Buying Software

Select your software carefully. One easy way to do that is to purchase shareware and freeware before investing the big bucks. WordPerfect software for instance retails for around $300, but you can purchase PC Write, a shareware word processing software for $5.

There are some disadvantages when purchasing shareware and freeware though.

Some of them are really good while some of them are really lousy. That's why it's important to rely on a good shareware distributor (a company that only deals with selling shareware) that is very selective in the programs they include in their catalogue.

Don't make the mistake of going crazy ordering lots of shareware.

You don't want to have 100 different software programs on your computer that do 100 different things. This would make life too confusing and you'd have to learn them all. You'd never know any of them well enough, just a little bit about each one. The whole idea here is to try out several different shareware programs in the particular software category you need before you invest money into the commercial software programs.

You should streamline your needs and the functions you want your computer to perform. Many of us will be buying a computer for our home-based business. Therefore, you need to find a good software program that will do the job you need for your particular situation. If you're going to be a typesetter, try out a variety of desktop publishing software until you find the one that does everything you want it to do and more. A look-alike of the popular PageMaker software for example is a program called PagePlus.

In addition, if you will be selling mailing lists, concentrate on a good database software. If you will be writing and selling reports, concentrate on finding a good word processing software. If you plan to draw and create art, find a good CAD or drawing software program.

After locating the right software for your particular business, go through the same procedure in finding good business accounting software you feel comfortable with so you can keep accurate records of your daily business transactions. The Australian Tax Office can supply you with a free basic accounting programme, eRecord, for all your basic taxation records - it even prints invoices)

Do your best to narrow the different software programs on your computer down to as few as possible. This way, you can really learn each one of them and become an expert much quicker than trying to learn a whole bunch at once - thus, creating confusion rather than knowledge.