Canadian Small Business Women

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Easy Summer Marketing Cheat Sheet

Now that the weather has us all hoping that the sunny, warm days will stay, you have some decisions to make when it comes to your summer marketing strategy. While it might be tempting to slow things down for the summer in favour of vacation time because “business slows down anyways,” you should consider kicking things up a notch for the summer or at least maintaining the momentum you have already built throughout the year. I could give you a million reasons why keeping up with your marketing is important throughout the summer months, but you can check out my top 5 reasons here.

What I want to focus on is how you can make the most of your summer marketing strategy by following this cheat sheet as you build out your strategy over the next month or so.

Here is an easy cheat sheet for your summer marketing strategy building – all of the nitty gritty details that you can check off your list on your way to success.

  • Status check: Figure out what you’re currently doing that is working and the things that just aren’t. Create a spreadsheet where you can list your metrics for success for each marketing tactic you have tried in 2018. Once you have it written down it makes it easier to see the big picture.
  • Review your goals/objectives: What were you looking to accomplish when you started your current strategy and how does it relate to your results? Did you reach your goals? If not, what held you back? Have your business priorities shifted?
  • Look ahead: What big announcements/milestones do you have coming up for the second half of the year?
  • What’s trending in your industry: Do an audit of social conversations, pop culture, and other channels to figure out what’s trending in your industry (and for your audience as a whole). How do these topics relate to your brand?
  • Identify unique summer opportunities: There are a lot of events and social activities that go on in the summer. List potential opportunities for you to get involved as a brand and/or organization. Some things to consider are: Partner with a non-competing business to offer summer promos that sweeten the deal; or get involved as a sponsor for a summer event to get your brand in front of your target audience. These types of opportunities are a great way to generate buzz in the media.
  • What’s on your wish list: Are there any marketing tactics that you haven’t ever implemented but you wish you could? For example: video marketing; experiential marketing; mobile tactics; etc.
  • Set your budget: Carve out a budget for summer-specific marketing initiatives – be realisitic.
  • Write it down: Build a document that outlines everything you are going to do this summer when it comes to your marketing. This includes tactics you are continuing from the first half of the year as well as anything new you want to try.
  • Identify milestones: Once you have decided on what you are doing, figure out when you will implement everything.
  • Think beyond summer: You should look to build momentum beyond your summer marketing strategy. Look at summer as a jumping off point for future success in the year.

Summer marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, and it shouldn’t be ignored. Shake off that sudden urge to slow down when it gets hot and sunny and use the summer to your advantage.

 

Candace Huntly is Founder and Partner at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making the approach unique to you.

Connect with Candace

Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/email/Website

ANXIETY IN NUMBERS

Many entrepreneurs don’t take the time to understand their numbers, in fact, most ignore them altogether!! They rely on their bank balance to tell them if they’re doing well or not and just get the bookkeeping done for the sake of taxes.  That may work for you, but how are you going to make informed decisions if you live in obliviousness of your numbers? They tell you the story of how your business is doing and can give you great insights into what’s working, and most importantly, what’s not!

Here are some of the top Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) you should monitor for your business.

  1. Advertising as a Return on Investment (ROI)

We know advertising is necessary for business growth, brand development and awareness, and most importantly sales. But not all advertising channels work the same. In the beginning you may advertising anywhere that will have showcase you, but the key is to track which of these channels actually brings you clients. Try using a different promo code in each channel so that you can track which is working and get rid of the ones that aren’t.

  1. Inventory turnover

If you have a product based company where you buy the inventory upfront to try and resell it, then this KPI is vital for you. Inventory turnover is the number of times inventory is sold over a time period, which can be monthly, quarterly or annually. This will help you track what inventory is moving and what takes longer to sell. Accordingly you can adjust your buying choices and often your marketing choices too.

  1. Accounts Receivable turnover

This one is really important if you have repeat customers. These days many businesses operate on a “pay before you receive” model wherein the customer is paying for the product or service before it is delivered. However, many businesses still have the more traditional model of providing a service and then invoicing for the work completed, thus resulting in a period of time where you are waiting for a customer to pay. By keeping track of AR turnover you can identify whether your companies policy for credit is working as intended or whether you wish to continue to do services for clients who are perpetually late. A good accounting system will also allow you to review an AR aging to see which customer is always past due.

