Today, I’m going to go through the thought process that a financial blogger such as myself would go through to make a business purchase.
Understand that I’ve been considering this business purchase for a long time, at least since last year. So you are probably wondering what has been holding me back? The financial considerations involving such an expensive purchase…
When I initially started looking for the type of laptop that I wanted, they were running at a cost of around $700. Since my blog is small and for the first five months I only made about five dollars, I couldn’t justify spending that much money for what was basically a borderline business, but more of a hobby.
So what has changed?
First, the Apple iPad and other tablets have come on the scene and made me rethink whether I wanted a laptop or a tablet. After playing with my son’s Apple iPod Touch and my dad’s IPad 2, I’ve come to the conclusion that they are both awesome products but for me, the larger screen of the laptop just fulfills my blogging needs better. I especially like the larger screen when I’m working on graphics for my blog. Needless to say, the apple products were very tempting and it wasn’t an easy decision.
Second, the price of the laptops that I was looking at dropped by more than half the original cost! The particular type of laptop that I wanted now costs $300! That makes a four gigabyte laptop with a 320 Gig drive cost as much as my son’s iPod Touch… As awesome as the iPod Touch is, the pure horsepower and larger screen make the laptop an obvious choice. Still, I think an iPod Touch or iPad would have been very useful and functional… perhaps next year.
Third, my blog is finally making a little bit of money. Not enough money to quit my day job, but enough to afford better tools for working on the blog. I plan on pouring some of the money from my blog back into the blog itself. This purchase will enable me to blog from many more places than I previously could. Now I’m able to be more mobile with the longer battery life of my new laptop. Previously, I was occasionally using the laptop from work but this feels more right, and the longer battery life and greater processing power will enable me to do far greater things with it than the older laptop I was using.
All told, it still took me longer than 1 year to make this purchase. In fact, had I not see this bargain on one of the bargain sites (techbargains.com), I wouldn’t have made the purchase.
Even after the salesperson brought out the laptop and handed it to me, I had to walk around for about 30 minutes before going up to the cashier for the purchase.
Thanks for letting me share my largest business purchase with you!
MR
I am sure you will put your laptop to good use. I have gotten a lot of work done at Panera with the free wi-fi while waiting for kids to get done with practice.
Yeah, I would like to use it more in fun places like that (and maybe starbucks too).
Congrats on the purchase! Tablets are cool, but for me, they are still kind of like toys. I can definitely see where they’d be useful, but you can do all the same stuff with a laptop, and the laptop does a lot more besides.
Besides, for blogging/writing I think a real keyboard is a win 😉
Since the laptop comes with 4 G RAM (and expandable to 8 G) I’m thinking of installing virtual server software and creating a dev environment for my blog.
Congrats on the purchase. Better tools to make your blog even more successful? No brainer, plus 50% off! iPad is nice, but I agree with IIW, you need the real keyboard. Continued success!
Yeah, the iPad is very slick and has it’s purpose, but I think I’ll get more bang for my buck with this laptop.
Tablets fill a need between a laptop and desk top. Personally, I prefer my desktop, but I like the mobility of a laptop. Good choice!
the convenience of iPads (and iPhone, and iPod Touch) is that you can quickly look at your schedule and email. Brilliant device, but my laptop is 10 times more powerful from a horse power and graphics processing tool.
Congras MR! Tablets are awesome for tasks that require minimum typing, but for serious blogging I prefer my notebook.
Good choice.
I’m surprised that I do more work with my laptop than my desktop computer. Even with the smaller screen…
I’m very partial to my iPad, mainly because it gets 10 hours of battery life when my last laptop got 5 at the most. I have a Bluetooth keyboard so I’m able to do all of my away-from-home blog stuff without using the onscreen keyboard.
That said, sometimes I miss having a laptop. I’m glad you got such a great deal on yours, and that you’re generating enough blog income to justify it!
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve played with the iPad enough to realize it’s appeal. Some day I’ll get one of those or an Android… Both have their role and utility.
Perhaps I’m just too old school 😉
I think you made the right decision. Plus, your laptop is much cheaper than an Ipad with 3G.
I love my Ipad, but I prefer to write using my laptop when I am at home. When out and about, nothing beats the Ipad for convenience. Otherwise, a laptop is the better choice.
After playing with my son’s iPod Touch and my family’s iPad, I’m definitely a fan. But this year, I’m just going to get the laptop, next year I’ll get an apple product of some sort (most likely and iPad).
Congrats MR. I’m sure it will be worth the investment 🙂 and put to good use. Not a bad price 😛 That’s what I paid for my labtop on black friday, possibly 3-4 years ago. One of these days, I’m due for an upgrade as well. It’s getting slow.
Congrats on the big purchase! Spend money to make money right?
So if you purchased it for your website, are you planning on writing it off at year-end?
I need a new laptop too and probably will get one this holiday. I blog on my desktop now and it works really well for me, but a laptop would be more portable.