PC4PEOPLE.com Reviews, Tips & Tricks

When you first start a business, or even during a period of growth, you may need to find credit when you have little collateral. You can borrow from a rich Aunt if you are lucky enough to have one. You could hit up some friends, if you want to lose them. The best option is to look at unsecured financing.

Unsecured financing can help you with credit cards, loans, and Small Business Lines of Credit. The monies you get can be used to help with cash flow problems, to consolidate business debt, expand your business to help with growing pains, or financing your flooring opportunity.

Unsecured financing is fast, with most funds available within 1-3 weeks. The higher your credit score, the less documentation you need, so it’s an easy process. If you find the right company, you can count on great service.

When it comes to the names we use to describe technology, sometimes they don’t make sense. Case in point: “Laptop”

Anyone who can tolerate the heat generated by today’s modern heat-producing laptop on your lap is more Zen than me. So, being truly lazy, and wishing to actually use the laptop against the afore-mentioned body part, I bought a laptop cooler for $24ish in October. It is a pad or tray that fits under your laptop, and almost always has fans blowing up or down to keep the laptop and your lap cool.

Features:
-USB-powered cooler with pass-through connector
-Model has two speeds for the fans.
-Fans blow up towards laptop. Most don’t, creating a lap heater.
-Keeps my lap cool. Bonus: Probably increases the life of the laptop.

Recently, the USB cable that powers the cooler has become more and more loose in its socket, and the plastic shielding was coming away from the plug. I became concerned that it was now a liability, so I went online to find a replacement. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the manufacturer’s website did, in fact, sell the replacement part. What a deal! Right? No, not really. It is a $5.00 part, no problem, but the shipping is $8.31! That makes the cable replacement, which I think was an under-designed part, cost $13.31. Approximately $10 less than throwing the whole cooler away and buying a new one! So, I went online, found someone who makes a similar cable and shipped it to me for a total of $4.44.

So what’s the moral of the story? I know we are in a throw away society, but come on, make it reasonable to fix, and most of us will. Make it cheaper to throw it out and replace, and we will.

Starting a new small business or home-based business can be a daunting task. There are so many different things to think about. Where do I advertise? Who is my target market, and where do I find them? How do I find people or companies that can help with my businesses needs? Where do I turn for mentoring or advice?

There are many places that you may get some of these answers. You contact the Better Business Bureau. You can rely on friends that may already have experience in business. You may lean on family to provide you with references to people they know. You may get good answers, you might get bad.

Now there is a site that combines all of these aspects all together. Direct Matches is a place for you to register yourself along with other entrepreneurs. They are a business networking site where you can get help to expand your business. With over 65,000 members, you can find someone who matches your needs in every aspect of your emerging business.

Right now, Direct Matches is offering free sign-up to their service. At Direct matches you can post your businesses profile for others to view. You get free advertising and free classifieds to post your businesses needs and wants. Most importantly, they give you the opportunity to network with other business owners with whom you may want to develop a relationship.

All the answers and free, can’t beat that! Try Direct Match out today.

I have a new friend, and it’s called sudoku. It’s a Japanese puzzle game using the numbers 0-9 to fill in boxes, lines, and columns. It is too fun.

Now I can play it anywhere with my newest toy; my hand-held sudoku game. 5 levels of pleasure and pain should keep me occupied for a while. Now I can only hope that I have enough rechargeable batteries ready to go to keep it running!