Business Tip Archives - CreativeTechs

June 6, 2020

How to Ask for Tech Support So You Get Good Answers Quickly

Need help with something? On occasion, we all need tech support. Speaking as the people who are sometimes on the other end of those requests for help, we have some suggestions on how to get the support you need as quickly as possible.

For instance, think about what we have to do if we receive an email message along the lines of “I keep getting a note that my backups aren’t working.” All we can tell from that message is that something may be wrong with the user’s backups. But without knowing what app they’re using and what the specific error is, we can’t even begin to recommend a solution. We’ll have to go back and forth to figure out what we need to learn to address the problem. By the end of the (possibly lengthy) process, the user and we may be quite frustrated.

So here’s a simple set of steps you can use to get to the heart of a troubleshooting problem whenever you’re communicating with tech support.

Describe your setup as it relates to the problem. Whenever possible, be specific about what apps you’re using and include screenshots or videos. In our example above, this might involve saying, “I back up with Time Machine to an external hard drive. It has been working fine, but now I’m getting this error.” (Obviously, if you’re talking on the phone, it might not be possible to share a screenshot, but you can read it to the support rep.)
Next, explain how you’ve tried to resolve the problem so tech support doesn’t automatically tell you to repeat the same actions. (They may anyway, just to confirm that you did everything properly, but it’s still a help.) You might say, “I clicked OK and let Time Machine try again, but I got the error on the next backup too. Then I launched Disk Utility, selected my Time Machine drive, and clicked First Aid.”
Finally, explain what happened (or failed to happen) when you took the actions in the previous step. For instance, “First Aid also reported an error.”
At this point, you may need to repeat Step 2 and 3 for each thing you tried, but you’ve given the support person enough for them to start recommending other courses of action. (In this case, we’d have you erase the drive using Disk Utility and see if that eliminated the error. Even if it did, we’d recommend that you get a new backup drive since you don’t want to depend on a potentially flaky drive for important backup data.)

The steps are a little different if you’re trying and failing to figure out how to accomplish some task. Try this script:

I want to _____. State what you’re trying to achieve, and as before, make sure to say what apps you’re using. For instance, “I’m using Preview to read a PDF, and I want to print it with four pages per sheet of paper to avoid wasting hundreds of pieces of paper.”
I tried ____. As before, explain what you’ve already attempted, as in: “In Preview’s Print dialog, I tried choosing 4 from the Copies Per Page menu.”
What happened was _____. Finally, explain what happened after what you tried, and why it was wrong. “That caused me to get four copies of the same page in the preview, rather than four different pages.”
Again, you may need to repeat Steps 2 and 3 for everything you tried, but in this case, we have all we need to explain that you need to click the Preview menu in the middle of the Print dialog, choose Layout, and then choose 4 from the Pages Per Sheet menu.

One last thing. It’s always important to explain your overall goal, rather than just ask a specific question. In the example above, for instance, saying that your goal was to reduce paper usage was helpful because we could then suggest that you select the Two-Sided checkbox near the top to print on both sides of the paper, cutting your paper usage in half.

So next time you need to contact tech support, make sure to use these tips, and you’ll likely get better support and a faster resolution to your problem.

(Featured image by Christina Morillo from Pexels)

Social Media: Do you have frustrating interactions with tech support? Follow our advice on how to talk to a support rep to get better support and a faster resolution to your problem.

Kyle Pauley

June 6, 2020

Forrester Research and IBM Studies Show Macs Are Cheaper than PCs

It’s taken as gospel that Macs are more expensive than PCs. A quick look at the Dell Web site reveals laptops for as low as $300. Sure, we can say that the configurations aren’t comparable, that macOS is better than Windows, or that Apple’s hardware quality is superior. Still, our friendly local bean counters have trouble getting past those low upfront prices.

