The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, in their December Business Barometer, provides results of their December 2008 survey on SME business expectations and concludes;

Signs of an economic slowdown are present virtually everywhere in the economy. Although a few SME business owners are still seeing positive performance in their businesses, their numbers are not great enough to generate economic traction.
The sector, nonetheless as a group, represents perhaps the most stable part of the economy. What they don’t have in raw strength, they make up for in nimbleness, to seek out the new opportunities that will inevitably emerge. Experience from previous recessions shows that the micro-business sector generally continues to add jobs, even as large corporations shed employees. Canada’s entrepreneurial strength saved our economy from recession in 2000-01 when the tech bubble burst in the US. With time and with good fiscal management by governments to allow markets to work effectively, one can expect the SME sector play a major role to pull the economy out of its current state.

Read the full report here and an overview by the Financial Post here.

Foreverwarm Consulting provides peace of mind to Small Businesses through proactive computer and network support.
Call our mobile support at 604-715-5107

How to perform a Computer Spring Cleaning

Ahhh.. spring!
The sun comes out and you get the urge to clean up and clean out your home - What about your computers?
Here’s 5 easy steps you can do to perform a computer spring cleaning:

1. Run a Virus Scan

No point backing up stuff that is corrupted. Begin by scanning your computer C: drive completely. Foreverwarm Consulting uses and recommends ZoneAlarm, but whatever you are using, run a full virus scan now. This will take some time but it has to be done. (don’t have time? we can help)

2. Perform a Backup

Yes backup! Did you know that your hard disk in your computer is rated by how many hours you get before failure? When was the last time you performed a complete backup of your computer? My Golden Rule of computer data is “Never store data in only one place”. If you can’t remember the last time you backed up - it’s time!

• Got an external USB drive? If not, get one (Future Shop has them, we last bought a TrekStor) and create a folder called Backup.
• Then copy EVERYTHING under My Documents to it - everything!
• Next backup your email.
  • If you are using Microsoft Outlook then the easiest thing is to go to the Folder view and click at the very top
  • Select File, Import Export, and Export to a .pst file
  • Save that file on your external USB drive under the Backup folder

3. Cleanup your computer disk

Ok, now that you know your data is safe, let’s get rid of all that stuff collecting dust. There’s three main places.

• C:\Windows\Temp - these are files that have accumulated from software installs, virus checks, etc. You don’t need them - delete them. Now you might get an error on one or two saying they are in use. No problem, just delete the rest.
• C:\Windows\Prefetch - these are files that windows loads when you start up - see how many there are!! Many of them might be due to software you tried and little bits and pieces of stuff - delete them all. Don’t worry, if Windows needs them it will recreate them back in this folder.
• My Documents - now is the time to review the old documents, photos, music, whatever in your files. You don’t need to worry because you followed Step1 and backed up (right?), so if you inadvertantly delete something you need you can still retrieve it from your backup. Be daring and brutal here and clean back as much as you can.

4. Run a Check Disk

Now that your disk is cleaner and has more space, let’s prepare for a defragementation by doing a Check Disk. Check Disk goes through and checks file consistancy and disk integrity. Here’s what you do:

• Open up My Computer
• Right-click on your C: drive
• Select Properties
• Select the Tools tab
• Select Check Now
• Select Automatically fix file system errors

When you click OK, you will get a message saying Windows needs exclusive access and do you want to schedule this for next time you restart the computer. Click Yes and go ahead and reboot your computer now.
When Windows restarts you will see a blue screen and it will go through the disk check process. If you get strange errors during this process then you may have a disk that is starting to wear out - we can help here. If not then let’s go on to the last step.

5. Defragment your drive

All non-essential files are gone and your disk is clean. Now we optimize it. Depending on your computer system this could take some time, sometimes as long as 30-40 minutes, so this is a great item to do at the end of the day or during the lunch hour.

• Open up My Computer
• Right-click on your C: drive
• Select Properties
• Select the Tools tab
• Select Defragement Now
• Make sure your C: drive is selected at the top and click Defragment

The goal here is to get rid of all the red, and have everything blue.

You’re Computer Spring Cleaning is done!

Now, write in your calendar to do this again in 3-6 months or on some regular schedule.

Did anything go strangely or did you get errors? These are fundamental clean up steps so don’t put off finding a resolution. Call us if you have questions. You don’t want to lose all your stuff when a hard drive goes.

Need Help? Foreverwarm Consulting can do the grunt work for you. These steps are all part of our Proactive Service Offering.

Foreverwarm Consulting Inc
Computer Support for Kitsilano and beyond
Call: 604-715-5107