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While the history of PCs is interesting, the history of Apple computers is more so. Although Apple only hold about 2% of the computer market, that’s still a lot when you consider how many millions of computers there are in the world.

Apple is, arguably, the inventor of the modern computer graphical user interface - the windows, icons, menus and mouse pointer that you’re using right now (although this is disputed, they certainly did it before Microsoft Windows did). The first Macs were out and getting things done with a mouse in 1984 - one year before the first version of the then-useless Windows, fully six years before Windows 3.0, the first half-decent version.

As it had the advantage of being first and of being a very high-quality machine, the Mac gained a large following that it has never lost. Today, Macs are used mainly by creative professionals, such as artists, writers and publishers, and especially the film industry, as the Mac was both the first machine to offer desktop publishing and the first to come up with desktop film editing software.

So why use a Mac? Well, to begin with, Macs today come with one of the best operating systems around: Mac OS X. It’s basically Unix (a very old, stable operating system) with a whole load of pretty multimedia stuff bolted on top. It is far, far less susceptible to viruses and crashes than Microsoft Windows, and allows you to get things done quicker and more easily. Apple laptops - iBooks and MacBooks - are particularly admired, for their attractive looks, their high build quality and their low weight.

Although Macs still suffer from a lack of software - the gaming situation is especially dire - they are otherwise very good computers. If most of what you do is using the web, email, writing or multimedia-based, you would do well to consider one.

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The U.S. Information Technology Industry 1940-2000 Summary
All segments that comprise the information technology industry (computers, telecommunications, and software and services) have played a major role in the transformation of the U.S. economy. The computer was commercially introduced in the late 1940s and has shown the fastest rate of advance of any technology in the twentieth century. Communication technologies made large strides in the last three decades improving telephone networks with better voice quality, higher data speeds, and faster call setup times. Software, computer programming, emerged from punched cards and tape to FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC and fourth generation languages (4GL).

For the first few decades the United States’ lead in computer and communications technology was unsurpassed. In the 1980s other countries slowly started to catch up to the state of the art. The United States’ share in total worldwide IT revenue was about 45% in 2000, Europe ranked second with a 32%, share, Asia third with 20%, followed by South & Central America with 2%, and rest of world with 1%. Worldwide IT revenue including sales of hardware, software, and services are estimated to have increased from $650 billion in 1990 to $1,500 billion in 2000.

In 1973, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) started a program to develop communication protocols that would allow computers to communicate across linked packet networks. The system of networks, which emerged from this program, was called the “Internet.” The protocols developed out of this effort became known as the TCP/IP protocols (Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol). In the mid 1980s, the U.S. National Science Foundation’s commitment to build NSFNET using the TCP/IP protocol contributed significantly to the acceptance of this protocol by other networking product and service oriented organizations in the U.S. and internationally. The NSF’s actions created much of the USA’s networking infrastructure. Interconnectivity among the many network organizations enabled the enormous traffic growth and Internet usage spread rapidly to all corners of the world.

The introduction of personal computers (1985) and the utilization of the Internet revolutionized the office environment. The cost of 1,000 bytes of internal memory decreased from about $5.50 in 1965 to less than $0.10 today. Internal memory access time declined from about 17.0 milliseconds per byte in 1955 to less than 0.01 milliseconds per byte and megabits of memory per chip quadrupled every three years.

Personal computer (PC) prices dropped at an estimated annual rate of about 5% since its introduction. The Internet and declining prices promoted a surge in home PC sales and more than 60% of all U.S. households have one or more PCs today. About 60 million PCs were sold in the United States in 2004 of which an estimated 40% were for the home. Utilization of computers by public schools also increased substantially since the 1980s. About 98% of all public schools are using computers in the classroom today, 90% of all public libraries provide computer access, and close to 70% of all households in the United States have a computer toady.

The U.S. IT industry matured considerably as it moved through the 1990s. More and more workers acquired new skills in computer and communication technologies and heavy investment in IT led to a period of economic growth and acceleration of labor productivity. Labor productivity in manufacturing had the highest growth with 4% per year between 1990 and 2003 followed by non-financial corporations with 2.8%. Productivity in business rose by 2.4% each year during the same period.

