The latest tools for the job - personal computers and peripherals for small businesses - includes a glossary of computer terms

As with most entrepreneurs, the success of Nina Renaud and Bill Bryan depends in part on their ability to perform a wide variety of business tasks. On any given day, their year-old, home-based business may require Renaud and Bryan to carry out the duties usually performed by executives, salespeople, accountants, or shipping clerks.

No wonder the husband and-wife entrepreneurs expect versatility and reliability from the computer and related equipment at their Danville, Calif., firm, Corporate Golf. The firm provides custom-imprinted golf apparel and equipment and golf-related services to corporate customers in the San Francisco area.

In fact, Renaud says, technology has become indispensable at the company. "It's almost impossible to run a business without a computer," she says. "How would you do that"

Almost immediately upon founding the company, Renaud and Bryan purchased an IBM-compatible personal computer for accounting and correspondence with customers, suppliers, and vendors. But even with the PC, they struggled to manage the information going into and out of their office.

Part of the problem was that their phone line was often tied up, making it difficult for customers and suppliers to get in touch with them. Moreover, their fax machine was relegated to the same phone line as the answering machine. Incoming callers who wished to send a fax had to listen to an instructional message and press the start button on their fax machines at the proper time; callers who wished to leave voice mail had to wait through an inordinately long message.

This situation was inconvenient and irritating to customers and suppliers, and it conveyed the impression that Corporate Golf was a shoestring operation.

Renaud and Bryan also were having trouble keeping track of the information that made it to the office. Lacking a copier, they couldn't make copies of purchase orders, bills, and other important documents. This past spring, Renaud and Bryan found a technological solution to their organizational woes in a desktop device called the WorkCenter 250. This versatile product, from Xerox Corp., includes document printing, faxing, copying, and scanning capabilities in one small machine. The combination of the couple's computer and the aptly name WorkCenter quickly became the nerve center of Corporate Golf's operation. Renaud says she is now better able to produce and manage documents, and that the WorkCenter's fax capability makes it easier to do business with suppliers in different parts of the country - and in different time zone - because faxes can be sent as well as received automatically any time of the day or night.

And the integration of the answering machine and the fax, says Renaud, "makes us sound more professional to people calling in. I don't think most of our clients realize that we're [still working out of our house."

As the experience of Renaud and Bryan illustrates, one of the most important considerations for entrepreneurs is not how fast and how powerful computer technology has become but how technology can make them more professional and productive.

Today's computers are advertised as being "multitasking," which simply means that the PCs are powerful enough to run several software programs at once. But small-business owners expect more: They want the computers to include greater capabilities such as fax, data, and voice communications; multimedia; scanning; and printing functions. And they are unwilling to spend much more than they had been spending on computers to get this versatility.

Computer manufacturers are trying to meet small-business and home-office demands with full-featured yet reasonably priced computers. This special report is designed to help you make sense of today's wide variety of these exceptional machines and peripheral equipment. The sections that follow highlight:

* Desktop systems, the workhorses of small offices.

* Portable systems, including notebooks, subnotebooks, and personal digital assistants, all of which are especially hot this year.

* Imaging devices, including printers and scanners.

* Finishing-touches hardware, including color monitors, keyboards and mice, and CD-ROM drives.

Desktop Computers

State of-the-art desktop computers, some of which feature the blazing new 200Mhz Pentium processor by Intel Corp., can ably perform business tasks ranging from crunching numbers in a spreadsheet to sending a fax, answering the telephone, or downloading information from the Internet. Each of these new desktop systems is loaded with features that make it highly useful, well-connected, and trouble-free: Apple Power Macintosh 8500/150, Apple Computer Inc., 1-800-538-9696: Don't be misled by the fact that Macs now account for less than 10 percent of desktop-computer sales. These computers are technically advanced and provide outstanding performance, especially for those running graphics-processing and other multimedia software. The new Power Macintosh 8500/150, for example, includes a 4X CD-ROM drive, sound integrated on the mother-board, and extraordinary video capabilities in the form of a port that can connect to a television, videocassette recorder, or other source for importing or exporting videos.