PC BIZ of the MONTH Excerpts from the book, "101 Computer Related Businesses", Copyright 1994 by Michael A. Tims. ---------------------------------------------------------------- BIZ-045 GLASS ETCHING BUSINESS This art medium, centuries old, can be incorporated and expanded upon to create a business opportunity for the artistically inclined. Glass etching has been around for a long time, in one form or another. From grinding areas of glass to make them cloudy, to sandblasting areas with fine silica sand, to chemically etching glass to create artistic patterns. All these methods have been used commercially through the years. This PC business makes use of chemical etchant to create beautifully etched mirrors, vases, glasses and other glass products which can be retailed at flea markets and other outlets catering to hand crafted products. The products could also be wholesaled to fancy gift shops that specialize in one-of-a-kind, objets d'art. As with most artistic objects, the selling price of etched glass is usually many times the original cost of the plain glass object. Suddenly, 50c glasses from the local K-Mart are turned into elegant, one-of-a-kind dinner glasses selling for up to $5.00 or more each. This particular glass etching business is made possible only with the advent of the personal computer. In order to chemically etch glass in an artistic pattern (or lettering, monograms, etc.) you must first produce an etching mask. This mask prevents the etchant from touching, or clouding, the areas of glass you want to keep clear. Many materials have been used for masking -- paint, varnish, masking tape, tar, etc. Anything that will keep the etchant away from the glass--while still allowing a pattern to be cut or scratched into the mask to allow the etchant to do it's job on the glass. It was discovered, by accident, that laser printer toner also makes an excellent masking material. The process works like this 1. You create an artistic design, picture, pattern, monogram, etc., using one of the many good PC painting or drawing programs. 2. You print the output in reverse (most programs can flip the drawing as an option) with your laser printer on special paper called, "release paper". 3. Tape the laser printed "mask" onto the glass object and heat it in an oven or with a heat gun to re-melt the toner. With the toner hot, rubbing the back of the release paper will transfer the toner to the glass. 4. With the glass object masked off where it is not to be etched, the paste etchant is applied to the glass. After 2-4 minutes, the etchant paste is washed off the glass object and finally the toner mask is removed leaving the etched object ready for sale. There are several books on glass etching available in most libraries, but the best explaination of using laser toner as a glass etching mask was written up in a magazine called, "Flash- The Premier Journal of Desktop Printing", in the October/November 1993 issue. (Vol. 5, No. 3) Published by Blacklightning Publishing, Inc., Riddle Pond Rd., West Topsham, VT., 05086. Contact them for availability of reprints or back issues of this informative article. The following sources of special supplies for glass etching are provided for your convenience, but should be considered only a starting point. Contact them directly for availability, latest pricing, etc. For other sources of supplies and information, request sample copies or subscribe to periodicals such as "Flash Magazine" or "New Media Magazine", published by Hypermedia Communications, Inc., 901 Mariner Island Blvd., Ste. 365, San Mateo, CA., 94404. The computer requirements for this type of business are a little more critical because you will be working with graphics programs. A 386-33MHZ computer should be considered minimum, with at least 4 Megabytes of RAM. A 486-66 with 8 Megabytes of Ram would be a more realistic choice. A hard disk, however, is a must to insure the most efficient computer operation and the shortest waiting times when working with databases, spreadsheets, and other memory intensive type computer applications. For this business, the use of memory intensive graphics programs, necessitates the largest hard drive disk you can afford. There is an old saying that you can never have enough hard disk memory space. Start with a minimum of 400 Megabytes of memory and if you will be running "Windows" programs, think about an even larger hard disk. A good laser printer is essential to the operation of this business and with the price of the latest 600 dpi laser printers dropping below $1,000, we would recommend one of these. A laser printer, along with DTP software, can be used to produce your own laser printed advertising flyers, brochures, catalogs, etc. It will even give your corrospondence that professional, "Print Shop look". Other office equipment you may want to consider might include a FAX machine to be able to send and receive reports, etc. without having to wait for the postal service or even over night priority