Information Technology Industry Growth Beyond 2000

The second half of the 20th century was characterized by the dynamic growth of computers. The 21st century will see technologies merge and computing take on a different scenario at all levels and particular also in the home. Today, the U.S. economy and national security are fully dependent on information technology and at the core of the information infrastructure is the Internet

By the end of the 20th century there were more than 100 fixed telephone lines per 100 inhabitants in the United States. Mobile phone penetration was nearing 60% and Internet penetration 70%. As we moved into the 21st century third generation networks brought new applications for mobile phone users and the number of mobile phones fostered by the increase in sales of smart phones will surpass that of fixed lines phones before long.

Close two-thirds of the Nation is now online. Use of broadband is rapidly expanding and according to U.S. Department of Commerce projections business-to-business e-commerce may exceed 500 billion in 2005. In 2003, of the high-speed lines offered by providers 64% were from Cable TV operations, 32% from telephone companies, and the remaining 4% were from various other providers such as DSL and telephone company high-speed services.

The digital home concept - devices in the home sharing digital media across a home network - has been around for some time. Interoperability of devices connected to the home network has still to be improved to allow seamless operation and access before application of this concept will take off. Recent projections, however, show home networking growing steadily at an average annual rate of more than 25% between 2005 and 2010 and smart devices and smart networks will connect everything and everyone in the near future.

Miniaturization and the need to increase computing power have been driving the IT industry since its infancy, making the technology affordable for almost everyone. This drive to innovate is ongoing and will give us a new generations of microprocessors, which are ten-times faster as today’s, and memory chips with 40 times the storage capacity, grid computing and high productivity computing (network embedded and cognitive computing systems), photonics, nanotechnologies, optoelectronics, and new chip designs and fabrication methods.

Molecular electronics (nanotechnology) is expected to solve some of the problems and information overload we are facing today in computing and telecommunications and in fields such as medicine and energy. Application of this technology has recently been seen in flat-panel displays and is projected to be utilized by sensors, optical components, laser, memory and other logic devices in the next 5 to 10 years.

Research & development promoting innovation is sponsored by the United States Government and the IT industry. The networking and information technology research and development budget request for 2005 for all U.S. Government agencies was $2,147 million. Total information technology industry R&D is an estimated $29,100 million.

THE U.S. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY
A Report on the Growth and Economic Impact of the IT Industry 1940-2010
Prepared by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), Washington DC

Detailed information and data on U.S. Information Technology Industry’s growth and economic impact and industry shipment/revenue forecasts to 2010 are published in the U.S Information Technology Industry Statistics Report 1960 to 2010. The report is available from the Information Technology Industry Council, Washington DC. For a detailed contents description log on to http://www.itic.org/statistics. The electronic version of the report can be purchased for $29.95. To order the report call (00)1-202-626-5748 or contact amccormick@itic.org.

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One of the best things about being in the Information Technology industry is consulting. For purposes of this article I’m using the term consulting in reference to side jobs or moonlighting work. While full time Computer Consultants can also benefit from the tips in this article, I’m really writing at the IT Employee who works a full-time IT job and then takes extra jobs for extra money on the side.

So your working your regular job and you want to earn more working for yourself. Here’s a few ideas to get started. First realize that its now almost impossible to function these days without a computer in your home. In fact many homes now have 2-3 PC’s and eventually they are going to break or will need to be hooked together.

Word of Mouth Is King

To start, get yourself some business cards that explain your services. DO NOT LIST YOUR RATE I made this rookie mistake and was tied to my lowball rate once I was more established. So start by spreading the word at work. Hopefully your employer is tolerant of this. To know the limits simply ask someone in HR if the company has a policy regarding work outside of the job. If not you may be able to post a notice in the lunchroom or company classified ad board. However if this is not an option just spread the word among co-workers you trust. Word of mouth is always the best way to bring in new business. Everyone knows someone with a broken computer and you just need to get people talking. Once you get an opportunity, provide more service than the customer expects. Remember these initial jobs are seeds so even if you don’t make a profit, the goodwill you earn will keep you working down the road.

The golden ring in doing this is to find someone who will recommend you to a small or medium size business that does not have its own IT staff.

