Notes
Notes
Writing about the technology side of running a small business, from someone who spent fourteen years doing it for other people and now does it between coffee orders.
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6 min read
What to ask an IT provider before you sign anything
I spent fourteen years hiring and firing them. The questions that actually matter are not the ones on the sales call.
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6 min read
Your guests are on the same network as your till
One flat network for the till, the NAS and the bloke uploading wedding photos. The fix is a checkbox most people have switched the wrong way, plus twenty minutes.
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6 min read
The surcharge maths, and what stops on 1 October
You may only pass on what card acceptance actually costs you — and from 1 October the card networks stop letting you pass on anything at all.
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6 min read
Choosing a till that works when the NBN does not
Offline mode, how fast a new casual learns it, and whether it talks to Xero. What I check now, having chosen badly once.
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6 min read
Your café does not need an app
A rep tries to sell me one twice a year. Here’s what an app actually costs to build and keep running, and what customers asked for instead.
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7 min read
The booking system you should not build
I run studio hire, so I take bookings for a living. Here is why you should buy your booking system, when building is actually defensible, and the fifty-dollar deposit that fixed my no-shows.
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6 min read
The forty-five minute backup
Fourteen years in IT taught me that a green tick every morning proves nothing. Here is a backup a small shop can build in an afternoon, and the fifteen minutes that prove it works.
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6 min read
Before you sign a three-year term
The cost of a merchant or technology contract is rarely in the number the salesperson circles. It is in the four clauses underneath it.