The First 100 Days - Family Computing and K-Power Magazine ...

HOME BUSINESS
continued Jrom page 30
around January, 1981, a few
months after she and her family had
moved from Vermont to Boston for
her husband to attend law school.
Prior to that he had been a reporter
and city editor for the Times-Argus.
a small daily newspaper in Barre,
"SHE BELIEVES THERE
WILL ALWAYS BE SOME
PEOPLE WHO WANT
THE CUSTOMIZED
WORK ONLY A SMALL
SHOP WILL DO."
Vermont. Karen was no stranger to
running a home business, having
organized a brown-bag lunch con
cession for her husbands newspaper
colleagues as well as a second ven
ture, baking bread.
Gregg Blackburn had used word-
processing equipment at the news
paper for a number of years and was
loath to go back to the typewriter
when he entered law school. When
the kids began school and Karen
had more free time, she decided she
wanted to start another home busi
ness—preferably one in which she
could use a computer. That way she
and Gregg could buy a system and
get a tax advantage on it for her
business use.
"I first used it to type some term
papers," Karen remembers. "Then I
did some resumes and cover letters.
I even took a course in resume writ
ing." By the time Gregg began to
look for summer work. Karen had
decided to make writing resumes
and cover letters into a business.
'"Some people write 300 letters for
jobs." she says of the tight job mar
ket recently graduated lawyers en
counter. She developed a master list
of law firms in New York. Boston,
and some of the other major cities in
which B.U. graduates were likely to
seek work. She put the list onto
disks, using her word-processing
software. WordPro 4 plus.
When a customer didn't want to
apply to all the firms she had listed
for a particular city, she made a
copy of the master list, deleted the
firms to which the customer didn't
want to apply, and sent letters to all
the others. As she picked up more
information about different firms—
which partner was responsible for
hiring, what kind of lawyers they
32 FAMILY COMPUTING
were looking for at any particular
time—she began taking a more ac
tive role in choosing which firms to
apply to. consulting customers on
matching their goals with what was
available and with who was looking
for whom.
Many times this involves writing
two, three, or maybe more different
form letters, and matching each let
ter to a select group of firms. Most
word-processing firms .charge a one
time "setup" fee for creating each
form letter, then an additional
charge for each letter printed. Al
though some undercut Karen's 75
cents per letter basic price, she does
all the setup necessary for free as a
loss leader. She also writes the re
sume and throws in the intelligence
gathering and consulting at no
charge. She figures she earns about
S10 an hour for about 20 full weeks
during the year.
Clearlv. Karen is not in the busi-
BEGINNING A
BUSINESS
If Karen Blackburn's story has
sparked your interest in starting a
modest home business, here's a
brief guide to what you'll require for
a venture like hers. The essentials
are a computer system that suits
your needs (and your budget], de
pendable software, and endless cre
ativity, energy, and patience.
Whether your home business fo
cuses on direct-mail advertising.
mail order sales, fund raising, cover
letters, or resume writing, your
hardware should include a keyboard
with at least 48K memory and 80column
text display, a monitor, a let
ter-quality printer, and two disk
drives so you can store, update, and
combine files.
Any software program you select
should offer word processing and
the ability to create lists, or files, to
sort through and merge—for exam
ple, to pull a name from a mailing
list (stored on one disk) and send
that person a letter the computer
has stored on the second disk.
Some programs worth investigat
ing—available for a wide variety of
computers—are LislMaker (S97.50),
Executive Secretary (S250). Power-
Text (S399). and WordStar, one of
the most praised word-processing
systems, with the MailMerge option
that inserts frequently used address
es into documents (S645 for both).
—LINDA WILLIAMS
ness solely as a money-making ven
ture. "If I can make enough to pay
my business expenses, go on a nice
vacation, and still maintain the fam
ily, 1 feel I've contributed a lot," she
explains. "I'm just glad 1 don't have
to support us on this."
She is not worried by the rumors
that some people arc coming to Bos
ton to take over the cover-letter busi
ness at all six area law schools. She
believes there will always be some
people who want the customized
work only a small shop will do. And
there arc other businesses she could
start with the computer, such as
mail-order advertising, fund raising,
and organizing people's files for
them.
Of course, the drawback in her
S5.000 system, which includes a
S2.800 NEC Spinwriter letter-quality
printer with tractor drive and two
standard disk drives, is that it is not
exactly a computer the whole family
can use. There is limited educational
software available for the 80-32 at
this time, although the Blackbums
do have a disk with such board
games as Othello and Monopoly,
and another disk called Teacher's
Pet, which has letter recognition,
counting, and arithmetic drills. The
Blackburns also have Space Invad
ers. But, Karen says, the kids don't
use it that much and never have.
"I don't really feel that the kids
have got to sit in front of a screen
playing Monopoly or something
when they could be sitting around
the table with friends," Karen says.
She would rather see her kids learn
how to use word-processing soft
ware, data-base-management pro
grams, and maybe try a little pro
gramming. She has volunteered to
host small groups of Wink's kinder
garten classmates to introduce them
to computers and word processing.
Slightly confused, one kindergar
tener called her floppy disks "disco
flops."
The personal computer has added
a new dimension of flexibility to
working at home. Karen Blackburn
says her business "may not end up
being very profitable, or it may end
up being killed by others getting
into the business." but it has still
given her the exposure to the com
puter and the desire to find other
business uses for it. Besides, she
says. "I find learning about the com
puter fun." And creative people can
always find new ways to use the
computer to have fun and turn a
profit as well. E