When you are running a business, finding ways to improve productivity and get the best out of your employees should always be one of your biggest priorities. The best way to do that is to embrace technology. There are so many great pieces of business software out there that can improve your company and make life easier for your employees in all sorts of different ways.
But a lot of small businesses find that they end up spending way too much money on technology. It’s important that you find a balance because if you use technology in the right way, you can save yourself a lot of money. But if you are spending more than you need to, it’s difficult to stay on top of your finances. These are some of the best ways that you can save money on your business technology.
Use Cloud Storage
Storing all of your files locally can be very expensive because you need to pay for the servers, maintain them, and deal with security. When you are first starting out, this may not be too much of a problem but as you expand, it might not be the most cost effective way to handle all of your data. Most businesses find that it’s cheaper for them to use a cloud storage service instead.
You don’t have to pay for the upkeep of the servers and the cloud storage company will deal with security for you, so you will save money there as well. Cloud storage is also more efficient because it means that your employees can access company documents from anywhere, as long as they have an internet connection. It’s particularly helpful if you are using remote workers as well.
Only Buy What You Need
If you’re not a tech expert, it’s hard to know what technology you should invest in and that often leads to people buying more than they need. When you are looking at your different options from software, it’s easy to get drawn in by a long list of features that promise to revolutionize your business.
The problem is, a small business doesn’t need a lot of those features and if you pay for the most expensive software, you’re not going to use most of it. The best thing to do is consult managed IT services and have them do a technology audit of your business. If you speak with them about your needs, they will be able to advise you on the best software to buy. This is the best way to make sure that you’re only paying for what you need and not wasting money on features that you will never use.
Buy Refurbished Hardware
Fitting out an office with computers is always going to be expensive but it’s important that you upgrade them regularly. If your employees are working on outdated computers, things will be very slow and productivity will take a big hit. It’s also going to cost you a lot more money in maintenance because old computers will be breaking down all of the time.
If you find that you need to update your hardware but you don’t want to spend too much money, you should look into refurbished computers instead of buying brand new. As long as you go with a reliable supplier, they will be in good working order and you won’t see any difference between those and some brand new ones, but it will be a lot cheaper.
Be Proactive With Maintenance
A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that they’re saving money by putting off maintenance. If there are small issues with your computers or your software that don’t cause too many problems, it’s easy to ignore it and deal with it another day. But those small problems will soon turn into big problems that are a lot more expensive to fix. You’ll actually save yourself a lot more money if you are proactive with your maintenance and you fix smaller issues as and when they come up, rather than waiting until things go seriously wrong and you’re forced to fix them.
If you are only a small business and you don’t have the funds to hire a well staffed IT team, you should be outsourcing to a third party. You need to make sure that you can react quickly to any problems and fix them before they impact productivity, and outsourcing will give you access to the resources and manpower that you need to do that.
It’s very easy to let your technology budget get out of control and it can cause you some serious financial problems. But if you follow these simple rules, you can reduce your spending by a long way.