50 steals and splurges - Cover Story - Buyers Guide

Home Office Computing, March, 1997 by Nicola B. Godfrey

12 Combine caller-ID from your local phone company with a PIM (see Steal #12). The monthly fee is worth it to have customer information at your fingertips (it's automatically displayed when a client or prospect calls). Prices range from $7.50 to $9.50 a month plus installation.

13 Invest in business cards with a memorable design, buy quality card stock, and invest in the services of a reputable printer. Pay a graphic designer for a personalized, unique logo, or try your hand at creating your own cards using Claris's Easy Business Cards 1.0 (800-544-8554; Win 95; $29) or My Professional Business Cards (MySoftware Co., 800-325-3508; Win 95, Win; $49.95).

14 Consider the extravagance of a 12.1-inch active-matrix notebook, perfect for making presentations at a conference table. We like IBM's ThinkPad 760 line (914-766-1900, 800-426-2968, www.ibm.com; Win; prices start at $3,199) and Toshiba's Tetra line, shown (800-334-3445, www.computers.toshiba. com; Win; Tecra 500 series priced $2,999 to $4,999; 700 series, $5,399 to $5,799).

15 Splurge on a full-featured voice-messaging system from your local phone company. Or consider Wildfire Voice Mail: This extravagant, fully automated system keeps your schedule, takes your voice and pager messages, and notifies you when an important call comes and you're on the phone. (Wildfire Communications, 800-WILDFIRE, www.wildfire.com; prices average $150 a month.)

16 Invest in an ergonomic chair with multiple adjustments for height, tilt, and lumbar support. Check out BodyBilt's Zero Gravity K-Series with contoured seats and 10 adjustments. (BodyBilt Inc., 800-364-5673; from $700 to $2,400.)

17 You splurged on your notebook--don't scrimp on a bag to protect it. Invest in a sturdy, good-quality, notebook bag. Check out Case Logic's new NC1 to NC4 line of carriers, shown (800-447-4848, www. caselogic.com; $69.95 to $153) or the bright and funky line of LapPaks from Respect (415-512-8995, www. respectus.com; $98).

18 Fork over enough to buy a quality telephone. Cheap multiline phones often "leak," meaning you can hear calls on other lines bleeding through onto your line. Northern Telecom's PowerTouch 350 combines voice mail and call waiting with a speakerphone option (972-684-5930, 800-466-7835; $225 list).

19 Get your hands on a high-end telephone headset. It will eliminate an aching neck from hours spent cradling a handset and free you to do other work while you're on a call. Best bets: The Vois Plus headset (612-975-0244, 800-644-1482; $89.95 list) and the Plantronics CT460 hands-free headset, shown (800-544-4660, www. plantronics.com; $299.95 list).

20 Invest in a full-featured general accounting package, especially if you do any kind of volume transactions, you carry inventory, or you have several employees. We suggest Intuit QuickBooks Pro (415-944-6000, 800-446-8848, www.intuit.com; Win, DOS, Mac; $199 list).

21 Go wild with a wireless modem that plugs into your notebook computer or the new breed of handheld PCs. Motorola's Personal Messenger 100D works with the ARDIS network service, offering two-way messaging, paging, and wireless faxing for $69.95 a month (Motorola, 800-894-7353, www.mot.com/wdg/; modem $300 to $500 depending on dealer package; ARDIS, 800-99-ARDIS, www.ardis.com).