Technology Support For Your Small Business

Leke — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:24:45 +0000

Maintenance of Your Business Computers and Technology Investment

Investing in computers for your business can be expensive, even though it is necessary. It is therefore important that after investing a fortune in equipping your Small Business, you should put in place an efficient technology support for your small business to cater for the maintenance of your investment. Just like the wise says that “He who fails to plan has planned to fail” if you fail to put in place (before you actually need it) an efficient and effective technology support to cater for the upkeep and maintenance of your computers and peripherals, you will incur very expensive cost when there arises an equipment breakdown. Even the best of equipments do breakdown or malfunction. Here are some tips to help you make the right decision.

Buy Your Computers and Peripherals From Reliable Sources

When purchasing your business computers and peripherals, it is good practice to buy from well established computer shops that provides after sales support and services. The cost of acquiring computers, as well as software and possibly putting in place a simple peer-to-peer networking is already a major expenditure for a small scale entrepreneur. So you can’t afford to purchase equipments that have manufacturing defects which you will only discover months later. If the shop charges a token for providing warranty, do well to pay the extra so as to protect yourself from unnecessary cost of replacement few months after acquiring the equipment.

Expensive Business Equipment deserves Effective Support Service

It is common to see small scale business owners shying away from entering into a service contract after they purchase their business equipments. Their excuse being that they have already spent too much in acquiring business computers and peripherals.

My simple advice is that if you cannot afford to have a computer technician on your payroll, then it is advisable to enter into an agreement with a reliable one that you can call upon whenever the need arise. Scouting round for a computer technician when your equipment is already malfunctioning is not the best. You will spend more and may even fall victim to quack technicians that abounds everywhere.

It is quite more cost effective to have entered into a technology support agreement with a technician or repair shop for routine maintenance of your business computers and accessories.

What to Look Out For In The Technology Support Agreement

When entering into the technology support agreement ensure you find out what the technician will be charging for his time and what percentage he intends putting on as markup on parts for replacement. You are better off if all this are negotiated upfront before you need the technician service.

As your business grows, you may need to review the agreement or even change your technology support service strategy. If your business can afford a technician on the payroll, it is better as he will be monitoring the business technology investment on day to day basis instead of periodically. However, there is nothing wrong with outsourcing the support service until you can afford to employ a technician. The important issue is that you have an effective technology support service arrangement in place before you need one. You can get free future updates to this post Technology Support For Your Small Business by subscribing to our RSS feed. Cheers.

Computers As Tools For Running Your Business

admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:14:46 +0000

Do I need a computer to run my business?

Computers are nothing more than tools to enhance your productivity. As an entrepreneur, it is necessary to employ recent technology in reducing the cost and time spent in carrying out business operations. However, the cost of introducing and maintaining such must be weighed against the benefit.

In the past, businesses owners carry out their tasks manually. They simply rely on the use of a pen, a paper and of course their mind.Some entrepreneurs still insist that that is the best way to do business. They don’t trust the funny looking machine. WEll that is a ridiculous way to reason. The truth is that the same entrepreneur that is skeptical about the usefulness of a computer is already using a smartphone to do video call. I guess he is not aware that a smartphone is just another computer in a minaturize form.

Really, it is almost impossible to run a business in this generation without employing the use of computers. If you don’t need a computer to do your documentation, you may need it to keep record. Often times the need to receive and send emails or making research online is another reason to get a computer for your business.Attempting to carry out your business tasks without employing the use of computer will simply make the tasks tedious and time consuming.

Can you imagine what it will look like if a MacDonald store in busy commercial spot decide to compute the number of sales, the expenses, the returns on investments, the salary for employees and many other activity that needs computations with a paper and pen. The record can hardly be accurate nor presented on time to management for strategic business decisions. If you get even a basic computer desktop, will no longer have to exhaust your brain in computing or your hand in recording anything. Computers have made running a business operation less stressful to the entrepreneur.

The most important area that computer has added value to business operation is in communication. Unlike before when the fastest way to communicate with clients and customer was through telephone, now you can use the power of the internet to handle your communication. Voice calls, video calls, online conferencing, Instant Messages and the latest Twitter are some of the wonderful resources that computer and technology has made available for the use of both the big and small business owners.

The beauty of all these is that you don’t need a fortune to own a computer that can get this things done. In my next post, I will be sharing tips on how to choose the right computer for your business! You can get a free update to this post Computers As Tools For Running Your Business by subscribing to my RSS feed.