Photo by Matthew Carden

The Macintosh, a computer that for over two decades has been the choice of creative professionals, is being adopted by more small businesses, a market segment that has traditionally been dominated by computers running Microsoft Windows. Apple has tried off and on since 1985 to pitch the Mac as a business machine, and the Macs of today are easily the most business-capable computers Apple has ever shipped.

If you’re a business owner or thinking of becoming one, you may be surprised by how useful a Mac can be and how it can save your company money in the long run. We’ve talked to business owners, scoured the Internet, and come up with the top ten reasons your small business should switch to Mac.


INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Apple’s reputation for good hardware design owes a lot to what its designers have done in the last 10 years. In 1998, the eye-catching curvy shape of the iMac helped forge a whimsical identity for the Mac, but its Bondi blue color and bulbous body didn’t complement every office’s décor. These days, the company’s designers are working with anodized aluminum casings with black or white accents that go with just about anything. Whether your desk surface is cherry, plum, or an unfinished plywood sheet, a new Mac will look great on it.

Having Macs in your office or shop sends a signal about your company’s philosophy: You understand good design and appreciate quality and simplicity. It could also signify how “with it” your company is, how creatively your employees think, or even how intelligently you manage the business.

Because most of your customers likely use Windows PCs at home and work, the Mac they see in your office will make an impression. Then, every time they see an Apple advertisement, there’s a chance they’ll think of you.

iLIFE’S SUPRISING BUSINESS USES
Every Mac comes with iLife, Apple’s software for working with photos, music, video, and webpages, as well as iTunes and iCal. Just because most people use these apps in their homes doesn’t mean you can’t use them for work.
iTunes can do more than just play music in your office; it’s also a great general-purpose audio sequencer, which you can use to shape the soundscape of your office or store. You can even insert marketing messages between music tracks. If your phone system lets you connect a CD player or other audio source for people to listen to while they’re on hold, you can use iTunes to burn CDs with playlists that set the right tone or mood for your business. Be sure to include a “thanks for holding” message between songs, to keep customers on the line.

You can also use iPhoto as a still-image sequencer. Perhaps your business won’t benefit from a slide show, but it might benefit from a slide show with helpful information on a continuous loop. If your company is undercapitalized, you can use iPhoto as presentation software, using the arrow keys to change slides manually.

GarageBand isn’t just an audio editor. You can use its recording capabilities to create those marketing messages for the iTunes playlist or the customer-service message for the hold CD. Use the provided royalty-free audio loops to make music underneath your message, and if you time it right, you’ll have a perfect thirty-second cut to use as a radio advertisement.

With iWeb, you can build a simple website from professionally designed theme templates. iMovie lends itself to making videos to attract more customers over the Internet or ad spots for television. iCal can help you make schedules for your employees and keep track of appointments.

COMPANY: Intermedia, Ltd.   EMPLOYEES: 2   LOCATION: Nagano, Japan

Choosing the Mac was a no-brainer for Intermedia, a provider of Japanese-English translation services to mostly Japanese clientele. “A well-configured Mac becomes a seamless extension of your mind, in a way that no other combination of software and hardware can,” says Intermedia owner Brian Rafter. “That makes work more productive, less stressful, and a whole lot more fun.”

The Mac has long been a leader in multiple-display setups, and Intermedia takes advantage of this ability with a 23-inch Apple Cinema Display as its main monitor, flanked by two 20-inch Apple Cinema Displays. A fourth display is also within view. Typically, Rafter keeps the previous year’s version of a document in Japanese and English on the left monitor, the current year’s versions appear in the main screen, and reference documents are visible with a glance to the right.

Rafter uses Mac OS X’s Spaces feature, which enables multiple workspaces for each display, to switch seamlessly from one project to another. Since he juggles anywhere from five to six projects at a time, each project will have its own workspace, available instantly.

When Intermedia’s clients required it, Rafter used to translate on Windows PCs. Since switching to the Mac, his translation word count per day has gone up by about 25 percent, which gave him more time to craft definitions like “the difference in the radii of the arcs traced by the front and rear inner wheels of a turning car” to represent the Japanese nairinsa, an obscure word that pops up every now and then.