Why Businesses? Because its steady work and businesses know that time is money. Businesses tend to pay on-time, they don’t keep junk on their systems, and if a job runs over the amount of time you expect they are generally willing to keep the clock running so long as their systems are fixed. Home clients on the other hand tie the money for the job with the price of the PC. This works against us as PC’s become cheaper. Businesses assign a monetary value to their time and data so these are easier clients to work with. They also view hiring you as just another cost of business and will not hesitate to let any employee call you in after you gain their trust.

Advertising

I’ve tried advertising in newspapers and never found it to pay off. One of the best things I’ve done besides word of mouth is to use my neighborhood. I put a flyer in each newspaper box advertising my services. The target here is the person who works out of a home office. This is another attempt to secure a client whose time is money. From here apply the same principle of outperforming their expectations. Let them know you appreciate referrals and provide them with plenty of extra business cards. I once was hired to separate two businesses during a purchase. While one half was my client I made sure the other business owner knew the level of my service and went out of my way to ensure his systems worked as well or better once I left. Of course I taped my card to each of his servers.

A better way than walking your neighborhood is to obtain a list of the addresses in your neighborhood and visit http://www.usps.com and start a mailing campaign. Select the postcard mailing option and simply upload your flyer, send them your list of addresses and enter your credit card number. I’ve found that I can canvass a 300 house neighborhood for about $40.00 - $50.00 much cheaper and more targeted then my other attempts.

The reason you want to use a postcard is two fold. 1) It’s cheaper 2) Its easy to hang on to. When I used 8 1/2 x 11 paper flyers I only could reach those with an immediate computer problem. Everyone else simply tossed the ad. The idea it to get them to keep your card for later so offer an incentive to this. Give them $10.00 off their first job or offer a free consultation. You want them calling you not the other guy.

Billing

Ok here’s my take on billing and getting paid. Judgment is the key. When you bill a business be sure to add to your invoice that payment is due upon receipt. Does this mean you’ll get paid immediately? Nope but if you leave it out businesses will assume a Net 30 approach and pay you 30 days after receipt and that’s no good. So put the payment due upon receipt and see what happens. I give them 30 days anyway before sending a second invoice with a clear notice that this is a PAST DUE invoice. Most times this clears things up. Now I should add that I do have some customers that are inconsistent about how long it takes to get paid but they do pay and furthermore I LIKE working for them. Maybe they are the type that doesn’t watch over my shoulder or gives me the key to the place or lets me take stuff home to work on.

My point is you be the judge where the hassle is worth the delay if this occurs. Most important spell out your terms on the invoice and send reminders every 30 days. Now home users are different, you should expect them to pay on the spot or very soon after. Just as the local PC shop expects them to pay before getting their stuff back you should too. Judgment comes into play here as well. Some will ask you to stop by for one thing and then keep you longer than expected. DO NOT bring a prepared invoice based on what you believe the charge will be. It’s always better to tell them the cost and then e-mail them the invoice after you’ve been paid.

Tax Tips

If your serious about an on-going consulting business take the time to set yourself up properly. This will pay dividends in increased revenue and tax savings. Assign a room in your house as your home office. This will let you deduct any costs related to that office from your earnings as a consultant. There is no law your business has to make a profit so as long as you document the expenses you deduct you can do so even if the expenses exceed your earnings. The benefit here is that you get some tax savings from your regular paycheck from the loss of your business. Hopefully your business gets going and earns a profit but until this is the case you may as well do what you can to save money. A few examples of things you can deduct are the insurance, utilities, and internet costs proportional to the % of square feet your office consumes. I’ve even heard that technically you can deduct dog related expenses if you can prove the dog also guards the home office. I don’t recommend stretching anything however.

Sales Tax

Get yourself established as a business in your state so you can charge sales tax. I know this sounds crazy but if your going to sell your time, why not sell the parts and mark them up 10% so you make more money. I used to require my clients to purchase items and then call me to install them. Now I just make sure I trust they’ll pay and order the items myself. This lets me increase revenue and as long as you keep track of what you charged you simply pay the sales tax at the end of the year, couldn’t be easier.

Hopefully those tips will help you start a small business on the side. From there you can grow or shrink the business as you see fit.

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