However, unless you’re Rancho Gordo, the goal isn’t to count beans, it’s to get work done, and that’s a different scenario. Let’s look at a few ways that Macs are not just worth the money but can also be cheaper than comparable systems. We’ll start with a Forrester Research study commissioned by Apple that compared the total economic impact of Macs and PCs in large companies with employee-choice programs. In such programs, every employee gets to choose between a Mac and a PC, providing a sizable group across which to compare numbers, but the conclusions apply to large and small organizations alike.

Deeper Cost Analysis

Although the Forrester Research study found that the upfront acquisition cost of Macs was indeed $500 higher than comparable PCs, when additional factors were taken into account, Macs ended up costing about $50 less.

That’s in part because Macs have a higher residual value after 3 years, meaning that you can resell a 3-year-old Mac for more than a 3-year-old PC. Pay more up front, but get more back later on.

Macs also don’t need operating system licenses, and the Mac’s better security eliminates the need for additional licenses for security software.

Reduced IT Support Costs

It has long been thought that Macs required less support than PCs, but only in the past few years have there been organizations with enough Macs and PCs to compare. At IBM, one of the largest Apple-using companies with 290,000 Apple devices, a 2016 study found that the company was saving up to $543 per Mac compared to PCs over a 4-year lifespan. Forrester Research came up with an even higher number, showing that Macs cost $628 less over a 3-year lifespan.

What accounts for these reduced support costs? It takes less time to set up a new Mac, Macs are easier to manage, Macs users open fewer service tickets, and many fewer IT staff are needed. All that adds up to paying for fewer support resources. In another 2018 study, IBM found that it needed just 7 support engineers per 200,000 Macs, compared to 20 support engineers per 200,000 Windows machines.

Improved Employee Productivity and Engagement

Beyond reduced support costs, Mac users turn out to be more productive, more engaged, and more likely to stay with the company than PC users. Forrester Research found that over 3 years, Mac-using employees posted 48 hours more productivity (in part due to reduced downtime). That’s likely thousands of dollars more benefit to the company, per employee.

Even still, it can be hard to quantify that benefit, which is why Forrester Research compared users in sales positions. In its study, Forrester found that Mac-using employees showed a 5% increase in sales performance. That’s nothing compared to IBM, which found that its Mac-based salespeople closed deals worth 16% more than their Windows-using counterparts.

Finally, both Forrester Research and IBM discovered that Mac users were less likely to leave the company—20% less likely in Forrester’s study and 17% less likely in IBM’s research. That’s not just an indication of loyalty. There are significant costs to replacing employees who leave, so the higher the retention rate, the better it is for the bottom line.

Improved Overall Security

Few would argue with the belief that Macs are more secure than PCs. In Forrester’s research, the interviewed organizations said that the Mac has a fundamentally more secure architecture than Windows. In today’s world, criminals employ malware to steal information. Data breaches are costly, with a 2019 study by IBM Security and the Ponemon Institute pegging the average cost of a data breach at $3.9 million. The amounts vary by industry and the size of the breach, of course, but the average cost per data record was nearly $150.

Security breaches can have other costs as well. With a compromised account, attackers have often been able to pose as executives and get accounting departments to wire money to offshore accounts. Plus, when news of a data breach hits, it can result in the loss of customers. In the IBM Security study, healthcare companies suffered from a 7% customer turnover after a breach.

So yes, Macs do have higher upfront costs than PCs. But savvy managers know to look past such simplistic comparisons to the bigger picture, where equipping employees with Macs both saves far more than the difference in cost between a Mac and a PC and enables employees to produce more for the organization.

(Featured image by freestocks on Unsplash)

Social Media: Research shows that Macs are cheaper than PCs! Not upfront, but when you look at the Mac’s reduced need for software licenses, higher residual value, lower support costs, and better security, the numbers show the Mac coming out ahead. Details at:

Tim Pearson

May 28, 2020

May 11, 2020

Ever Wondered Which Words to Capitalize in a Title? Use Capitalize My Title!

