All inkjet printers are the same right? Well no….far from it to be honest. That freebie printer you got with your new desktop or laptop computer most probably will not be suitable for business use. At best it’s a personal printer. This is where most people slip up. The salesman said the printer would do anything you wanted it to do. He was right… wasn’t he? Well no his job is to sell you something (anything) before you leave the store. These guys all work on commission and that’s just a simple fact of life.

What most home office workers will wind up with is a photo realistic desktop inkjet printer designed for home and family use. Home office use and home use are two totally different things. Somebody working from a home office will usually need to print multiple documents per day. A family member may need to print a few documents per month…. or even less.

If you use a low spec printer for high volume work only one thing is going to happen – the printer is going to burn out quickly. Printers have moving parts and they more you make them move the faster they’re going to wear out. It’s that simple.

Look at your printing requirements. Will you be printing a lot each day or just a few pages? How much color will you need to use in documents if any at all? Base your purchase on your actual business requirements and not on the slick salesman who sticks a brochure for their Super Duper Model in your face.

Realistically you’re going to need an inkjet with a high ppm (page per minute)count. I’d recommend looking for something in the region of 15 – 20 ppm. Also try to avoid the photorealistic models – unless you’re going to actual print a lot of photographs. The replacement ink cartridges for these can cost an absolute fortune.

Also make sure that consumables (cartridges etc) for the printer are available instore and an ongoing basis. There’s nothing worse than buying an inkjet printer only to find that you need to order the replacement ink from Taiwan or worse that the parent company went broke and there is no replacement ink available – ever.

Finding the right inkjet printer for you may mean searching around in a few stores – both online and offline but the reward is more than worth it. You’ll have a reliable and useful piece of office equipment for many years to come.

Hi folks,

Just a quick note to let you know that there’s a new article on using feng shui in your home office available.

A funny thing happened about 24 hours ago – my DSL account went offline. I was right in the middle of checking email and doing other odds and ends and my connection just died. Now this was at 2am (I like to work late at night – there’s fewer distractions) so there was no point in calling tech support to see what had gone wrong. It might have been routine downtime for a server or there might have been some technical glitch – I had no idea. All I knew was that all of a sudden I couldn’t get any work done. Now for a few moments there was almost blind panic. I had several things lined up to get done and now that wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t check email or various websites for information…. what was I going to do?

And then the penny dropped. What was I going to do? I was going to work offline instead! Yes actually get some work done without the internet. So I set about completing the transfer of some data between two websites and all the restructuring that went with that. Ok so I couldn’t upload the completed work but that would only take moments once my DSL connection came back online (which didn’t happen until after I woke up the next day).

Now here’s the thing…. I completed that work in half the time it would normally have taken me. Even though I thought I was relying on having internet access to complete that job that simply wasn’t the case. I handled all the down and dirty work of transferring that website data with no Internet access at all! That’s when it struck me just how much of a distraction an Internet connection can be. There are emails to read (always!), websites to check and maybe even some friends to catch up with on AIM, MSN, Yahoo or GoogleTalk. Yes the Internet is a fantastic tool but it’s also an incredible distraction; taking us away from the work we’re really meant to be doing right in front of us.

The lesson to be learned from this? Make the most of your time and minimize distractions at every possible opportunity. Maybe shut down your router or modem. Turn off your cellphone. Maybe for a few hours each day remove your primary distraction. Put it out of reach. Make the most of the hours that you have each day because you can never replace them.

If you’re finding yourself struggling with managing your time and getting constantly distracted you might want to check out this book on time management and making the most of your working day – you won’t regret it.

This is just a quick shout out for a good friend of mine. His name is Colin McDougall and he’s just launched an exclusive members only club for aspiring and existing internet marketers who want to turn the Internet upside down and shake all that spare cash out of its pockets. Is there still money to be made online? Some folk will snigger and say “Buddy those days have come and gone”. Yet others will sell you some hokey excuse for an online business that will go out of fashion in 6 months and probably never make you a dime. There are plenty of conmen out there waiting to part you from your hard earned dollars.

How is Colin different? Well he talks the talk, walks the walk and makes a crazy amount of money online doing so. Here’s the other thing you need to know about this guy – he’s just an ordinary Joe. He’s just a guy who had an idea to create an online business and did it. He’s just like YOU. No different.

Wouldn’t you love to know more about how this guy makes some seriously sick money online? Well now for the first time ever you can have access to this guys successful mind in a way that was never possible before. You can learn how to avoid all the mistakes he’s made in learning how to run a truly successful online business.

If you’ve ever, ever been interested in having your own affiliate marketing business then I can’t recommend Colins club highly enough. Why? Because using his methods I have a website that ranks #2 out of 400,000,000 (400 million) other websites in Google – that didn’t happen by accident and is proving to be very profitable for me.

If you’re tired of all the scams and half promises then sign up with Colins club and learn how to build a profitable online business starting today. He takes you step-by-step through each part of the process and is there to help you along personally.

Click here to sign up for The Fly On The Wall Club.

Every so often a book comes along that makes you review your entire life in a positive and eye opening way. A few years ago a friend of mine in Canada (Calgary to be exact) recommended that I read a book called the Celestine Prophecy (there’s a trilogy). I hummed and hawwed over this for ages but never got around to reading them. Finally she gave in and bought them for me (thanks Alia!!)

The Celestine Prophecy is more than just a novel. It’s a story about our lives now, in the past and in the future. If you’ve ever felt that you had a “life itch” that you just couldn’t scratch then you need to read this book and let it settle with you. Do you find yourself surrounded by coincidences and just can’t explain them? Yes? Well then you REALLY need to read this book.

What’s it all about? Well it discusses 9 Insights that will be revealed to mankind that will change how we see and treat ourselves and the world around us.

Some of you will struggle with the concepts presented in this book but it’s part of the growing process as described in the book itself. Highly recommended.

If your home has a basement then you may have just found the ideal place to setup a home office. A famous Internet entpreneur friend of mine runs his entire business from his basement. He likes it because it gives him all the space he needs to work. It also gives him all the privacy and peace he needs to get a good day or nights work done. In effect it’s like having an office that isn’t strictly at home because you’re working away from the general hubbub of the house itself.

Read the full article on basement home office design here.