The Silo

Working for someone else is real easy. You have no risks. If you do a good job, it’s all you. If you do a poor job, it’s your boss’s fault. Being an entrepreneur is all you. Alan Hastings has made The Silo into a very successful business in the Niagara Falls Area (Lewiston, NY).

The Silo is located right on the Niagara River and is open April 15th through October 1st. The Silo is a converted abandoned coal silo which used to steam ships with coal. Now, The Silo is an upscale fast food operation that offers ice cream, hamburgers, hot dogs, fresh chicken breasts, BBQ items, grilled steak with mozzarella and toasted hash browns, as well as a full menu of other yummy foods.

Alan draws crowds at his river front location. About 1/3 of his customers are tourists. The other 2/3’s are returning regulars who appreciate the high quality food that he serves. I have heard the words “high quality” from many successful food service operators. Alan, like many other successful food service owners, insists on using only high quality meat, ice cream, and other food items. The customers appreciate it, the high quality theme keeps his customers coming back, and gives The Silo a great reputation within the Niagara Falls area.

Alan is a very hands-on owner and works long hard hours during the six months that The Silo is open. He is rewarded for his success and efforts with 6 months of vacation time which he used this year to spend the winter in France, skiing and cycling.

Alan has a college degree in Biology with a minor In business. He used to be a teacher and a river guide on the Colorado River. Now, he’s a successful business owner whose main problem is employee turnover.

The Silo has 35 employees and 3 Point of Sale Terminals. “I couldn’t do it without Cash Register Express and Restaurant Pro Express. It’s easy to use, very fast, and real easy for employee training.”

“I previously used Aloha, a more expensive system to get up and running. I found pcAmerica very easy to install, much faster to use, and much easier to work with. We consider Cash Register Express to have helped our business really boom. Its inventory control and management controls are indispensable”

Alan is opening up another store in the park, two more concessions, and does multiple events in the Niagara area to grow the business.

See more about The Silo below.

Can We Highlight Your Business?

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Where Are My Windows CD’s?

It used to be that when you purchased a new computer, a Dell, HP, or whatever, that I would visit a client who misplaced his CD’s. He didn’t have his original Microsoft XP CD’s or was missing the original Microsoft Office CD’s, or the CD’s containing important drivers to make your computer work correctly.

I just came back from trying to help a friend who told me that his computer didn’t come with any CD’s.

I opened to page 122 of the October, 2005 Computer Shopper and there is an article about just that topic. Many new computers don’t come with CD’s. If you lose your operating system or lose your software, you may be out of luck. This just sounds unbelievable to me.

As a user, upon receiving your new computer, you must copy your important software from your computer to a CD. This, of course, assumes that you have a writable CD gizmo within your computer. It also assumes that you know how to use it.

Dell , Sony, HP, and others, try to make things easier and clearer. When you start your computer for the first time, you receive a new WARNING. You must make a copy of your operating CD. Do you wish to continue? Most people ignore the warning.

The computer manufacturers do give you the option of buying the CD’s. Dell charges $10 if you buy the CD’s with your computer or $22.07 later on.

So, let me get this straight. You buy a new Dell Computer (or other brand). You pay $500 or so for a computer with Windows XP. However, you have to pay an extra $10 (or more) for a copy of Windows XP on CD. There seems to be something evil about this.

Anyhow, I would highly recommend that you pay the additional $10, or perhaps $25 to get an original copy of your CD’s. The chances are, when you get your computer, you are going to be too excited or too lazy to make copies after you open the box. One out of every two people will need these CD’s sometime within the first three years of owning their computer.

And finally, my additional advice is, if you have the CD’s, know where you stored them. You can keep them with the manuals. Ooops. Forgot, Computers don’t come with them any more either.

Free Antispyware Software

As per previous newsletters, I have recommended that ANYONE using the internet have antispyware software installed on their computer. My personal favorite is Spysweeper which can be purchased at most local office supply stores, Best Buy, and other places or on line at

There is an alternative package called Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition which is highly rated by PC World Magazine (and it’s free). You can download it for free at :

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,7423,00.asp

HP Color Laser Jet 2600n…$399

According to the article, it costs 3 cents per page for black and white copies and 15.3 cents per page for color.

In general, it is best to purchase a Black laser printer for printing text. I like that HP1320 which sells for around $299. Remember, if it costs around $100, you will get creamed by the ink cartridges. So, if you do buy a laser printer, try to get one in the $299 area.

If you need to print in color, buy an inkjet printer. Something around $150 will serve you well. I’m an HP fan, but Canon and Epson also do a great job. Or, for around $250, you can get a multipurpose printer that will send and receive faxes, scan, and make copies in black and white, or color. Remember the cost of the ink though.

Your best bet, buy a laser printer for printing in Black plus some type of inkjet printer. If you are printing 10 or more pages per day, an inkjet printer will eat away your pennies. Buy two printers.

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