  1. Gross Margin

Again if you are in an inventory based business, you need to be aware of two factors: first you need to factor in the cost of inventory into all your sales and second you need to make sure you have enough of a markup to not only cover your inventory cost but your operating cost. Doing a gross margin analysis combined with a break even analysis will help you figure out if your pricing structure is working for you or not.

  1. Budget to actual

You’d be surprised how many entrepreneurs don’t have a budget, or if they do, they don’t compare their budget to actual numbers. A budget is not set in stone, of course, but knowing how your actual sales/expenses compared to what you were forecasting can tell you a lot about your business initiatives.

Of course the key to doing any of the above is timely and accurate bookkeeping and financial reporting!

 

“Behind Every Great Business is a Great Accountant”

For more information on how to keep your business tax efficient, or to get a consultation on whether you are making all the right tax choices for your business, contact Dharna CPA. www.dharnacpa.ca. Info@dharnacpa.ca

Common Mistakes Made by Small Businesses

You have this fabulous idea to start a business, and you go for it…yea! But then the reality sinks in that running a business is so much more than just selling your product and service. There’s HR and Marketing and IT and ugh worst of them all….accounting!

As an accountant I see small business owners making a few critical mistakes all the time. And the result is they either pay too much in taxes, do not have money to pay themselves, or worst of all go out of business.  Unfortunately accounting is as important to a small business as any other aspect of running a business; and it has a direct financial impact to your business! Here are some the top mistakes made by small business owners:

Not having a budget

You obviously do not start a business thinking it will fail, but in the beginning there WILL be more expenses than income. Until your brand and client list grows your budget is extremely important to sustain you. There will be tough calls to make but without a clear budget, you won’t know how to spread out your expenses.

Not keeping up-to-date records

A budget is fine as a guide but how do you know if you are sticking to it if you only do your bookkeeping once a year for tax time? At a minimum doing your bookkeeping quarterly (monthly is ideal) allows you to track progress and adjust your path accordingly. By doing your bookkeeping ONLY at tax time means it is often too late to make any informed decisions and corrective action.

If they walk, talk and look like an employee…they are an employee

Employee vs contractor is a huge area of audit with the CRA. Many employers will classify workers as contractors to avoid paying into CPP & EI when in reality they are employees and subject to payroll deductions. There are a few factors to consider when making this difference but a big red flag is control – who controls their work and schedule? A legitimate contractor likely will not be reporting to someone else who is controlling and reviewing their work.

Not recording all the personal contributions (properly)

If you ask most entrepreneurs how much money have they put into their business the answer is usually “a lot”…but when you ask them how much they cannot quantify it. This can have significant tax impacts when both taking money out of the business to pay yourself and when you are looking to sell the business.

 

 

 

“Behind Every Great Business is a Great Accountant”

For more information on how to keep your business tax efficient, or to get a consultation on whether you are making all the right tax choices for your business, contact Dharna CPA. www.dharnacpa.ca. Info@dharnacpa.ca

Give Your Audience an Experience They’ll Remember

CHuntly

We’re all familiar with the major stunts that brands have pulled off. Whether it’s a guy free-falling from the edge of the atmosphere, a horror scene in a coffee shop, or an elevator with a false floor, the one thing all of these stunts have in common is that they leave a lasting impression on anyone who experiences or sees them. These public stunts, also called brand activations or experiential marketing, can result in a huge bump in your brand awareness growth.

The good news is that you can create an amazing experience at any budget.

Here are 6 things to consider when you are building experiential marketing into your overall marketing strategy:

  1. Clearly define your objectives: This goes for any strategy you build, however, it’s very easy to get carried away when you are doing experiential marketing. When any new idea comes up, you always have to ask yourself how it relates to your strategic objectives and if it helps you reach your overall business goals. If the answer is no, then the idea should be off the table.
  2. Budget: This should come up whenever you discuss strategy. Most small businesses are limited when it comes to budget, but that doesn’t mean your strategy has to have a small impact. It just means you have to plan carefully within your budget.
  3. Concept: This is the thematic idea that will tie everything together. Your concept should represent your brand and its values. This is the overall story that you will pitch to media, and it will shape the activities that happen on the day of the activation.
  4. Connection: Remember that you are creating an experience, so you should tap into all of the senses and emotions that will resonate with your audience. The idea is that when people remember the experience, they immediately associate it with your brand. The first step is making the experience memorable. They need to feel a connection with your brand, so any activities you do should make sense for your brand.
  5. Cross-channel integration: Utilize all of the resources you have available. This means integrating social media, media relations, influencer relations, and content creation into your planning. The event shouldn’t just live in one place. Why not stream it live or have attendees upload photos to Instagram?
  6. Continuity: What happens beyond the day of the activation? Many brands forget that it takes more than one event to put your brand on the map. You might generate a lot of social media buzz and maybe some media coverage, but what next? You have to keep thinking of ways to keep your story fresh and encourage people to keep talking about you.