When you’re writing a blog post or email newsletter, you’ll eventually hit the question of how to capitalize words in a title. There is no one right way, but just as with poor spelling and grammar, randomly capitalized titles can reduce reader trust in your knowledge, competence, and expertise. The trick is to pick a capitalization form and style guide to follow. There are two capitalization forms: title case (where important words are capitalized) and sentence case (which is capitalized like a normal sentence). Then there are a handful of major style guides, including the Associated Press Stylebook, The Chicago Manual of Style, and The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. It’s never a bad idea to pick one and learn its rules, but for a quick shortcut, turn to the Capitalize My Title Web site. Click a style guide tab at the top, select a capitalization form, and paste or type your title. The site automatically applies the appropriate rules to your title. Press Return to copy it to the clipboard for pasting into your document.

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

Tim Pearson

May 11, 2020

Preparing Your Organization for a Possible COVID-19 Quarantine

As of this writing, the respiratory disease COVID-19 has caused nearly 3000 deaths and infected over 80,000 people worldwide. There are relatively few cases in North America currently, but that could increase significantly. For high-quality information about COVID-19, turn to the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For now, the Centers for Disease Control are recommending sensible precautions. They include regular hand washing or using alcohol-based hand sanitizer, covering coughs and sneezes (with your elbow), and staying home and avoiding public spaces if you’re feeling unwell. (These are smart things to do during flu season anyway, given that 10,000 people in the US have died of influenza already this season.)

What if local health officials were to declare a quarantine? Without lapsing into doomsday scenarios, it is always reasonable to make sure that you are personally ready for a natural disaster or other emergency. The Prepared has a detailed guide to help you prepare for a COVID-19 scare or quarantine.

We want to focus on how organizations—either those you run or work for—might prepare for a public health scare or possible quarantine, particularly in the context of your technology use. Here are our thoughts, and contact us if you want help with your preparedness plans.

Infection Prevention

If your organization has numerous employees or serves the public, put some thought into how you can reduce the chance of infection. That might include providing hand sanitizer dispensers, wiping down frequently touched surfaces with household cleaners, and a more frequent cleaning schedule for restrooms.

For an Apple-specific tip, try using or encouraging the use of Apple Pay to reduce the need to touch credit card terminals!

Also, it’s best to avoid shaking hands with customers and colleagues. Perhaps the Japanese custom of bowing will gain traction elsewhere in the world.

Internal Communications

In the event that public health officials discourage people from gathering, think about how your company will communicate internally with people working from home. Many organizations allow such flexibility now anyway, so it’s likely that yours has at least informal communication channels via phone and email, and chat systems like Slack.

Consider formalizing those channels if need be, and if your directory service doesn’t already contain this information, publish a list of phone numbers and email addresses so everyone can contact co-workers easily. If your organization relies on IP telephony, make sure everyone understands how to use softphones or can configure an office phone at home. If you have a switchboard, investigate how it can be operated remotely.

If your organization’s email system is usually available only from computers owned by the organization, make sure webmail access is enabled and that everyone understands how to access it. Similarly, it’s worth making sure everyone has email access from their phones.

Chat systems like Slack or Microsoft Teams can be effective ways for far-flung groups to communicate because they provide real-time communication segregated into topic- or group-specific channels. If you’re not already using such a system and would like to investigate adding it to your communications strategy, contact us for advice.

Remote Access to Organizational Services

For connectivity to office-based file servers and other systems, make sure everyone has access to your VPN and knows how to use it. (Don’t have a VPN, or virtual private network? Again, call us—a VPN is an essential way to provide remote access while ensuring security.)

Are there any specialized servers or services, such as an accounting system, that have security safeguards related to specific access points? Think about what additional access may need to be provided for an employee working from home.

Physical Environment

If most or all employees are working from home, what does that mean for your office? Do physical security systems or climate settings need to be adjusted? Do you want to set up video cameras or other remote monitoring hardware? Who’s going to water the plants? On a more serious note, if you have on-premises servers, make sure they can be administered entirely remotely, including power cycling.

