Adding to Dan's advise I would urge you to wear safety glasses, get some finger cotes if you can, watch out for overheating the blade. A leather apron is always very safe to wear too. I do.
Some advise.
Get yourself a good vacuum cleaner or shop-vac. Compounds, dry or greaseless, buffing wheel fibers,... will end up anywhere you'll be using the buffer. same when you do rake the buffing wheels.
So make sure you decide for a perfect location to use it. Get a wheel rake to clean the buffing wheel every so often when they cake up from using to much compound and most important, use 1 buffing wheel for use with only one compound. Do not start mixing different compounds on the same wheel.
Learn to properly use the cut or color motion and when to use it.
Here's a basic introduction to get you started.
May the force be with you.