Because I’m geeky, the hours spent trying to fix a software or force it to work the way I want to was worth it. Because of those experiences, today, I know exactly what to recommend a client, what not to recommend and why. I also built up a lot of knowledge that allows me to better serve my clients. I continue to check out lesser known and tons of open source software.

The biggest reason why that works for me is, it is my business to know.

But for many small business owners, it is not your business to know. That is why support for any software you buy or use is so very important. If you purchase a piece of software for $9 with no or little support, you’ll wind up spending $990 in time and resources to get it working or to purchase something else that does work.

Sound like impossible math? Not at all. I’ve personally experienced it more times than I care to admit. Troubleshooting is not always a one or two hour task. A simple task can often have deeper roots and require much work to fix.

The take away - if using open source software - make sure you have a techy person at hand to help you. Make sure the community is active and you can get help fairly quickly. Also, look for signs that the project is still being actively developed.

If using paid software, always look and ask for good support. You may have to pay extra to keep the support after a year or 6 months. Do it even if you have a technical person in your employ. The people who develop it know it best and can help reduce the troubleshooting time your technical person spends on the problem.

Last thoughts, just because a software is inexpensive doesn’t always mean it is bad either. If your $9 software provides excellent support then congratulations! You’ve just found a fabulous deal.

Why? Because on some networks, usernames are what people use to look you up. Usernames are also sometimes used in the URL of your profile’s pages. Also, on average many of us belong to more than one social network. The more consistent we are on all these sites, the more often we get our name in front of our audience.

For many of us, the logical username would be our real names. As small business owners, our brand, is often closely intertwined with us. But what if the username is taken? Then get creative, by choose something that can further enhance your brand. For example, I’ve had a few people nickname me their “Tech Diva”. I personally do not like “diva” so I use “TechLady” for my Twitter account.

Another marketer whom I follow - Anita Campbell is owner of SmallBizTrends and she uses “smallbiztrends” as her Twitter username.

The bottom line is, they all reinforce the tie between us and our brands or what our business stands for, and yet, don’t look like spam. Regardless of the social network we participate in, people know when they see me, my name or my username it’ll always be related to technology in one way or another.