It’s also worth determining who will have responsibility for the office in the event of problems, which could still occur even if no one is there. What if a water pipe in the building breaks, or there’s a burglary? Make sure it’s clear who will respond.

Business Functions

Think about the regularly scheduled aspects of running the business, with an eye toward those that might assume the presence of certain people. Can they run payroll, accounts receivable, and accounts payable remotely? Make sure that every key position has at least one backup, so if one person falls ill, the organization’s ability to function won’t be compromised.

If international travel is a significant part of your organization’s mission, you’re already figuring out how to compensate through videoconferencing and similar technologies. But if you regularly travel only within the country or your area, think about which trips are essential and which can be replaced using online conferencing tools.

Finally, consider how your clients and customers will react to the situation. It’s unfortunately likely that there will be less work taking place, so you may see decreased revenues, but certain organizations may see an increased workload. For instance, if the number of patients in hospitals skyrockets, those who support healthcare systems may struggle under the load alongside the doctors and nurses.

We certainly hope that all these preparations prove unnecessary, but they’re worthwhile regardless. Too many businesses have failed after a fire, hurricane, or earthquake renders an office uninhabitable, and such natural disasters are all too common. As the Boy Scout motto says, “Be prepared.”

(Featured image based on an original by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)

Social Media: How would your organization react to a COVID-19 scare or quarantine? Here’s how you can use technology to respond to such an event.

Tim Pearson

March 2, 2020

A note to other business owners….

We don’t spend a lot of time talking here about how the CreativeTechs team is not only the amazing, fantastic support team that you look to for support. We are also the experts that other experts in our field turn to for help and advice. To that end, Tim has been co-hosting a podcast for other Apple Consultants. Until now, none of these podcasts would be interesting to anyone that isn’t an Apple Consultant. But this one is special.

Being a business owner isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. It can be really hard. Not only do you worry about your business, your clients, your partners, and your employees. You worry about their families. And their happiness. Their work-life balance. Their success. Their security. Their productivity.
At the end of the day, all that “stuff” has a tendency to really drag you down. Don’t let it. In this episode of Aces Conference: The Podcast, Justin Esgar and I try to talk a bit about mental health for entrepreneurs.
We don’t have the answers, but we can start a discussion. And remember, you have a community and your community cares about you. If you are struggling, reach out for help. We’re all here for you. And if you ever find yourself in crisis, please don’t hesitate to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255
You can listen to the episode here.

Tim Pearson

February 24, 2020

August 3, 2018

Find Wasted Space with Storage Management

Between photos, videos, music, and downloads, it’s easy to fill up your Mac’s drive, particularly if it has fast but small flash storage. A MacBook Air might have only 128 GB of drive space, and that goes quickly. Numerous utilities exist to help you find and delete unnecessary files, like GrandPerspective, OmniDiskSweeper, and WhatSize, but as of macOS 10.12 Sierra, Apple provides a built-in tool to clean house: the Storage Management window.

Storage Management is hidden inside the System Information app and is most easily accessed by choosing  > About This Mac, clicking the Storage button, and then clicking Manage…but wait! Before you click Manage, look at the About This Mac window’s Storage view.
storage-management-about-this-mac

Hover over each colored bar to see how much space is taken up by a particular type of data. The white space at the end of the bar is what’s still available. You can’t do much here, but the view gives you a quick overview of your drive usage.
When you click Manage, System Information launches, and the Storage Management window appears. (You can also open System Information manually and choose Window > Storage Management.) In the sidebar at the left, ignore Recommendations and look at the rest of the categories. They will vary a bit between Macs, depending on what apps you use, but they correspond to the colored bars you saw in the About This Mac window’s Storage view.

For some, mostly app-specific categories, like Mail and Photos, Storage Management merely tells you how much space the app’s data occupies and lets you either enable space optimization (downloading only recent attachments for Mail, and keeping only optimized photos on the Mac) or if that has been done already, open the app. To save more space, you must delete unnecessary data from within the app itself.

