Welcome to the 4th Computer Guy’s Corner.  Here is where I collect a small handful of links to useful news, reviews, and blog postings that relate to small business news, productivity, tech gossip, troubleshooting tools, industry news, or any random stuff that I find helpful, and share it with you all.  Feel free to comment about any of the links and let me know your take!

Stay tuned after the links for an update on my first customer.

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When it rains, it pours!  This marks my second guest post in one week!  I didn’t intend to have two guest posts published so close together like this, but alas, that’s how the stars have aligned.  And I am not complaining!

The blog I contributed to this time is called BizBox, which is the the small business blog of the online daily web magazine, Slate. I came into contact with editorial producer Marc Tracy after they picked up on my article 7 Things To Look For In A Small Business Bank.  Mark has been wonderful to work with and really knows what he’s talking about when it comes to small business.

This time around, I’m writing specifically about this blog, Y.F.N.C.G., and how it’s been a valuable asset to my start-up success.   I also seem to really like writing posts about groups of “4″ things.  Guess I like even numbers…

Four Ways Blogging Has Helped Me Start My Business

Check it out and let me know what you think!

So how did hings turn out with my first official customer as a business owner?

If you’ll recall in my initial post on the subject, a customer was referred to me a bit before I was fully prepared to start taking on customers.  I decided to take the client, mostly for experience, but also to get a bit more money into my business account.  The lady wasn’t too specific about the problem (are they ever?), but I thought it sounded like a corrupt HD.  Turns out that it was.

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Head on over to the Small Business Trends website to check out guest post I wrote for them called 4 Overlooked Ways To Grow Your Service Business.

If you think the article would be helpful to others, please give it some social bookmarking love and pass it on to friends!

I’m honored to have the opportunity to write for such a wonderful website. Thanks to Anita Campbell and the team over at Small Business Trends for allowing me to contribute to their wonderful community!

Although I don’t think I’m really ready for it yet, I decided to take on my first customer as owner and operator of Jiffy-PC, my computer consulting company.  I say I don’t feel I’m ready for it because there are still a few things I wanted to get settled before taking on customers, like getting a separate phone line established and printing up some business cards.  But my girlfriend approached me with a referral and I couldn’t resist.

I have had numerous customers before this, but they have all been off-the-record jobs, or jobs for other companies. The person I meet tomorrow will be the first official customer that I take on as a business.  How does that differ from my customers before?  Not much.  The only difference, really, is that I will provide her with an invoice after my work is done.  That invoice will contain my company logo and if she pays by check, it will be made out to Jiffy-PC. Other than that, nothing much is different from before.

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I’ve been writing this blog for almost 6 months now.  It’s been more fun, and more work, than I ever imagined.  But it’s a passion of mine, and for those of you who know me, when I find a passion, I stick with it!  So I fully intend to keep posting here for the distant foreseeable future.

In these last 6 months, along with growing my blog and joining many wonderful communities online, I’ve also been slowly piecing together the framework of my business.  The going has been slow because, well, I have a lot of other things going on, and I’m in no rush.  I want to do things carefully and do them the right way so that when I finally decide to do this full time, I’ll be ready!  Plus, the discovering, theorizing, and postulating aspects of starting a business are fascinating to me!

But, I can’t be “starting a business” forever, so onward and upward I go. This post (well technically my last post,but who’s counting?) marks the begging of the next phase of my business, Trial and Error.

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Throughout my years in the IT industry I’ve held many positions and titles. Some are fairly accurate descriptions of what I was doing, and some were decidedly very un-acurate.  Now as I start my own business, I’m stuck with the task of giving myself a title.  As it turns out, it’s a little harder than I had anticipated.

Growing Up Geek

When I first fell in love with computers, I was in elementary school.  My parents got a big hunky IBM clone (I don’t remember the brand) complete with two fancy 5 1/4 inch floppy drives.  I loved to play around and find ways to break or confuse the programs.  This started a long love affair with breaking and fixing computers.  At that point, and all through school, I was a true computer geek.  I used computers for the sheer novelty of it.

Flash forward to my time serving in the US Army.   I wanted to flex my computing prowess and volunteered for various computer-centric tasks like creating databases and such.  I then got the opportunity to help network a new office from the ground up.  After that, I was officially appointed the unit’s assistant IMO (Information Management Officer), and was tasked with helping people in the unit with various computer issues.

I loved that job, and found I really had a knack for troubleshooting.  So, after I got out of the army, I took a job as an intern at the Help Desk of a pharmaceutical company.  Within 4 years time I was hired on full time, promoted to a Level 2 Analyst, and promoted again to my current position in the computer industry, Enterprise Systems Analyst.

Every time I was presented with a new position and name (Geek, Assistant IMO, Helpdesk Intern, Helpdesk Analyst, Systems Analyst) I was basically doing the same thing, fixing computer problems.

What’s in a Name?

When I had the idea to start my own computer business, it never occurred to me that I would need to define my job title. In fact, it wasn’t until I started writing this blog that I realized I needed to figure out what to call myself.   So I came up with a list of names that I’m considering using to refer to my position as an independent computer guy, along with how I feel about each one:

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Well it’s that time of year again.  Time to take stock of what’s been accomplished this year and plan for the next big thing.

This has been an exciting year for me.  I officially started my own business and began blogging about my experiences.  These were two big milestones in my life and I’m glad I was able to share them with you all and the world.

I thought I’d let you all in on what I have planned for next year and then ask for your input as to what you’d like to see here at Y.F.N.C.G. in the future.

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We’re in a recession right?  That’s what all the talking heads on TV keep telling me. That’s what the little squiggly red line that’s dipping down to the lowest point in decades seems to suggest.

But there’s a different story being told by the folks in the trenches.  These folks are chanting the battle cry of the small business owner.  They’re singing the song of the blogger using creativity to earn money from multiple income streams.  They’re the mom and pop shop down the street putting their customers first, laughing at the fat cat corporations that are falling apart at the seams because of greed.

Take a look at the following blog posts that I have come across over the last couple weeks.  They all suggest that this is one of the best times to start or grow a business.  Coincidence?  Maybe.  But I think these bloggers are all riding the common wave of optimism that appears to be growing in the small business community, even as the world feels the pressure of some intangible economic deficit.

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I’m a computer guy, but I’m also a bit of a movie buff.  So I decided I’d have some fun here as the year draws to a close and sum up the best movies of the year that computer geeks like myself can enjoy and appreciate.

Admittedly, 2008 was a pretty horrible year for computer tech-friendly movies. Maybe it’s because  technology is now such an integral part of our culture that it’s become boring. Or maybe all the most compelling tech related stories out there have already been told. Whatever the case, it took some thinking for me to come up with this list.

Though not all of them are true computer geek movies, I based my selections on films that deal heavily with computers, gadgets, hacking, or technology either by the characters or in the story itself.

Without further delay, here are my top 5 movies from 2008 that all computer geeks should see:

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