the brain to the right (emotion) side, and as most creative people know, the longer you remain in touch with your emotional side, the better your creative output. Macintosh allows you to spend more time concentrating on creative output and less time figuring out how to get your computer to do what you want. The best value on the market right now is the iMac. At the time of writing, for less than $800 USD, you can get an iMac with a G4 processor, an internal modem, a CD-ROM reader, a full-color screen, a keyboard, and a mouse. All you need to do is plug it in and turn it on. The savings in trips to the repair shop make it ideal for someone just starting out.