More interesting are the Applications, Documents, and iOS Files categories, all of which may contain gigabytes of unnecessary data. iOS Files, for instance, shows any device backups and software updates that are stored on your Mac’s drive. It’s worth keeping the latest backup of devices you still use, but many people have older backups and unnecessary updates kicking around.

The Applications category shown above lists your apps and is sorted by size by default. But try clicking the column header for Kind and scrolling down. You can probably delete most apps tagged as Duplicates or Older Versions. Similarly, click the Last Accessed column header to see which apps you haven’t launched in years. Many of them can probably go too. Plus, you can redownload anything tagged as coming from the App Store, so you can toss those apps if you want.

In Documents, you’ll see three buttons: Large Files, Downloads, and File Browser. Large Files focuses on files over 50 MB in size, Downloads shows you the contents of your Downloads folder (much of which you likely don’t need), and File Browser gives you a column view that’s sorted by file size and shows sizes next to each item. It’s great for trawling through your drive to find see what’s consuming all that space.
storage-management-documents

In any of these views other than File Browser, hover over any item and you see an X button for deleting the file and a magnifying glass button that reveals the file in the Finder. To delete multiple files at once, just Command-click or Shift-click to select them and then press the Delete key to remove them all at once. Storage Management gives you the combined size of all the selected files and warns you before deleting the files, so you can use this technique to preview how much space a multi-file deletion will save. In File Browser, select one or more files and either drag them to the Trash icon in the Dock, or press Command-Delete.

If your Mac’s drive is filling up—if it has less than 10 percent free space—consider using the Storage Management window’s tools to search out and delete files that are just wasting space.

Tim Pearson

August 3, 2018

tip-phone-calls-from-calendar-events-1-576x1024

June 19, 2017

Dial Phone Calls Directly from iOS Calendar Events

Lets make life easier on the go…

Imagine that you’re adding a calendar event for a meeting with a contractor, and you want to make it easy to call them if you are running late. Or perhaps you want to embed conference call details into an event.
Simply enter a phone number into an event’s Location or Notes field in the Calendar app. Then, whenever you’re viewing the event later on your iPhone, you can tap the number to dial it directly. To add a meeting code to a conference call number, append a semicolon, the meeting code, and the pound symbol—after the iPhone dials the phone number, you can press a button to dial the code at the right moment. The whole thing would look like 518-555-0101;123456#.
For a more automated but potentially error-prone approach, replace the semicolon with one or more commas, each of which causes the iPhone to pause for 2 seconds before dialing the rest of the numbers.
Finally, if you suffer from way too many conference calls, the MeetingMogul app can make dialing in even easier.

Tim Pearson

June 19, 2017

WannaCry thoughts for Mac Users.

Its a mess, but we have some advice, some actions to take, and have compiled places you can go for more info.

By now you have seen the news, probably had people ask you if you were hit, and wondering if you needed to be freaking out! (Hint: If you are a Mac user, you are mostly safe at the moment- we’ll explain mostly later)

What is/was WannaCry?
WannaCry was a large cyber-attack affecting more than 250,000 computers in 50 countries. Like past ransomware, the assault started spreads by phishing email messages. Typically, a user will click a link in a bogus email and accidentally download the Malware onto their system. Where WannaCry was more vicious than previous RansomWare attacks is that once it has infected a PC on a network it can spread like a worm to other non-patched computers. It was built by utilizing the Eternal Blue abuse created by the National Security Agency. (Read about some Lessons we can learn from WannaCry from the Washington Post.)
Mac users dodged a real bullet on this one, as the WannaCry RansomWare attack only effected Windows computers, but now is the perfect time to make sure to double check and be sure you are prepared for future attacks as it is clear that RansomWare is here to stay.

A couple really important things to keep in mind.

Be smart. Be thoughtful.
Make sure you, your employees, friends and family are smart as well.

