It's easy being an IT journalist. You call your contacts in the industry and tell them you'd like to look at the latest hand-held device and it turns up a few days later. You make it your business to understand the technology so that when something new comes out you know about it, advantages and disadvantages. For the smaller trader it's different; the methods of buying are many, and finding someone you can trust isn't always simple.

Which is why, on a cold Tuesday afternoon in February, I was standing outside PC World in Purley about to go in and pretend to be a start-up business owner looking for information on computer equipment. The same raw details about the venture - a contract publishing company - were fed to two other sources, a manufacturer selling their products direct to the customer (Evesham Micro) and a small consultancy, EQ Consultants in Perthshire. EQ was the "control" if you like; my own regular supplier and the only one that knew I wasn't a genuine punter. As far as the others were concerned, they were being asked to supply the following for a bona fide new business:

· Ten users, two of whom need to see all of the financial details
· Internet connection for everyone - controllable
· Internal email
· Some sort of office suite with communications
· laptops for the executive directors - with wireless email
· A chunky system for our designer
· Hand-held computers for note-taking on client sites None of them were put under any time pressure - nobody wanted them to lose genuine customers over this.

Mass market retailer
Outlet: PC World, Croydon
Means of contact: Walked in off the street

PC World is making serious pushes into the business market and has a dedicated business team in most of its stores. There are signs outside telling you to walk in and talk to them NOW. I walked in. And waited. A number of staff looked through me until someone with a pulse asked whether I was being seen to - this after 20 minutes hovering around the desk marked "business". Once I had his attention, though, he couldn't have been more helpful. He fetched a small-business adviser immediately. "How soon do you need to know about this?" she asked, being tied up at the time. We agreed she'd call, fax or email the same day. She asked about the business and suggested I'd need something to help me track rights assignments, thus picking up brownie points for understanding the business.

A call came through the next day to clarify the order and to set up an account, compulsorily. I explained I just wanted a quote to put to the bank for funding but this wasn't possible without an account. She asked how many laptops I would need and how many hand-helds. I suggested five, although I tried to sound as though I didn't know what we'd be doing with them. She agreed to put together a quote and get back within the hour. That was three hours ago...

Best thing: Some awareness of and genuine attempt to understand the business I was about to enter.
Worst thing: Waiting time - understandable when I walked in without an appointment, less so when I'd been promised a response in a given time. www.pcworld.co.uk

Direct seller
Outlet: Evesham Micro
Means of contact: Website

Evesham Micro has been around for a long time and has links to a specialist business area on its website. I sent the spec to them through a link on this section and within 10 minutes, UK sales manager Stuart Little had emailed to request my postcode so he could assign the case to a local team. He responded just as quickly and courteously when I sent him the details. We had a brief phone discussion and this time it was different. These laptops, I was asked, would they be as well as or instead of the desktop computers? Would it really be necessary to buy both? Did I have such a thing as a server? A network of 10 people would need a server, he suggested.

And the hand-helds. What were they for? Client visits? Had I looked at the new tablet computers? Like laptops but with removeable lids and handwriting recognition - would the staff be as comfortable with those? If they'd be OK then one of those could do instead of separate desktop, laptop and hand-held systems. The office suite would be Microsoft Office XP because that's all Evesham sells in that line; we could talk about whether I want the Pro version or not. I would have to sort out the internet connection myself but they always recommend ADSL. They also talked about firewalling for security. To be honest this was sounding pretty good, and he said he'd have a fax to me by the end of the day - which, frustratingly, he didn't.

Best thing: Queried my actual needs. It was good to be told about the option to use laptops instead of rather than as well as desktops, and to have the chance to consider tablet PCs instead.

Worst thing: Promised a faxed quote by the end of the day, but three days later nothing had materialised - although I apparently had an account manager. I learnt later that the delay was at least partially due to staff illness. www.evesham.com

Consultancy EQ Consultants
Means of contact: Emailed proprietor Jim Bisset.

So this 1,200-word response reaches my mailbox. Key points included the importance of a reliable brand rather than the cheap "home user" systems a lot of the retailers sell. "From your description, it would be unlikely that anything other than a peer-to-peer network would be required," he suggests. This means linking the computers together as equals without a server to manage the network. It's right as far as the initial 10-computers-only quote goes but may prove a little short-sighted as the company grows.

On the PC side, he concedes that a cheap low-spec system would do all the jobs currently required, but "as software develops over the next few years, buying a more powerful PC now means that it will remain usable for longer, and the price differential is now small". He goes on to quote for Compaq Evo D310 MicroTower systems with Windows XP Pro for security. Monitors would be separate, he suggests.

For the designer's system, he recommended the same PC with a chunkier graphics card and more memory with a larger display plus a high capacity hard drive. Like Evesham he went with Microsoft Office as the preferred option and quoted for an Ethernet switch for networking internally and an ADSL router for the wireless access point. He also recommended Compaq for hand-held and laptops, explaining the difference between infrared and Bluetooth for connections out of the office.

Best thing: The thought that went into the pitch, plus realistic comments on when the various items would be available. He was the only supplier to get me any prices over a period of three days (he did it in two).

Worst thing: Assumed the customer knew what he was talking about. info@eqc.co.uk