Candace Huntly is the Founder and Principal at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making the approach unique to you.

Connect with Candace

Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/email/Website

How to Build a PR Campaign

CHuntly

Now you know all about PR and what it can do for your business, it’s time to put together a fabulous campaign so you can start seeing great results. But where do you start?

Here are nine steps to building a great PR campaign:

  1. Set goals: What do you want to achieve?

What does success look like to you? Once you decide what the end game is, then you can decide how to get there. There is no point in putting together a strategy if you don’t know what you want to accomplish. In fact, you will find that your strategy will lack direction, which means you could end up doing things that aren’t right for your brand.

  1. Decide on your budget

This always seems to be the toughest thing for any business to do, especially small businesses or start-ups. There are a couple of things you should do before setting your budget. First, conduct a bit of research to determine industry best practices. If you plan to hire a third party to help you put your strategy together and execute, that also has to factor in. The two most important things to realize are that you won’t get anything for free and you need to be honest with yourself. Even if it’s time spent knocking on doors and you want to do it yourself, that is time spent away from your regular business operation – time is money. When you factor in a third party (like an agency), they usually base their fees on an hourly estimate. The cheapest is not always the best option, but neither is the most expensive. Find an agency that will work with your budget. You have to make sure that you are honest with how much you can spend and work within those parameters. If you are working with an agency, it’s frustrating for both parties if you say there is no budget and then you complain when you see the proposed quote that it is too high.

  1. Decide on your timeframe

Depending on what your campaign’s objectives are you can determine when you would like to start/finish your campaign. Make sure you are giving yourself enough time to get all the prep work done at the beginning!

  1. Identify your target audience

Is this campaign meant to target a niche audience? Perhaps there is an audience that you think your brand would be perfect for, but you haven’t really had the opportunity to tap into it yet. Decide who you want to reach and then make sure you learn everything you can about them – where do they go online? Who influences their decision-making? How do they like to learn about new brands? Etc.

  1. What is your story?

Determine what story you are telling. That means finding the unique sweet spot that will make your brand stand out from the rest of your competitors. You need to be able to identify why this is important for your target audience.

  1. What channels do you want to utilize?

With so many options available to you, you need to reign yourself in a bit. Don’t spread your budget and time too thin by trying to target too many channels at once. Once you have identified your target audience, then it should become clear as to what channels you can and should use. Keep in mind that your channels may be determined partially by your budget!

  1. Research

At this point in your planning, you need to research different aspects of your strategic choices. If you are having an event, what other events are on the same day in your city/industry that would conflict? Have any of your competitors done similar things? Did it work for them? How can you make your idea unique? What are the costs associated with what you would like to do? Educate yourself on what you need to know before putting your strategy into action.

  1. Create a critical path

A critical path is just a fancy name for a timeline. Work backwards from your end goal and note major milestones you would like to hit in your campaign. Then flesh it out by putting in tasks and who is responsible to get each task done. The best way to track this is to set up a chart. I like to work in weekly increments. I identify the date, the task, and who is responsible in the first three columns. Always add one last column for “status” so you can get the satisfaction of writing “complete” when you have finished a task – it just feels good.

  1. Hit the ground running

Once you feel comfortable with your critical path, you are good to go. It’s time to set your strategy in motion. Don’t be afraid to track results along to way to see if you need to tweak your approach as you go!

Candace Huntly is the Founder and Principal at SongBird Marketing Communications, an agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making it unique to you.

Connect with Candace

Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/email/Website

“I need a social media person” – Do you really need a social media person? – Part 1

Karima

After reading the recent article “Is Social Media Worth It For Small Businesses?” on Forbes.com, I realized that one of the reasons small businesses are disappointed with their social media hires is because they don’t know the roles and skills required to set themselves up for success on social media.

In the 15 years I have been dedicating my practice to helping businesses expand their online presence and (in the last 6 years) growth utilizing social media, I have heard business owners and top-level executives say “I need a social media person”. To me, this affirmation equates to saying “I need doctor” and once you’ve said it, chances are you will need a specialist. It’s the same with social media.