YOU CAN RUN WINDOWS APPS IF NECESSARY
It’s difficult to justify buying a Mac to run software for Microsoft Windows, but that’s not the reason the compatibility factor makes this list. Rather, it’s knowing that your investment in Mac hardware won’t prevent you from using Windows software in the future--if you ever need to--that makes good sense. You can control the processes in your office, so you’ll run Mac software in-house. You can’t control the processes of other organizations, some of which may require compatibility with Windows.

While a Mac isn’t capable of running Windows apps out of the box, there are a number of options available that are cheaper than running out and buying a Windows-based computer. Apple’s Boot Camp software, part of Mac OS X Leopard, enables you to install your copy of Windows onto the Mac and lets you choose which operating system you’ll boot into.

If you prefer to use Windows programs without rebooting, you can try VMware Fusion ($79.99, www.vmware.com) or Parallels Desktop ($79.99, www.parallels.com), both of which require a copy of Windows. If you don’t have Windows, try CodeWeavers CrossOver ($39.95, www.codeweavers.com/), though it doesn’t run as many programs as the other two.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Corporations study the “total cost of ownership” of their technology to decide whether a computer system is worth purchasing. Businesses of all sizes find that the Mac platform can save money over time, despite the higher price tag associated with the initial purchase.

The Mac’s greatest ally in calculating cost of ownership is the value of time. Business owners say their Macs experience fewer crashes and other problems than PCs running Windows, translating to less lost work and fewer visits from the IT folks. They also tend to keep Macs in service longer than they keep PCs running.

The time calculation works both ways: You’ll have to place a value on retraining employees on the new operating system and lost time and increased agitation due to slightly different keyboard layouts and a different OS. You’ll also need to budget for Mac versions of the software you plan to run. (Of course, you would probably also have some retraining and software costs upgrading from XP to Vista if you stuck with Windows.) If you’re starting a new business, you can skip the costs associated with switching.

COMPANY: Stevens MacPhail, P.A.   EMPLOYEES: 4   LOCATION: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Family-law firm Stevens MacPhail switched to a Mac platform in August 2005. “I got tired of wasting time and money dealing with one problem after another with our PCs and network,” says Ben Stevens, one of the company’s two attorneys. “It seemed that we were having at least one issue a week that was affecting our ability to most effectively represent our clients, and that was not acceptable.”

Since the switch, the company’s tech-support costs were reduced to almost nothing. (The company still uses a Windows server that requires troubleshooting.) Stevens reports 100 percent uptime on the company’s Macs. He also says his employees are happier: “Anything that can be done on a PC can be done on a Mac, and usually faster, better, and more enjoyably,” he says.
The company uses each of the apps in iWork. Stevens is especially fond of Keynote for his presentations. Rocket Matter ($50/month), a Web-based app, is the company’s choice for case management. Stevens MacPhail uses a combination of Parallels Desktop and Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection to run two Windows apps: QuickBooks (because the Windows version has better payroll features than the Mac version, they say), and South Carolina’s child-support calculator, which has no Mac version.

Stevens uses a MacBook Air and his partner uses a 15-inch PowerBook from 2005 that he likes too much to upgrade. The company’s two legal assistants use 20-inch iMacs. “We often have clients and other visitors to our office comment on how ‘pretty’ their computers are,” says Stevens, who also publishes a legal Mac-tech blog, themaclawyer.com.

SECURITY
Part of the reason businesses report more uptime with the Mac is because of the Mac’s built-in security features that keep viruses and malware at bay. A Mac won’t run Windows software right out of the box, so most of the malware lurking on the Internet won’t harm a Mac. The same goes with viruses that affect Windows users: With no version of Windows to run on, a virus will sit unused, unable to replicate itself.

Because viruses and malware are not a serious threat on Mac OS X yet, attackers have to fool unsuspecting Mac users into installing malware themselves. Apple’s Safari, Mail, and iChat software all notice when downloads contain applications, and tell Leopard to warn you the first time you open the software, hopefully thwarting the security breach.

The sunny state of Mac security may not last forever, of course: As more people connect their Macs to the Internet, attackers may take more of an interest in learning new ways to compromise them. Even so, experts have been saying this over the last decade, but the threats still haven’t shown up in large numbers.