How To Start A Business Without A Computer

By: Arlene Whiting
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:23:29
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For anyone who has wanted to start a business and says "I can't" this article is the solution to all of your woes. For anyone thinking she doesn't know what she's talking about and she is full of it. Let me give you my own personal testimony.

Many, many, many moons ago in 1985 I had become quite bored and disgruntled as a city government employee. It was unfulfilling and I knew there had to be more to life than this. I discovered in 1997 that I was an unconventional personality type. (Before that I couldn't tell you what my problem was. No job ever satisfied me.) I became fascinated with computers and information. I collected all kinds of what I considered useful information. My passion for knowledge and information kept me in libraries and bookstores. (Barnes & Noble and Borders)

Fast forward it's 2002 and I am unemployed with little to no income. I have discovered my passion and it is information. Also along my path I discovered I am an Entrepreneur. So with this information I move forward in starting a business.

There is only one problem, I have no computer, listed below are the steps that I took to get to where I am today.

GET A LIBRARY CARD-The library is your best resource and, you can take care of all of your research and informational needs at one time. Now let me give you a word of caution! This library thing is deep and if you don't know how to work it you could get in a jam.

I live in a suburb of Philadelphia, so the library situation has gotten better for me. Be forewarned that in Philadelphia it's every man for himself. Whomever gets there first and makes their reservation that's the person who goes first but, be on the look out because the person may have changed their mind (They get a five minute grace period after their sign on time.) and forfeited their reservation, that's when you move in and ask the librarian if they can put you on that computer. If you're lucky and you go to the right library you will have one full hour to use the computer.

REGISTER FOR CLASSES-This one really worked out for me in 2002 because I was taking one free class at the Community College and a paid class at the University so I had the best of both worlds. I was able to go to the University library 7 days a week and during mid-terms and finals week the library was open until 12 midnight. So I got a whole heap of work accomplished. It was okay because all of the workers and my classmates got to know me as the one who stays in the library until midnight.

FAMILY MEMBERS-Now when I couldn't get to a computer and the library was closed. I would use my mother's computer, of course there were limitations and I couldn't get all of the things done that I wanted. I also on occasion would go to my father's house and use the computer but, I would have to make sure none of the nieces and nephew were on it, or had any pressing projects.

FRIENDS-Now this is a tough one because when you go to a friend’s house there are interruptions. They might start talking to you, asking questions, invite you out to eat, or "I am heating up such and such do you want some?" Of course who can pass up a good home cooked meal? Maybe you can but I do admit I love to eat. Especially a well prepared mouth-watering meal. If you have a friend who leaves the house or room and let's you do your thing, then GO FOR IT!

KINKOS-This can be very, very, very, costly. I usually use them as my very, very, very last resort. I am sure you get the message about cost by now with the emphasis on the word "very." Now with Kinko’s you will have to get a plastic card which is free, but you must put money on the card. You can put as much or as little as you like. They also have the credit card option that you can use in the computer and the other machines.

Always watch your timing on the computers because you could run out of money and have to refill your card in the middle of a project. I know because it has happened to me on several occasions. You will have to jump up run to the machine, refill your card and pray to the Almighty no one jumps on the computer you're using and terminate your session.

Also make sure you have change in increments of one, five or ten dollar bills because trying to get a hold of an employee is a project. Especially if they are working on a print job or something else that commands their undivided attention.

Kinko’s is a place where you can take care of your business needs. For the patrons they have paper cutters, three whole punches, rubber bands, staplers, and paperclips. Some office supplies can be purchased there also along with printing your own digital photos. Now when you go into Kinko’s you are totally on your own and bring your common sense with you when you go:)

SET UP YOUR E-MAIL ACCOUNT-This is very critical and important to the success of your business. People need a way to contact you for whatever reasons and you need a form of communication for yourself. Plus this is also a way to build your list up for contacts once you get the business rolling and you probably won't need to purchase a list of names to mail out your promo information and your products for sale.

For example as a result of my accumulation of names and addresses I have close to 100 names on my list. Now with that I can contact everyone with my information and if they are not interested the people on my list know how I operate. Forward it to someone who can use it. I can't tell you the number of email messages that I get with at least 30 to 50 addresses attached to it! I can't begin to imagine the number of people that one of my messages reaches.

Let's just put this in perspective a minute so you can visualize this.

Ex: Person A (That's me) sends a message out to 30 people. Those 30 people send a message out to 30 people. Those 30 people send a message to 30 people. Now we do the math:

30 x 30 = 900

900 x 30 = 27,000

27,000 x 30 = 810,000
810,000 x 30 = 24,300,000

Total reached 24,300,000

Now let's just say you are selling a product at $29.00 and just 1% of those people purchase your product which would be 24,300,000. You will have made $7,047,000.00. Now this is possible because Forbes just added 120 billionaires to its billionaires list (http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2006/0327/111.html) from last year so people are making money.

Now you will want to do a search for free email sites, I presently use Hotmail and Yahoo. Also you will want to look into a list managing outfit, because AOL, MSN, and CompuServe have a limit. Some options are Spark list, Topica.com, Postmastergeneral.com just to name a few.

START YOUR OWN SITE- Use the least cost effective way to do this. There are promos for cheap Domain names but by the time you add everything up if you don't have a lot of resources this can be kind of costly. There are other options out there also for instance one woman I know started one on a Christian site, but she couldn't sell anything.

Also watch out for the rip off sites that take your money and you get nothing for your trouble. I got suckered into one of these deals. (SO BEWARE!)

Then there is the blog site which I use and it is free. You can do a search for free blogsites, and I recommend www.blogger.com they seem to be pretty reliable.

Copyright 2006 Arlene Whiting

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