GETTING STARTED
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     Once you have all your equipment needs sorted out you can start to
 build up a regular flow of business.  There are a variety of ways that you
 can use your computer in the field of wordprocessing.

     You can concentrate purely on typing out letters on behalf of local
 firms.  Most firms have occasions when a member of staff goes sick or takes
 a holiday.  The remedy that is often used is to employ temporary staff from
 a local agency.  This is costly for the firm and often impractical if the
 need is only to operate a word processor for a limited time.  You are able
 to offer such firms a cost effective way of fulfilling this need and at an
 attractive fee.  You will need to offer guaranteed deadlines for work you
 take on as well as a fast collection and delivery service of the work.  You
 will find that companies that employ your services will approach you again
 and again.  As your reputation increases so will your income.

     There is also a great need by many small or even not so small firms to
 have a fast and inexpensive way to deal with routine letters that they send
 out or advertising material that they wish to reach their customers.  Often
 these are small firms who have yet to install a computer system for
 themselves.  You can help them identify the need for computerising certain
 aspects of their office work without the need to invest in expensive
 computer hardware.  Some of the tasks you could offer to undertake for them
 are the processing of standard letters.  You can make an initial charge for
 the compostion of these types of letter and then charge them a small fee
 for the letter to be processed.  The company can then contact you whenever
 they require you to send out a letter.  All you need is the name and
 adress of the person to whom the letter is to be sent to.  Likewise, you
 can include some of their advertising literature in the mailing.  A word
 processor which has a mail merge facility would be very useful for this
 kind of work.  Mail merge allows you to type in the names and addresses of
 the people you wish to send mail to and then the wordprocessor will
 automatically incorporate this in each letter printed.

     When you buy a word processor software package bear in mind how easy it
 will be to operate or not.  Packages such as Wordstar take a little getting
 used to as they use keystroke commands for setting tabs, underling etc.  If
 yuo intend to use this package but are completely new to it, then consider
 spending an evening or two at a local college of education to learn how to
 use the package.  Most colleges of further education offer short courses in
 wordprocessing and most use Wordstar.  The reason for saying this is that
 you do not want to be in a position where you have the equipment, you have
 the orders but you are still trying to learn how to operate the software.
 Page formatting and type styles may seem boring to learn but they make all
 the difference to how a document is received by a prospective customer.
 also a wordprocessor in the hands of the knowledgeable can produce a work
 of art.  Indeed your finshed letter or document should embody the qualities
 of a work of art, e.g. compostion, balance and be pleasing to the eye.

     If you are close to a college of further education you will find
 another source of income.  All students have essays to write and they all
 recognise the power of a beautiful turned out document in adding one or two
 marks to their assesment.  Also most college courses require a dissertation
 to be submitted during their final year.  You are in an ideal position to
 take on this kind of work, which is particularly plentiful around April or
 May when exams are looming.  You can easily advertise this service either
 in local shops which you know are frequented by students or by a card on
 the college notice board.

     An area of computing which is very new and has seen a rapid growth in
 the last few years is the concept of direct mail.  These are the kind of
 letters that everyone has in the post, advertising fridges to holidays in
 the sun.  Many companies have discovered that this kind of advertising can
 greatly increase their profits.  There are two ways you can profit from
 this.  First you can approach companies and offer to deal with their direct
 mail on their behalf by mailing their advertising material to the addresses
 they provide you with.  Have you ever wondered where they find their
 addresses?  Either by market research or from known existing customers.
 Using a computer and a database you can sell to firms big or small, mailing
 lists which you have compiled yourself.  You can obtain this information by
 copying out the names and addresses from a telephone directory, but make
 sure you classify them according to a specific area, as firms usually want
 to try an area at a time.  Using a database with a sorting feature this
 task becomes easy for you to do.  Also it is a good thing to bear in mind
 that in 1992 the trade barriers in the European market will be coming down
 which means for you the opening up of new markets in which to sell your
 information.  This kind of data will be highly valuable to many firms, here
 and abroad.  If you decide to undertake this kind of work, keep in mind the
 Data Protection Act which allows anyone the right to see any data which may
 be on a computer system in the form of a database.