Social Media as a tool for growth

Unlike large organizations who typically have a social media (senior) manager and 1) with multiple direct reports or 2) agencies who manage specific areas of social media, small and medium organization are left to hire a jack-of-all trades who scramble to do EVERYTHING on social media.

Let me back up a little… Although a lot of young people hold Social Media positions, the top level positions are usually given to more seasoned marketing or digital professionals because although social media is about Facebook and Twitter, and blogs and Instagram, it’s also and primarily about business and strategic thinking. Now that the wonders of social media have spread to the world of business, engaging on social media has become a necessity for survival. And your business needs to jump on that bandwagon before your competitors overtake you!

Social media allows you to respond to your customers’ wants and needs immediately. You can boost sales, and people will be more receptive to your message. And let’s not leave out the most important fact of all: your competition is already there.

So, how do you build a solid team while maintaining cost-effectiveness?

You must have a business-focused social media professional come and do a diagnostic of your needs. Whether your company is just launching or is already in business, our program is designed to support you and help grow your online presence.

Identify and define roles

By identifying the roles and skills it takes to make your business successful, you will better reach out to the right people and organize their time based on needs and objectives. Below are some of the primary social media roles and skills that will get you going fast.

  • Strategist: A strategist, pretty much like all strategists in every industry, researches, benchmarks, and creates a plan and tactics. The strategy, when done well, identifies opportunities for growth and for It also determines how and where to invest to meet business objectives. A social media strategist is no different.
  • Project coordinator/manager: A project coordinator is someone who will keep you on budget, on time, and within scope. A fabulous project manager will also identify opportunities along the way and allow you to expand your reach and objectives. Hiring a part-time social media project manager is the key to your success.
  • Content producer: Online content can be blogs, videos, Facebook updates, Tweets, Instagram and Pinterest pictures or even YouTube videos. There is a plethora of types of content and platforms ranging from real-time to scheduled, from on the go to scripted, and from organic to paid. The importance of content is to identify your objectives and build a strategy around them.
  • Community manager: A true community manager builds and grows online An online community is a virtual community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Forums, etc.). Those who wish to be a part of an online community usually have to become a member via a specific site and necessarily need an internet connection.

I will explore other roles and skills in an upcoming blog post.

Why are online communities important for businesses?

Being a member of online communities for businesses and continually establishing and maintaining online relationships is critical to the success of your business. With the extreme popularity of social media, many people are excited about interacting and developing relationships with others whom they feel they can trust and who they consider experts in their industry.

At the heart of your success is the human element. Once people get to know you, and you get to know them, they will want what you are offering and will gladly tell others about what you are offering too.

Karima-Catherine is the co-founder of Red Dot Digital, a digital agency that strives to deliver top-notch solutions to various clients.  Red Dot Digital drives real, meaningful, quantifiable business outcomes for companies. Karima-Catherine is also the co-moderator of #MMchat, a Twitter weekly forum which focuses on business, marketing and social media.  

Connect with Karima-Catherine:

karima@reddotdigital.net

Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest

 

TIPS TO PAYING OFF YOUR MORTAGE FASTER!

Amina

 

I had a great meeting last week with a prospective client.  They wanted to know how to pay off their 25 year mortgage in 10 years.  It was a huge focus for them, as they wanted to take the money left over after paying off their mortgage and put it towards their retirement savings.  They are both in their 40’s and want to be debt free by their early 50’s.

hour glassThey, like many people did not take savings seriously and so now in their 40’s find themselves with a hefty mortgage and not much in the way of savings.  I assured them that to do so would mean making sacrifices, such as less traveling, which they both love to do and eating at home instead of eating out, which they also love doing.  They assured me they were committed.  Of course there were many more sacrifices they would have to make but these were two of the biggest in their particular scenario.

Paying off your mortgage is the single most important step towards financial independence and a healthy retirement. Owning a principal residence outright gives you the financial freedom to channel money that formerly went to your mortgage into your savings or to pursue lifelong dreams or to invest in real estate, which in my opinion is the thing to do as it provides one with extra cash flow, which is another form of retirement savings.

If paying off your mortgage as quickly as possible is your goal you want to make sure you pay attention to the following tips.

