Top 10 Ways to Procrastinate Your Small Business Upgrade to Microsoft Office XP

Article Title: Top 10 Ways to Procrastinate Your Small Business Upgrade to Microsoft Office XP

Author: Joshua Feinberg

Web Site Address: http://www.smallbiztechtalk.com

Publisher of “Tips”: KISTech Communications – Morganville, N.J., USA

Word: 982 words

This article is also available online at http://www.smallbiztechtalk.com/news/archives/tips071601-ht1.htm

Keywords: Small Business Upgrade Microsoft Office XP Procrastination Techniques Windows XP how to put it off delay procrastinate

========================================= Top 10 Ways to Procrastinate Your Small Business Upgrade to Microsoft Office XP

Are you under upgrade pressure? Learn some "advanced" procrastination techniques.

By Joshua Feinberg, Editor of Smallbiztechtalk.com http://www.smallbiztechtalk.com

Are you getting "pressure" from your boss, employees, customers, or vendors to upgrade your small business to Microsoft Office XP?

While the unprecedented amount of anti-Microsoft sentiment going around may dim the rush to upgrade to Microsoft Office XP, there's always someone who feels that your small business has to have the "latest" and "greatest", although this last point is certainly debatable with Microsoft Office XP.

Tip: In case you missed it, check out our June 4th news analysis piece: Microsoft Office XP - Not Exactly Death and Taxes for Most Small Businesses at http://www.smallbiztechtalk.com/news/archives/tips060401-bn1.htm.

At any rate, Smallbiztechtalk.com wants you to be armed with a handy "Top 10 List" to help you procrastinate your small business upgrade to Microsoft Office XP as long as possible.

1. Stop reading this article --- now!

Go ahead and drop whatever you're doing, head down to your favorite watering hole, down a few brews, take in a few games, and put off worrying about the whole mess until tomorrow.

Then tomorrow morning, start over at step 1 - again!

2. Insist that your small business wait until all pending legal battles against Microsoft are resolved

This ought to "buy" you a few decades.

3. Spread fears of "profiling" paranoia

Microsoft "claims" it keeps no personal information about your PC when you activate Microsoft Office XP or Microsoft Windows XP.

Since Microsoft executives always tell the truth (especially in court-rooms under oath, right?), we have no reason to doubt them on this one -NOT!

I don't know about you, but I certainly don't want anyone building up a database on things like my PC's Registry or web browser cookies.

4. Use Windows Product Activation as your scapegoat

Tell the higher-ups at your small business that Microsoft Office XP requires an activated copy of Microsoft Windows XP.

Hey, it's a completely bogus excuse. But, it will buy you some time, until at least early November.

Microsoft keeps changing its mind on everything and anything that has the letters "XP" after it anyway.

And if you ask five different Microsoft product managers about the future of licensing, you'll likely get five different answers.

So, who knows? By then, maybe your little fable will be true!

Note: To learn about how Windows XP Product activation will impact your small business, be sure to see our article, Microsoft Windows XP - The eXPerience, or eXtra Painkillers Required - You Decide at http://www.smallbiztechtalk.com/news/archives/tips071601-bn1.htm.

5. Get more out of your current version of Microsoft Office

How many of you are really using more than 10-15% of the features in Microsoft Office 2000? Yeah, that's what we thought.

Smallbiztechtalk.com has loads of FREE resources to help you get more out of your existing software, especially Microsoft Office 2000.

New subscribers to our bi-weekly e-zine "Tips" get a FREE copy of Top 10 Ways to Get More Out of Microsoft Office.

To subscribe, visit http://www.smallbiztechtalk.com/tips/tips-home.htm.

Also, our bi-weekly Closing Tip-Lettes and Money-Saving Techniques columns are chock full of advice on getting more out of popular software applications, like Microsoft Office 2000.

For a complete list, visit our news archive page at http://www.smallbiztechtalk.com/news/news-main.htm

6. Buy new PCs with bundled Microsoft Office XP

This way you'll never have to purchase the Microsoft Office XP upgrade or get involved with installing the software.

