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PC BIZ of the MONTH
Excerpts from the book, "101 Computer Related Businesses",
Copyright 1994 by Michael A. Tims.
BIZ-083 RUBBER STAMP SERVICE
The lowly rubber stamp is a piece of basic office equipment
that every business needs, whether it's a new business or
old one. When you are first starting out in business, you
will need, and want, many different rubber stamps -- one
with your return address, another to stamp checks for
deposit into your checking account, still another to possibly
route letters to the proper person or file or to acknowledge
receipt of a letter. The uses and needs for rubber stamps
seem to be endless.
The old method of producing rubber stamps was to set metal
type to spell out whatever the stamp was to say. Then you
made a female impression of the type in a material called
Matrix Board. Next gum rubber was heated in an electric
rubber stamp press and squeezed onto the Matrix Board. The
resulting rubber stamp was then trimmed to size and glued to
a handle to complete the stamp. It only takes a few minutes
to turn a few cents worth of raw materials into a rubber
stamp that retails for $5.00 - $20.00.
The drawback of the old method of making rubber stamps was
the expense and limitations of the metal type fonts needed
to first set up for the stamp. Each font in each different
size costs anywhere from $50 to $100 each and any logos or
special graphics had to be specially cast in metal before
a rubber stamp could be produced from it. All this added
considerable cost to the rubber stamp and ate into the
stamp service's profit.
Enter the personal computer and a material called
photopolymer rubber. By using this material and a PC
drawing or painting program, any type style, any size, any
logo or design that can be produced and printed by a PC and
laser printer can be turned into a rubber stamp in a few
minutes.
First the stamp is layed out or designed on the PC. Then the
design is printed out as a negative image on transparency
material. By exposing the photopolymer rubber material with
an ultra violet light source through the negative image, the
rubber parts that are exposed to the light harden while the
rest does not. After exposure, the unhardened photopolymer
is washed away, leaving the cured rubber stamp ready to mount
onto a handle and deliver to the customer. This method is so
fast and easy, you could just about offer an instant rubber
stamp service to walk in customers.
Photopolymer rubber stamp kits and ultra violet exposure
units (The Polymer Plus is one example) are available from
printing equipment suppliers such as:
Badger Graphic Sales, Inc., 1225 Delanglade St.,
Kaukauna, WI., 54130.
Contact them and others for availability and current pricing,
At the time of this writing, a complete start up kit
featuring the Polymer Plus was priced at less than $1700.
The computer requirements for this type of business are a
little more critical because you will be working with graphics
programs and a 386-33MHZ computer should be considered minimum,
with at least 4 Megabytes of RAM.
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. There is an old saying that you can
never have enough hard disk memory. Start with a minimum of
250 Megabytes of memory and if you will be running "Windows"
programs, think about an even larger hard disk.
A laser printer is essential to the operation of this
business. With the price of the latest 600 dpi laser printers
dropping below $1,000, I would recommend one of these.
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.
A telephone answering machine which can sense the difference
between FAX transmissions and voice may also come in quite
handy in the office.
Software recommendations for a business like this are
abundant. From high power commercial drawing programs such
as "CorelDraw" and "Paintbrush Plus" to shareware programs
such as "Desktop Paint", "Fingerpaint", "Neopaint",
"Painters Apprentice", and many more. All these and more are
listed in shareware catalogs and in Appendix A of this book.
General software requirements for a business of this type
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,
I 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. Using shareware when you
are first starting a business can save you hundreds of
dollars in start up costs. I have found most shareware to be
as good, if not better, than high priced commercial
software packages.
For word processing software, I would recommend either of
two fine shareware programs. The first is "Super WP", an
excellent WordPerfect clone that has many features superior
to the commercial program. The second is "PC-Write", which
is said to be one of the finest wordprocessor programs,
shareware or otherwise, available at any price.
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 I 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 I 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. By
using communications software, the home based entrepreneur
is able to access remote computers, informational databases,
bulletin board services (BBS's) client's 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 I would
recommend is "Procomm Plus Test Drive". This time-proven
shareware offering of a commercial program will prove perfect
for most of your communications needs, and has such
features as a 100 number dialing directory, script file
capability and support for most major file transfer protocols
including XMODEM, TELINK, and COMPUSERVE B. However, If you
should purchase a fax/modem for your office, many of them
come already bundled with communications software.
For a complete listing of commercial as well as shareware
programs featured in this book, see Appendix A.
=====================================================================
Copyright 1994 by Michael A. Tims
******************************************************************
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 the author, Michael
A. Tims, POB 509, Suite 510D, Roseville, MI., 48066-0509. Many
other PC business ideas and opportunities are also available.
Other excerpts are carried on AOL in the SMALL BUSINESS FORUM-
PC BUSINESS FILE LIBRARY and EPUB FORUM-NEW FILES LIBRARY. They are
also carried on Delphi in the BUSINESS DATABASE. Just look for
"PC Biz of the Month".
An abridged version (10 of 101 Chapters) of "101 Computer Related
Businesses" is now carried on AOL. Keyword to SOFTWARE and do a
search for BIZ101A1.ZIP
Hope you enjoy, Michael A. Tims - MTims48021@aol.com