As a small business owner I’m constantly pursuing the “bottom line” ;.It’s a straightforward formula, really. Just increase sales while decreasing expenses, right? Easier said than done I’m afraid. Truth be told that most production costs like fuel, rent, internet access, insurance, etc, continue to rise and don’t show signs of slowing any moment soon. Which means I’ve got to be downright cagey in conserving every dime I can, where I can.
So, when I upgraded to a fresh computer I went with performance for the lowest cost. That meant no frills, especially where software is concerned. Manufacturers want an arm and a knee to pre-install software bundles on your new machine. Even when you’re a bit more technologically savvy and purchase and install software yourself, Microsoft Office Standard is similar to four hundred bucks, and you still have anti-virus and other vital software to shell out for. What’s an entrepreneur to do?
I’m fortunate enough to know a few people who work in the tech sector and are a lot more knowledgeable than myself about them of personal computing. When I told certainly one of my tech-head friends I was buying a more affordable software solution he explained to see Open Office software.
He sent me to this site where they’ve an Open Office software suite available for download, bundled with a totally free anti-virus suite! I tried it out and office for education I’ve been very impressed with what I acquired for my dollar. The open office programs have the same features as their Microsoft counterparts, along with a few advantages unique to Open Office.
The bundle includes a word processor, a spreadsheet program, a database, a course for creating multi-media presentations, and a drawing program.
I haven’t got to pay a whole lot of time with the presentation program, Impress, however it interfaces nicely and appears to have the ability to create anything I will be needing for a great sales presentation. Draw, the graphics program, is very good and creates artwork in bitmap, GIF, JPEG, and a few other formats I’ve never even heard of. Most important in my experience though have already been the term processor, called Write, and the spreadsheet, Calc.
Write has most of the features, there’s nothing missing. It even offers its helpful options like auto correct and auto complete, and it can produce documents in open document format, a document format produced by an industry consortium to be the newest standard in compatibility. In addition it may read and edit my old Word documents, along with create new ones. It can also create .pdf files.
Calc shares the same virtues as its word processing counterpart, with the abilities to see and write existing Excel docs. That is huge for me personally because almost all of my payroll, invoicing, and expense tracking are kept on customized spreadsheets I built myself, and the ability to keep the information I’ve and continue my book keeping without starting over is crucial. I also love the natural language formula feature. It allows the creation of formulas using actual words like “sales-costs” ;.It’s really slick and saves me a huge amount of time.
Now if you’ve done your homework or have a background in computers you understand that Open Office software is open source code software, meaning essentially that it’s free. So why buy software which can be gotten for nothing? Well the clear answer is based on the extra features, bonus software and support provided in this Open Office suite. At under $50 dollars for your Open Office software bundle, the anti-virus suite alone causes it to be worth the cost. Also included is one whole year of free tech support team, that will be essential for the less technically inclined, such as for example me.