Our July 16th installment of Money-Saving Techniques, Savvy Shopping Tips -- Get the Best Bona Fide Price on Your Purchase of Microsoft Office XP (http://www.smallbiztechtalk.com/news/archives/tips071601-ms1.htm) has the full scoop on this little-known way to save money on the purchase of Microsoft Office XP.

7. Sit around the campfire at the company picnic, roast marshmallows, and tell spooky tales about the Microsoft Office Activation Wizard

Hey did you ever hear the one about the LAN administrator who had to give a vial of blood and send a "specimen" each week, just so she could continue rebuilding crashed PC hard drive partitions containing Microsoft Office XP?!?

Tip: For some other less fictional accounts of Microsoft Office XP product activation, see David Coursey's Microsoft to me: We're turning off your Office (http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2779746,00.html). Or brace yourself for the "official" party line in Microsoft's related knowledge base article, About Office Activation and Reduced Functionality (KB: Q293151) at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q293/1/51.ASP

8. Ask someone relatively "clueless" to do the ordering

Unless the person in your small business who does your purchasing is really keeping up on software news, there's an excellent chance that person will mess up the order. You'll either end up with

"OK, it's all ordered, but it won't ship until after October 25th"(thereby confusing Microsoft Office XP with Microsoft Windows XP).

Microsoft Office 2000 will arrive because the person doing the ordering simply asked for Microsoft Office --- and an unscrupulous retailer was looking to unload the "old" stuff.

A book about Microsoft Office XP will arrive, because your internal purchasing person was shopping online, saw ambiguous product descriptions and figured that $39.99 U.S. was a much better deal for the Microsoft Office XP Professional Upgrade than $329 U.S.

Regardless of how the ordering is botched, you'll have one more way to stall the upgrade to Microsoft Office XP.

9. Send your "donation" to a real charity

If the money's really burning a hole in your small business' pocket, I have a better idea. Microsoft already has billions of cash sitting in the bank.

So instead of spending $329 U.S. to upgrade to Microsoft Office XP Professional, funnel your "donation" to your favorite charity. After all, that's what Bill and Melinda Gates do with their "spare change".

10. If all else fails, invoke the old classic excuse, "the dog ate my Microsoft Office XP CD-ROM"

Hey it worked in school. It's worth a shot!

The Bottom Line

Don't get pressured into upgrading your small business to Microsoft Office XP before you're ready.

Use this issue's "How To" Tips to organize your resistance and plan for some "advanced" procrastination techniques.

You have permission to reprint this article from "Tips" in your newspaper, magazine, trade publication, e-zine or web site as long as you use the article in its entirety, without editing and you include the following information:

AND

Joshua Feinberg is an internationally recognized small business technology expert, consultant, columnist, author, keynote speaker, and trainer. He is a published Microsoft Press author, as well as the creator of and two-year veteran writer of the Microsoft Direct Access "VAPVoice: Notes From the Field” column. Learn what your highly paid computer consultant doesn't want you to know! Subscribe to Joshua Feinberg’s FREE bi-weekly Smallbiztechtalk.com “Tips” e-zine at http://www.smallbiztechtalk.com and receive two FREE mini-reports by e-mail.

ALSO

Send us a copy of the publication where the article reprint has appeared. Any deviation from the above is a violation of U.S. Federal and International Copyright. ISSN# 1535-0428. =========================================

NOTE: The following advertising information must be included, in lieu of compensation, if you reprint this article:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Learn how to SAVE MONEY on your small business computer support costs! Subscribe to the FREE bi-weekly “Tips” e-zine at http://www.smallbiztechtalk.com/ AND get two FREE mini-reports by auto-responder *** Top 10 Ways to Get More Out of Microsoft Office *** *** How to Get a Handle on Your Company's Technology Assets *** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More Software Links

Home page

Information Index