mail. An alternative, to a stand-alone Fax machine, might be a flatbed scanner along with PC Fax software, such as "WinFax Pro" from Delrina, to enable you to send a Fax right from your desk. A telephone answering machine which can sense the difference between FAX transmissions and voice may also come in quite handy in the home office. Software recommendations for a business like this are abundant. From high power commercial drawing programs such as "CorelDraw", or "Adobe Illustrator", to shareware programs such as "Desktop Paint", "Fingerpaint", "Neopaint", "Painters Apprentice", and many more. These and more are listed in most shareware catalogs, including the one available from Matco Electronic Publications. Basic and general software requirements for a business of this type would consist of the usual word processing, database, accounting and personal and business income tax preparation software. As with most of the business ideas presented in this book, we feel that properly selected SHAREWARE (try-before-you-buy type software) will prove to be more than adequate for all your basic business software needs. For word processing software, if you can afford the $250 pricetag, the best available is Wordperfect 6.1 for Windows (at least in my opinion). As an excellent, and less expensive, alternative I would recommend either of two shareware programs. "Super WP", is an excellent WordPerfect clone that has many features superior to the commercial program or "PC-Write", one of the best wordprocessors at any price. Although neither of these has been written for Windows, they are both very good wordprocessing programs with many features. A database program is usually needed to keep track of customers, client data, mailing lists and many other forms of data, etc. The shareware program, "PC-File", is an excellent shareware database program that has features such as custom report writing, letter writing with mail merge, data analysis, plus charts and graph support. "PC-File" also features dBase III and Clipper compatibility, should you ever wish to write a custom application for your business. Every small business needs bookkeeping software to keep track of income and expenses. What they don't need is a full blown accounting package that takes more time than the business itself. The shareware program, "Medlin Accounting", is an easy to use, time saving IRS approved single entry bookkeeping system which is more than adequate for the small to medium sized business. It features a general ledger module, an accounts receivable module, an accounts payable module as well as an inventory module. Another financial program we would recommend to any small businessman, or individual for that matter, is the shareware program, "Checkmate Plus". "Checkmate Plus" is an easy to use, yet powerful, checkbook style, double entry accounting system which will also print checks on either laser or dot matrix printers. Spreadsheet programs are sometimes required by the small business and we would concede that the industry leader is the commercial program, "Lotus 1-2-3". However, an excellent clone to Lotus 1-2-3 is the shareware program, "As Easy As". Menu driven for easy use yet a very powerful spreadsheet program. Features 8192 rows by 256 columns, dBase III import/export, macro playback, dot matrix and laser printer support, worksheet linking, charting and much, much more. Communications software, for use with telephone line and computer modem, is often needed by the small business owner. By using communications software, the home based entrepreneur is able to access remote computers, informational databases, bulletin board services (BBS's), client computers, etc., right from his/her home office over the phone lines. This makes many high tech businesses able to be run successfully from any place a phone can be accessed. The full featured shareware communications program we would recommend is "Procomm Plus". This time proven shareware program is perfect for most communications needs, and features 100 number dialing directory, script file capability and support for most major file transfer protocols including XMODEM, TELINK, and COMPUSERVE B. For a complete listing of commercial as well as shareware programs featured in this book, see Appendix A. ************************************************************** If you have been looking for ideas to make money with your own PC, "101 Computer Related Businesses" is available on floppy disk, as a virtual book, directly from the publisher for only $29.95 Postpaid. State disk size preferred when ordering from, Matco Electronic Publications, POB 509 Suite 310A, Roseville, MI., 48066-0509. Many other PC business ideas and opportunities are also available. Excerpts are carried on AOL in the SMALL BUSINESS FORUM-STRATEGIES FOR BUSINESS FILE LIBRARYand EPUB FORUM-NEW FILES LIBRARY. Excerpts are now carried on Prodigy also. Just look for "PC Biz of the Month". Thanks, Michael A. Tims MTims48021@aol.com QQVE13A@prodigy.com