It’s been a few weeks since one of my columns has run and there is a lot to talk about. There have been some critical Windows updates and Microsoft appears to be saying “uncle” on the Windows Vista question given the buzz that’s being generated around the up and coming Windows 7.

Does anyone remember Windows Millennium? Much like Vista, it wasn’t very well received and Microsoft soon replaced it with Windows XP – arguably the best desktop operating system Microsoft has ever released. It’s very enticing to speculate on the success or failure of the upcoming Windows 7 as it’s being hyped up even at this early beta testing stage.

Enticing as it is however, with an economy on shaky grounds at best, and last month’s dismal figure of 129,000 lost jobs, it would make sense that we’re about to see a explosion of small business start-ups. All businesses today are tied at the hip to computers and there is hardly an area of business that computing don’t touch. For a new small business owner, the plethora of options can be staggering. For instance, some of the questions a new business owner will be faced with are:

• What kind of computer(s) to get in the first place?
• Should I go PC, Mac, Linux, something else?
• What kind of printers to use?
• Should I have a network?
• Should the network be wired, wireless, or both?
• What accounting software to use?
• What specialty software will I need?
• Will I need an Office suite? Which one?
• Will I need remote access to my computer(s)?
• What about a server?
• How will all of this tie into my marketing efforts?
• What do I need to know about having a web site?
• Should I have email @myserviceprovider.com or @mybusinessname.com?
• What should I do about backups? How about antivirus and antispyware?
• And the list literally goes on and on and on.

As a small business owner myself, I understand the challenges and rewards a small business can bring. I remember someone saying early in my business life “being in business has its highs and its lows -- big highs and big lows”.  I didn’t realize at the time how true that statement was and how it would resonate with me even more than five years later.

Like all small business owners, I was driven to start my business by passion. I’ve always had an interest in computers and how they fit into business simply fascinates me. I took every course I could, wrote every industry exam that fit with my mission, worked for a few other companies that provided IT services, and eventually started my own business with the goal of helping small and medium sized businesses make the best of their computing resources.

In a downturned economy with the prospect of many new businesses starting, I see this period as an opportunity to share some knowledge and possibly do my small part to make a bit of a difference as far as the economy is concerned. It’s no secret that smaller businesses drive the economy and there seems to be little interest in bailout packages for little guys – but then don’t get me started on that <grin>.

So, for the next little while I’d like to talk about small business computing. There will be things like Windows 7 come up and they deserve some attention too and where it’s warranted, maybe we’ll interrupt this process and have a look at them. For the most part though, I’d invite anyone interested to sign up for my free newsletters at www.bowesit.com as I’ll certainly talk a bit about important developments in the industry there.

Finally, I’ve registered the domain name (you’ll learn about this stuff) smallbizcomputing.net where collectively we can toss ideas around about small business computing. The site should launch in the next couple of weeks.

I’d invite my friends and competitors to join me in this effort as well. As Dolores Fabiano of the Welland Pelham Chamber of Commerce so poignantly said to me when we met some weeks ago “we all need to pull together now”. Dolores is – as always – dead on.

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