Top 5 Reasons to Use A Mac for Small Business

Operating a small business is hard work.  Everyday presents you with responsibilities in sales, human resources, accounting, and your core business competencies.  The last thing you have time to deal with is computer problems and the last thing you have the budget for is IT services.  I made the decision to experiment with a Mac for my small business almost 3 years ago and this year we finally declared ourselves Windows free.  I thought I’d share a little bit of my experience and why running my business on a Mac has enabled us to make more money.  At the end of the article you’ll find out a little bit more about my career history and the irony of making this decision.  Here is my Top 5:

The Four Hour “Start Over”

The worst situation anyone can have is to have their laptop crash or have their computer stolen.   We’ve all heard someone frantically say, “It had everything on it!”.  For a small business, loosing what is on your computer due to theft or a malfunction can have severe consequences.  Some of these include loss of customer information, loss of intellectual property, loss, and business discontinuity.  All new Apple computers ship with a version of Mac OS X that offers a feature called Time Machine.  When you plug in an external USB or firewire hard drive, Time Machine backups up EVERYTHING on your hard drive and keeps it bck up on an hourly basis.  I bought a couple of  OneTouch 4 Plus 750GB External Combo USB 2.0/FireWire Hard Drives to make sure my three employees and I had over a Terabyte of backup behind us.  The beatiful thing about Time Machine is that you don’t need an IT person to set it up.  Just plug it in and go.

If things ever get ugly for you and you have to get a new hard drive or new computer, the process even gets easier.  When you start up new computer (or old one with a new hard drive), the setup process will ask you if you would like to configure your computer or restore from Time Machine.  If you choose the Time Machine option, it will put your computer back with every file, application, setting, software key, email, keychain password, etc. that you had.  You are literally productive within about 3 hours.  There are 3 Apple Stores within 20 minutes of our office and I know that even with the purchase process I am 4 hours from start to finish in being back and productive after catastrophe.
Time Machine also allows for you to recover any file or folder from any date you choose.  I did get my test one Saturday afternoon while updating the books when my several key applications on my computer just stopped working.  The support desk from one of the applications determined it was because my desktop had been deleted and it was likely related to a malicious software attack launched through Intuit’s QuickBooks for the Mac software update services.  Sure enough it was.  Time Machine allowed me, within minutes, to restore both my QuickBooks and my my desktop to exactly the way they were from the day before.

Macs Just Work

When dealing with demanding customers, I don’t have time to deal with my computer acting finicky and things breaking.   OS X, the operating system that ships on a Mac, is a UNIX based operating system that JUST WORKS.   I regularly open up three different browsers with 10 tabs a piece open while cutting and pasting from Office to QuickBooks and 10 other open apps.  Then I shut the lid, run to a meeting, open the lid, work some more, and carry on like this for days.  In the past three years, we have had two hours of downtime total across 4 computers due to software issues and things not working.  Two of those hours was from the Intuit disaster referenced above.   Besides that, things have just worked.  I do restart my Mac once a week.  Not because I have to restart it but it is because I used to always do that in Windows and I guess I just haven’t broken the habit!

Now, I will admit that their have been a few pieces of software that didn’t work as advertised.  The biggest offender was HP’s printing and scanning software an an HP All-In-One that I had.  We used it via a wireless connection and this did require restarting the printer a few times.  I finally bought an WorkForce 600 All-In-One Printer – Black and all of those concerns went away immediately.  I am going to buy a second one of those All-In-One printers!

Cost of Software

Though you can buy a Dell computer for $500 online these days, the software is what adds up.   As a small business owner, what I have really appreciated about the Mac environment is the cost of software.  First, there are a handful of programs and functionality built into OS X that, in the Windows world, end up being $30 here and $99 there types of purchases.  These include the native ability to create PDFs, burn DVDs,  sample colors, robust backup, parental controls.  Did I just say “parental controls”?  Yes, there is nothing more powerful during the termination of an employee than to have detailed records of the amount of time they spend on Facebook while you are paying them!   The second major cost saver is Microsoft Office.  I found Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business Edition (Windows) for $197 online.  Office 2008 for Mac – Home and Student Edition is $115.  Unlike the Windows Office products so many versions and bundles that you get confused, the Mac product line only has 3 versions and it is really easy to decide after you answer one question:  Do you use Microsoft Exchange for your email?  If you do, then you’ll have to get one of the more expensive Office for Mac products.  If you don’t, then not only is the Home and Student version the right product for you but you’ll be extatic to learn that the Home and Student version comes with 3 licenses which brings your cost down to $39 per user.  Icing on the cake is that Microsoft doesn’t like to write Mac software so you won’t have to worry about buying an upgrade for the next 3-5 years!

Warranty and Repairs

In my business, if I have my computer available to me, I am making money.  If it is not, I am in trouble.  Thus, the thought of boxing my computer up and sending it somewhere for simple repairs like a faulty case or a dying battery is not something I would really even consider.  In the Apple world it is much different!  I have actually had a case that began to chip apart on a MacBook and a battery die prematurely on a MacBook Pro.  In both instances, I got online and set an appointment at the local store (60 seconds), went to the store 5 minutes before my appointment, waited 5 minutes as my appointment was on time, discussed my problem, and within 15 to 20 minutes left the store with the problem fixed (new case and new batter).  No popping Voice Over IP lines to some country half way around the world, no explaining that a “reboot” was not going to fix my battery, and no other annoyances.  What was really cool was that they simply scanned the serial number on my machine and had all of my records right there.  I don’t think they even asked for my last name!

Spyware and Viruses Haven’t Bit Me Yet

This is really straight forward.  With Windows XP, I constantly dealt with having to buy new antivirus programs and other applications that claimed they’d get rid of all of the Spyware that was boggin my computer down.  Microsoft now ships “Defender” and has all of its patches that come down every month.  Time to reboot again in the name of security!  It wore me out.  So, when I bought my Mac, I ran it without an anti-virus for a year.  I finally got an Antirvirus program to be a little more responsible and finally one day I DID GET A VIRUS!  It got a virus on a copy of Windows XP running on a virtual machine under Parallels!!!  The anti-virus running on the Windows XP VM didn’t catch it but my Mac anti-virus did.  I use a program called iAntiVirus and it works great.  The commercial use version is $29.99 from their website.

Conclusion

In your personal life, a computer is about cost of aquisition.  In the Small Business world, buying a computer is about total cost of ownership and opportunity cost.  Entry level Mac Mini’s, which we use for most employees, are about $950 with a digital monitor and DV cable from the local office supply store.  MacBook Pro’s are more but there are deals out there on the last generation which is an incredible computer.  Taking into cosideration that I feel about 30% more productive on the Mac, I have had no down time, and my software costs are under a few hundred dollars, it has been well worth every penny of premium I paid for running my small business on a Mac.

The Irony

The irony of this article is that I worked for the Microsoft Corporation as a technologist and marketer for 10 years including a stint in the Base OS group for Windows.  I think the world of the people, the technology, and the accomplishments of that company.  I have no axe to grind.  As a small business owner, however, I have to think about the bottom line and OS X and the Mac have been right for me.  If I were running a mid-sized to enterprise company that required database servers, in house email and calendar services, and desktop management, I’d run the Windows product line and a variety of Microsft server products.  With the right process and technology wrapped around them, they are great.  Having only 5 users in the company, however, we can’t exactly spread that expense across our user base!