Tip #1. First you want to make sure you have a good credit rating.  You can pull your credit report from Equifax here: (http://www.equifax.com/equifax-credit-score/)

By pulling your own credit bureau, you will be sure that when you speak to your mortgage agent or broker, there won’t be any surprises and if there are, you have already taken care of them.  You want to make sure that there are no “monsters in the closet” and that you are aware of your past credit problems, so that you can be prepared to discuss them with your mortage broker.

A good mortgage broker, will make sure that they explain your past indiscretions to the lender and that it does not impact your ability to qualify. You also want to make sure that you are not behind on payments as these can impact your score. It can make the difference between getting a great interest rate and one that is not that great. This can also impact the amount of interest you are paying on your mortgage.

Tip #2. You should be pulling your credit bureau every six to twelve months before shopping for a mortgage, just to make sure everything is on the up and up and that you are not faced with disappointment when it comes time to shop for that mortgage.

Tip #3. Don’t quit or change jobs just before applying for a mortgage, as that can drastically affect your ability to qualify.  Lenders want to see at least 6 months on the job.

Tip #4. The next step is maximizing your down payment.  The minimum required for most mortgages in Canada is 5% (depending on your credit rating) but by paying at least 20% down upfront, you cut down on your principal and interest payments and also avoid having to pay CMHC fees. Remember CMHC insurance protects your lender and not you in case of default so why incur that extra cost?  Of course it’s not always easy to pay 20% down so what else can you do?

Tip #5. You can be mindful of the amortization period.  Many people confuse amortization with term.  Amortization is the life of your mortgage, while the tem can run from 1-10 years with a fixed-rate or variable-rate interest mortgage.  After each term expires, you renew for another term.  Amortization on the other hand, defines how much interest you will pay over the life of the loan.  For example, you might pay less monthly (Principal + Interest combined) with a longer amortization, but the interest portion will be higher. Amortization can run anywhere from 15 years to 35 years (with at least a 20% downpayment). Interest can be the killer.  It can amount to thousands of dollars over the life of your mortgage.  Imagine what you can do with that extra money?

Tip #6. When it comes time to get that mortgage, don’t just go to your bank.  It is understandable that people want to stay with the same institutions that they regularly bank with or have their credit cards and car loans with but it doesn’t always pay to get your mortgage there.  By speaking to a mortgage agent or broker, you can shop around or more importantly they can shop around on your behalf.   Your mortgage agent will get you the best product and rate that works for you.  They have access to more than 40 lenders with different solutions and products, while the bank only has one – themselves.  Furthermore, the bank will push you to insure your mortgage and just like CMHC, the beneficiary of this insurance is the bank not you.

I remember when my husband and I went to get our first mortgage more than ten years ago – just like most, we went to our bank, thinking that since we had all of our business with them, it would make sense to get our mortgage there.  We were shocked when they offered us a rate that was higher than prime at the time and would not even consider a rate reduction based on our years of patronage.

On the advice of a friend, I called a mortgage agent and he was able to negotiate a great rate that was 2% lower.  It saved us years of mortgage interest and was a less stressful expeience overall.

Tip #7. Furthemore, rate is not the only thing you should be concerned with; you want to know if the mortgage will be compounded monthly or semi-annually.  Again this comes down to how much interest you will be paying – the less often the interest is compounded the better—semi-annual compounding could save you hundreds of dollars or more in interest.

Tip #8. Make sure you understand the difference between the variable rate and the fixed rate products, but more importantly how the penalties could affect you if you were to break the mortgage beforfe the term ends.  A variable rate mortgage will cost you 3 months interest, but a fixed rate mortgage will cost you the IRD, which is the difference between the posted rate and the discounted rate, multiplied by the number of months left on the mortgage.  In some cases it can cost you thousands of dollars in fees.

Tip #9. You want to take advantage of any and all prepayment privileges.  This can also help you pay your mortgage off faster as you can make annual prepayments of 10% to 20%, which goes directly towards the principal.  Not all mortgages allow this option so make sure that your broker factors this in, if this is important to you.

Tip #10. Finally and maybe most importantly, as it also has to do with budgeting and savings, is your payment schedule.  Don’t choose something that you can’t stick to, as it will make your life and that of your budgeting very difficult.  By paying bi-weekly instead of monthly, you put more money towards the principal as you have two extra payments every year.  However, if get paid monthly and you are now paying bi-weekly, you may find yourself stretched too thin.  Ask your broker to run different scenarios for you so you know what you can and cannot afford.  The last thing you want to do is get into a mortgage that you can’t afford.

