Resources

Starting a home-based online business in Cupertino, CA

It’s been over two years since I first opened my business on Etsy as a sole proprietor. I was intent on starting the sole prop legally by filing all the right forms and paying for all the right fees, but the resources online can be very confusing if you have no idea where to start. (more…)

Using a Zebra LP2844 thermal printer on Windows 7

About a year after I started my side business on Etsy selling decals and signs, I looked into buying a thermal printer to speed up my shipping process. Printing out labels on paper, trimming it, and taping them to the packages took a decent amount of time. Thermal printers are a great investment for serious businesses — they don’t need ink refills, you can print directly on properly sized labels, and the labels will not smear if they get wet.

Please note that the following Amazon links in this post are affiliate links, and I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on my link.

I decided to purchase a used Zebra LP2844 thermal printer off of Craigslist for $110. A popular new option for sellers these days is the DYMO LabelWriter 4XL Label Maker, but the older Zebra thermal printer does the job just fine, and it was more than 50% cheaper than the DYMO new. (more…)

Replacing 2013 Toyota Prius C air filters

Because my Prius C is not covered under the free 2-year Toyota maintenance anymore, I wanted to minimize the amount of work I needed the dealership to do at my service appointments. Air filters are commonly a giant rip-off at dealerships after the materials markup and labor costs and usually trivial to replace. After replacing the cabin and engine air filters for my Toyota at about 30k miles, I have to agree. (more…)

Airline carry-on sizes

Since I’m such a research fanatic, I thought it would be helpful to post random comparison/info charts of miscellaneous information on my blog. The last research binge I was on was for luggage carry-on sizes of all the different airlines in the world. I wanted a new carry-on recently but wanted to make sure that it would fit within all the airline guidelines before I splurged on something of good quality. (For the record, I ended up buying an Air Boss by Red Oxx, 21″L x 8″W x 13″H [53.3cm L x 20.3cm W x 33cm H].) (more…)