The Business Master (3rd Edition)/The Business Master (3rd Edition).iso/files/legaegal/sba2/f2sba.exe/F272.SBE

Text File | 1993-04-01 | 6KB | 130 lines

@100 CHAP ZZ

                      ┌───────────────────────┐
                      │   ABOUT THIS PROGRAM  │
                      └───────────────────────┘

BACKGROUND:
-----------

This program, first released in 1989, has been updated quar-
terly each calendar quarter since then.  It was written, and
is researched and updated on a weekly basis by Michael D.
Jenkins, CPA and attorney, with a new version released each
calendar quarter.  In addition to providing constantly up-
dated tax, business, and legal information for small busi-
nesses, the program itself is under almost constant revision
and expansion, to make it ever-easier to use and more useful
to you, the small business owner or adviser.

Mr. Jenkins, a graduate of the Harvard Law School, former-
ly was a tax attorney with a large San Francisco law firm
noted for its expertise in venture capital matters.

Mr. Jenkins is also a Certified Public Accountant, and has
practiced for over 4 years as a tax CPA with two of the
"Big Six" international accounting firms, in Los Angeles
and Honolulu, as well as several years as a manager and la-
ter a tax partner with a large local CPA firm in the San
Francisco area.  He also spent a couple of years as an
economics and business consultant in L.A. and Washington,
D.C., with the consulting firm and private "think tank,"
Economics Research Associates.  At present, he authors a
series of business "how-to" books and runs a small soft-
ware company, Ronin Software, which publishes the shareware
version of this program and another shareware program, the
financial takeover game/simulation, "Wall $treet Raider."


RELATED BOOK SERIES:
--------------------

Mr. Jenkins is the principal author of the book "STARTING
AND OPERATING A BUSINESS IN @STATE."

He is also author or coauthor of 50 other similarly-titled
books, one for each of the states (plus the District of
Columbia), all of which are published by Oasis Press (a di-
vision of PSI Research, of Grants Pass, Oregon -- a leading
publisher of business books and software).

Most of these 275-to-300-page how-to manuals are partially
coauthored by local experts in the respective states (the
local offices of the accounting firm of Ernst & Young, in
some 30 states), and together have sold nearly a million
copies nationwide since the initial book in the series,
"STARTING AND OPERATING A BUSINESS IN CALIFORNIA" (now in
its 12th annual edition) first appeared in 1981.


@IF990XX]FINAL SHAREWARE RELEASE:
@IF990XX]------------------------
@IF990XX]
@IF990XX]This program has been available in a commercial version (the
@IF990XX]("Small Business Expert") since 1989.  In addition, it has
@IF990XX]also been available as an uncrippled, fully functional and
@IF990XX]fully documented "shareware" version under the title "Small
@IF990XX]Business Advisor" for two years.
@IF990XX]
@IF990XX]Due to lack of financial support from any but a tiny minor-
@IF990XX]ity of the thousands of users known to be using this "free"
@IF990XX](shareware) version of the program over the last two years
@IF990XX]without paying our nominal registration fee, we regret to
@IF990XX]announce that THIS, the Second Quarter 1993 release, WILL
@IF990XX]BE THE FINAL SHAREWARE VERSION OF SMALL BUSINESS ADVISOR,
@IF990XX]unless, miraculously, there is a substantial upturn in the
@IF990XX]number of people registering the program in the next few
@IF990XX]months, which would enable us to recover more of our costs
@IF990XX]of marketing and distributing the frequent updates of the
@IF990XX]shareware version to nearly a thousand BBS's, catalog ven-
@IF990XX]dors and other shareware sellers who currently distribute
@IF990XX]the program.  An unlikely possibility, based on our exper-
@IF990XX]ience to date.

@IF990XX](One vendor, from whose efforts we have only generated one
@IF990XX]$29 registration fee in two years, tells us they have dist-
@IF990XX]ributed several thousand copies of the program, including
@IF990XX]repeat orders for new releases from many of their same cus-
@IF990XX]tomers.  This was the handwriting on the wall for us. Share-
@IF990XX]ware is a great concept, but one that is too easily abused,
@IF990XX]it seemed.
@IF990XX]
@IF990XX]As an early member firm of the Association of Shareware Pro-
@IF990XX]fessionals (ASP), we have staunchly adhered to the ASP's
@IF990XX]strict "no-crippling" policy for shareware published by its
@IF990XX]members.  Unfortunately, it appears that many more people
@IF990XX]are willing to pay $99 or more for the commercial version
@IF990XX]of the program than to register and pay a tiny fraction of
@IF990XX]that amount for an update of the identical shareware ver-
@IF990XX]sion.  Since the ASP does not permit members' programs to
@IF990XX]withhold or features or documentation as a means of encour-
@IF990XX]aging shareware users to register for an enhanced commer-
@IF990XX]cial version, the ASP's laudable goal is going to have the
@IF990XX]unfortunate side effect in our case of forcing us to aban-
@IF990XX]don the shareware market, joining a number of other good
@IF990XX]shareware firms who have already found that, if you have
@IF990XX]to give away the whole program and documentation, there is
@IF990XX]little or no incentive, other than an attack of conscience,
@IF990XX]for anyone to register.
@IF990XX]
@IF990XX]Henceforth, only the registered versions of the program will
@IF990XX]be available (still at the registration prices specified on
@IF990XX]the Order Form, rather than at the higher "commercial" prices.
@IF990XX](You can print out the Registration/Order form from within
@IF990XX]this shareware version of the program).

NEW "SMART" VERSION OF SMALL BUSINESS ADVISOR COMING IN JULY:
-------------------------------------------------------------

Our new commercial version to be released July 1, 1993 will
be FULLY-CUSTOMIZED, so that ALL text files in the program
will be "smart" files that explain complex taxes, business
regulations and laws to you, based on YOUR company's speci-
fic fact situation, in the same manner as a few of the
files in this release already do.

(Sort of like those "personal books" for kids, except that
our "smart" files do much, much more than feed your name or
your pet goldfish's name back to you at regular intervals.)