     With a wordprocessor you are not restricted to typing out letters or
 manuscripts there is also the field of desktop publishing or document
 processing.  For this kind of work you will need software packages which
 allow different type styles and the importing of graphics into the text.

     The number and variety of desktop publishing and document processors
 are many and they vary in their capacity to produce a news sheet style of
 document.  To take a middle of the range document processor as an example,
 the 'Word Up' package for the Atari ST provides something in between
 worprocessing and desktop publishing.  This package is at the budget end of
 the market and has it's own in built fonts which enable you to have a
 variety of type styles in your document.  Also is posses the ability to
 print out graphics which have been loaded in.  The system is very flexible
 and with this kind of program you would have no trouble in designing and
 printing sales literature or fly sheets for the businessman or local jumble
 sale.  There are many small shops which would hastily take up the offer of
 such a service and you are in the position to show a prospective customer a
 number of different layouts for such advertising.  A printer would charge
 about œ20 to œ30 for a page to be designed and then would add on the cost
 of printing.  You with your computer are able to provide the same service
 at a greatly reduced cost.  You can then either run them off on your
 printer or have them photostated.  Or you may just prefer to provide a page
 designing service.

     As the data you create is magnetic and very liable to damage easily,
 always make a backup of all your data whether it is a letter or a list of
 addresses, on cassette or disk.  Losing such data can cost you months of
 work.  When your backup is made keep it somewhere safe away from anything
 electrical or damp.  If necessary make a second backup.  If you are using
 5.25 inch floppies transfer all your files onto a 3.5 inch disk as these
 are hardier and can survive unexpected situations like a power failure.
 The larger disks will become unreadable if you look at them the wrong way.
 Keeping a hard copy of all work you have done will also save you time
 should a customer wish to make alterations urgently and has lost the copy
 you sent him.  It is also proof that you completed the work should work be
 lost in the mail or damaged in some way.


 SELLING YOUR SERVICES
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     The way in which you advertise your services is just as important as
 the quality of the product you are selling.  Whether your prospective
 customers are large business concerns or individuals you still need to put
 your message across in such a way that they want your services.  One way
 you may achieve this is to send out a mail shot advertising your service to
 a number of prospective firms.  You should then follow this up with a phone
 call asking for an appointment so that you can discuss your service in
 greater detail.  Do this within a few days of your mail shot so that the
 customer still remembers your details.  Try large and small firms or firms
 where you know such a need exists.  An add in the classified section of
 your local newspaper under the heading of business services will often
 bring enquiries.  Better still most local newspapers have a business
 section devoted to business services in your area, it may even be
 profitable to approach the editor of these pages with a view to publishing
 an article on your new venture.  Such services as yours are seen as
 enterprising and highly news worthy and the free advertising can work
 wonders.

     There are also the Small Firms Services (details in section 1) which
 can be very helpful in helping you to start up with marketing and finance.
 Also membership of these organisations often leads to a valuable source of
 contacts and prospective work.

     As your business expands and you develop new skills and your business
 contacts increase you will find that there are even more areas into which
 you can diversify your activities.  Eventually you will build up a solid
 foundation of knowledge about software and hardware as you become more
 aware of your local businessmans needs.  You will be in a postion to take
 on some of the work which is currently being done by the local computer
 shops or the freelance consultant.  This includes installing software for
 the needs of the business computer user.  You may be asked to customise a 
 wordprocessing package or to train staff in it's use.  An in depth
 knowledge of the most popular databases and spreadsheet programs is greatly
 appreciated by those that use them.  The rewards for this type of work can
 be very great.  You are then taking on the role of a computer consultant.
 Your knowledge will be highly valued and you will find the businessman will
 pay the price you set for the task.