Bevil Wood­ing

Us­ing com­put­er and In­ter­net-based tech­nol­o­gy for busi­ness can bring ma­jor ben­e­fits. How­ev­er, mak­ing the right tech­nol­o­gy choic­es can be a bit like a mine­field when you're nav­i­gat­ing all of the op­tions that are out there. The fol­low­ing tips can help small busi­ness start-ups get their tech right, so that they can press on with get­ting their busi­ness right.

Af­ter em­ploy­ee costs, in­for­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tions tech­nol­o­gy ex­pen­di­ture is typ­i­cal­ly the sec­ond largest fi­nan­cial out­lay for small busi­ness­es at start up. For many small busi­ness own­ers, choos­ing, and im­ple­ment­ing tech­nol­o­gy so­lu­tions can of­ten be a stress­ful and oner­ous process. How­ev­er, it does not have to be com­pli­cat­ed, or frus­trat­ing. Here are five es­sen­tial tips for in­vest­ing in tech­nol­o­gy for your busi­ness.

1. Plan be­fore you spend

Be­fore you em­bark on a tech­nol­o­gy spend­ing spree, first ask your­self some ba­sic ques­tions about your ob­jec­tives and your goals. What do you need to be per­son­al­ly pro­duc­tive? What do you need for com­mu­ni­cat­ing with clients and sup­pli­ers? What in­for­ma­tion will you be cap­tur­ing and how best can it be se­cured? What will you need to au­to­mate key busi­ness process­es? You need to make soft­ware de­ci­sions be­fore you know what hard­ware you should buy.

On­ly af­ter you have a clear idea of what you re­al­ly what to ac­com­plish, can be you sen­si­bly make de­ci­sions about what's the best tech­nol­o­gy to get the job done.

Once you know what busi­ness tasks you will be us­ing your IT for, you can cal­cu­late how much you need to spend. There is a wide range of tech prod­ucts and ser­vices for busi­ness of all sizes, so you should nev­er have to spend more than you need to...if you know what you're look­ing for. You may be able to take ad­van­tage of some free apps and ser­vices at the start of your busi­ness or you may need the added func­tion­al­i­ty and sup­port of paid-for of­fer­ings?