Beware of phishing attempts. Know the sender of any email you open. Validate the sender. Did you know you can hover over the sender in your mail app to verify the address it came from, if it doesn’t look right, it isn’t.
Your… Bank, Church, School, Store, Tech Support Guy, Apple… won’t or shouldn’t be asking you for sensitive info in an email.Don’t click the link unless you absolutely 100% know its legit. Go directly to their website to change any info, and never do it from a link in an email. Again you can hover over links in emails to verify the validity of the link. -> Pay attention to the last part of the address before the .com if it isn’t what you expect don’t click!
Make sure you have the latest security updates installed and up-to-date. (We have a service that can/will do that for you if you are interested)
Back Up Your Data! Religiously. And to the cloud also. Your data doesn’t exist unless it is in 3 places, period. (We have a service that can/will do that for you if you are interested)
Running windows on your Mac? Be sure to run your Windows updates. Monthly, without fail.
Use unique and complicated passwords and use a password manager. Our favorite is 1Password, but others are good too. At a minimum, leverage Apple’s built in Keychain.

Want some more reading?

Take a gander at the volumes of password and security advice from our blog. (CreativeTechs.com)
How a 22 year-old stumbled on the kill switch. But it only slowed it, and the next wave is just starting. (Cnet.com)
Windows users: Heres the links to the Microsoft Patches for effected machines. (Microsoft.com)

Be safe out there and call or email us if you have questions or need help,

The Creativetechs Team

Tim Pearson

May 17, 2017

Heartbleed and you

Heartbleed: What does it mean to you.

These are scary times, but we have some advice, and have compiled places below where you can go for more info.

By now you have seen the news, probably had people ask you if you were changing all your passwords, and are wondering if you should be freaking out.

We try to keep people from freaking out, but we do think you should changes some passwords, and in general follow some of our password advice.

There are a couple of really important things to keep in mind.

While the Heartbleed vulnerability has gone undetected for a very long time, there are no known exploits or data losses. However, by the nature of the exploit, it is impossible to tell so its good be careful and vigilant.
Changing your password on unpatched servers does not make you safe. Its important to wait until a server has been patched before you change your password.
If you get a legit message from a service that you use asking you to change your password, please heed their advice. But also, beware of phishing scams. Bad people are out there and they will try to exploit your confusion. Be sure you are making changes on the legit site and not being scammed.

Below is a quick list of common services many of our clients use that have been patched that require password changes. If you use these services, go now and change your password. And, if you us that same login and password someplace else, you need to change your password there as well for safety.

Dropbox
Google Apps
Facebook
Instagram
Pintrest
Yahoo/Yahoo Mail
Rackspace Mail
Media Temple
GoDaddy
GitHub

Creativetechs Password Advice

Use a Password Manager (Keychain, 1Password, etc.)
Use different passwords everywhere. Yes this is difficult, but that is why we recommend a password manager.
Use complicated passwords. There is a ton of advice about how to create a complex password. (See links below) Just know that the longer the better, mix in Upper/lower case, add in some numbers or other characters.

Some useful links.

Heartbleed checker. Drop a url in here and see if the site you are visiting is safe.

The Heartbleed Hit List. Passwords you need to change right now.

Heartbleed explained in a video.

Tim Pearson

April 17, 2014

Problems with MailChimp Interest Groups.

This is an open letter to the MailChimp team:

Let me start off by saying that I LOVE the MailChimp service for handling email newsletters. We’ve been MailChimp clients for over years, and MailChimp has been my product of choice for most of the email marketing classes I’ve led over the years.

But the Interest Groups feature in MailChimp is broken. I’m hoping that by demonstrating our problems with the current Interest Groups implementation, those issues will be addressed, and I’ll be able to continue using MailChimp for many years to come. As it stands today, I’m seriously considering moving to another service for our training classes. And I’d really prefer to stay with MailChimp.

Tim Pearson

February 4, 2010

Need Help?

How to Ask for Tech Support So You Get Good Answers Quickly