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How many of you guys run your own business?

Cromulent

Cromulent

macrumors 604
Original poster
Oct 2, 2006
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The Land of Hope and Glory
I'm just about to launch my first ever commercial website when my designer has finished. How many of you run your own businesses?

I'm just wondering because the PC world seem to love the fact that the PC is meant to be essential for businesses. I'm interested to see how many Mac users run a business and what software they use.
 
I run my own company. It's just me, I am a freelancer for the corporate audio/visual world. I have my trusty MBP with me running Quickbooks for Mac, Office 2008, Photoshop CS, Amadaeus Pro for recordings. I'm sure there are more...

My Mac is essential to my business. I have Vista via Bootcamp but don't use it other than to do gaming.
 
jonbravo77 said:
I run my own company. It's just me, I am a freelancer for the corporate audio/visual world. I have my trusty MBP with me running Quickbooks for Mac, Office 2008, Photoshop CS, Amadaeus Pro for recordings. I'm sure there are more...

My Mac is essential to my business. I have Vista via Bootcamp but don't use it other than to do gaming.
Click to expand...

Good to hear it :). So far the essential business applications I use are iWork '08, Mail, iCal, Keychain, NeoOffice and Little Snitch. I'm still in need of some accounting software which is pretty hard to choose.

I'm getting pretty nervous about the whole thing now, 2 weeks or so till I go live and the legal requirements for an import / export business are weighing heavily on my mind.
 
I suppose I kind of run a small independent game studio, it's just me and a musician. I have Apple computers but the work side mostly takes part in XP.
 
Cromulent said:
Good to hear it :). So far the essential business applications I use are iWork '08, Mail, iCal, Keychain, NeoOffice and Little Snitch. I'm still in need of some accounting software which is pretty hard to choose.

I'm getting pretty nervous about the whole thing now, 2 weeks or so till I go live and the legal requirements for an import / export business are weighing heavily on my mind.
Click to expand...

Honestly, Quickbooks is probably your best bet and Intuit just released QB 2009 which is supposed to integrate way better with Mac OS and from the brief look has a simpler interface.
 
I have my own part time online media business (online marketing, web design, social media, consulting, etc). I work mostly for the entertainment and music industry, but have projects in other sectors as well.

I use my MacbookPro with an ACD to do most of my work, and it's proved invaluable. I could not do half the stuff I do efficiently without the strength of OS X and the great tools it works with. In terms of software, I use almost everyday and could not live without:

-Billings (great for invoicing, running reports, estimates, hourly timers, etc.)
-Microsoft Office & Google Docs
-Photoshop, Fireworks, Dreamweaver CS3
-VisualHub (for online video content)
-Cyberduck (free FTP)
-iCal, Mail of course

I also occasionally use Final Cut Express to cut together some videos for online use.
 
jonbravo77 said:
Honestly, Quickbooks is probably your best bet and Intuit just released QB 2009 which is supposed to integrate way better with Mac OS and from the brief look has a simpler interface.
Click to expand...

I did look into that but the edition that supports stock control costs £440 which I just don't have available for software right now.
 
I am currently running a business. Me and wife own some apartment complexes across the country along with a rather large hotel. Not really a business in the literal sense of say an e commerce site but it does take up some of our time and we do make money at it.

Currently I am using a couple of different tools to do business. Believe it or not a lot of my stuff takes place through my bank and email. I have a spread sheet and a database setup via excel and access which I run on the windows side of my Mac via vmware. All of accounts are setup through my bank and all of my appointments contacts etc are setup on my Mac via iCal and Address book. It is pretty simple really.

Other then that I don't use many Mac tools... I have a couple other little projects that I use my graphics software for ie photoshop, priemere, illustrator, and dreamweaver.
 
raggedjimmi said:
Retro styled PC games, but thanks to the resurgence of the genre my next game will likely be on XBLA, PSP, DS and such.
Click to expand...

Sounds pretty cool, I love me some retro games, do you just mainly sell online or some retail stores? Are they for both Mac and PC or just PC? I'd like to see a link if I could.
 
My husband and I have a modular/manufactured homes sales business.

My husband sells homes and manages the construction. We have a partner who runs the office and also sells homes. I keep the books, manage the web sites, and do the online correspondence and marketing.

I learned web site design using Frontpage, but I mostly just edit the code directly now that I have learned it. I have expression web that I use in Windows XP occasionally, I just like it better than dreamweaver. Most of the time I'm using Smultron.

I use Quicken Home and Small Business for my bookkeeping, and my accountant says I keep excellent records. I have to run this in Windows as well, as I have searched high and low for something that runs on OS X that works as well, but to no avail.

I use OpenOffice 3 for spreadsheets/documents. I have Office 2008 for the Mac and I hate it. I am extremely happy with OO.

I use Google Docs for spreadsheets/documents as well. I like the editors and it allows me to store information that the computer-illiterate guys can access easily without too much instruction from me.:eek:
 
I will be starting my company in a few weeks. I spent the past months designing the workflows, creating the website and finding partners.

I use a mac (BBEdit, Cyberduck, Pages) for everything + a linux server for my CRM (SugarCRM)
 
I'm going crazy with this business. There is so much legislation to deal with it is unbelievable. I've never had to fill in so many forms in my life.

Organisation really does seem to be the key to a successful business.
 
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