Paying off your mortgage early will take lots of sacrifice, great budgeting and keeping steadfast to your goal, but if you can follow these tips, the rewards will be aplenty!

To Your Wealth!

Amina

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Buying A New Computer?

Laura Bungarz

So it’s time for a new computer is it? That can be a very challenging experience. What’s the difference between the $399 model and the $799 model? Why should I buy this one and not that one? What was the sales guy talking about?  Lots of questions, lots of decisions. But I’m here to help. Here are some simple questions to ask yourself that will narrow down your decision.

1. What am I going to use it for?
Internet? Email? Videos? Music? Just word processing? Games? The more media types you use (videos, music, games) the more power you’re going to need. Generally the low end models of computers aren’t designed to run online games and store your top 500 favourite movies of all time. They also aren’t meant to stream large quantities of video. Don’t get me wrong, they will do one here and there but it probably won’t have enough power for a movie buff.

2. What’s my budget?
$400 or $1500? There’s a big difference in price and features between a $400 computer on sale at your local computer shop machine and the $1500 top of the line model that does everything but the dishes. You can narrow the list down considerably just by deciding how much to spend.

3. How much do I need to spend to get what I want?
The gap between what you need to spend to get what you want and what you actually have to spend may be wide.  Think about what you can live with for now and what you really have to have.  Many computers, particularly desktop computers, are upgradeable.  You can buy more parts as the budget allows for it.  Things like video cards, sound cards, RAM and storage are easy to add after the fact.  Look for a computer that gives you the room to grow that you need but that still fits within your budget.

4. Laptop or Desktop?
Laptops and desktops these days are mostly equal in terms of power. Technology has advanced enough now that we can squish all of that power into a machine that’s rather small.
There are lots of pros and cons between laptops and desktops, but speed and power aren’t on that list anymore. Decide whether or not you might need to be portable and go from there.
Portability doesn’t always affect the price either. It depends on what brand you choose and how much power you actually need.
Within that you also need to decide how much room to grow you want to have. Laptops don’t allow for the same amount of part changing that desktops provide. Is this something you intend to trade up in the next couple of years or do you want to keep this machine for a while and would like to be able to add a bigger hard drive, a new video card or increase the memory?
Laptops also tend to be disposable.  Once they break they are done.  They aren’t easily fixed and are often more expensive to fix if you decide to go this route.  This is an important consideration for those that may want to keep their computer for more than a couple of years.

5. What did the sales guy mean when he said…?
Yep, computer sales people can be worse than car salesmen at using all that fancy terminology to talk you into buying something you don’t really need.  Here are the big things to think about.

  1. 1.    RAM (Memory):  Get at least 4 GB if not more.  That’s standard these days and it will last you a while.  Extra is cheap to buy and install.  Don’t get talked into a more powerful computer when you can buy a stick of RAM for $40.
  2. 2.    Hard Drive space:  If you’re like me a 500 GB hard drive is impossible to fill, but for some of you that take a lot of pictures or download music or videos, you’ll eat through a 500 GB hard drive in no time.  If the computer with the bigger hard drive is too expensive, think about external storage.  External hard drives are under $150 now.  It’s definitely cheaper than upgrading the computer solely for the space.
  3. 3.    Video and Sound:  Onboard video and sound (as it’s called), is just video and sound that is built into the motherboard.  It’s good, basic quality video and sound for not a lot of money.  If you want amazing graphics or professional quality sound, spend the extra money to buy yourself a video card or sound card.  The computer tech at your local shop can install it for you.
    Laptop users remember that you probably can’t add a sound or video card to your computer.  You have to get a laptop with that already in place.  You can upgrade hard drives and RAM however.

There you go.  Whether it’s a Christmas present for someone you love or a new computer for business, there are lots of things to think about when buying a new computer.

I am Laura Bungarz, owner of Laura Bungarz Computer Training which I started in January of 2012.  I am a certified teacher and English as an Additional Language instructor in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.  I specialize in helping women small business owners who are terrified of technology but know they need to learn.  Teaching, computers and helping people are my three favourite things to do and I get to combine them every day in my business helping other women succeed in their businesses.

Contact Laura:
Laura Bungarz Computer Training
212-207 Fort Street
Winnipeg, MB R3C 1E2
Laura@Laurabungarz.ca
www.LauraBungarz.ca

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